Texts in Context
A rich and unusual collection of over 400 British Library texts to support exploration of how language varies within and across time
In 2005, British Library Learning published Texts in Contexts, a rich online resource consisting of a collection of about 500 texts in high resolution images, sampling genres and themes over time, from the medieval onwards. The collection provides resources for teaching and learning about language change, giving access in particular to non-literary and relatively ephemeral texts as well as the literary and canonical. It attempts to map language change synchronically (using a range of examples from each period) as well as diachronically (across time). There is considerable attention to grouping and framing the texts so they can be understood and related to context without the user slipping into confusion. The texts are accompanied by copious notes and activities for users, and arranged thematically in categories such as Books for Cooks, Dictionaries and Meanings, and Empire.
The selection of facsimile material in Texts in Context was specifically designed to alter the balance of texts then currently available for teaching about language change: grand narrative accounts relatively thinly illustrated with textual actuality. Where older texts were available, examples were mainly from a canon of famous texts: Beowulf, the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare’s First Folio, Johnson’s Dictionary. Typically, these examples are literary and prestigious with little sense of the ephemeral options which might have been available in their day. Examples were also frequently presented in word-processed extracts with all indications of the original layout, orthography and print conventions removed or disguised.
“Texts in Context was a great opportunity for us to dedicate time and careful curation to create an online collection that had a very specific use for a specific audience. It was, in a way, crafted.”
The more diverse content of Texts in Context was sourced in many discussions about what counts as text, the recognition of creativity and resourcefulness in everyday literacy practices, the interrogation of the notion of the canon in literary studies, and the representation of historical texts in facsimile form. It was influenced by two key sources: Dennis Freeborn’s facsimile source book From Old English to Standard English(1992) and the little known literary CD Rom: Shakespeare, His Life, Times and Works, edited by Sam Schoenbaum (1995). The former is remarkable for its representation of texts in original facsimile form, letter-for-letter transcriptions, modern English translations and commentaries. The latter consists of a remarkable collection of 5,000 pages of scanned Tudor and Stuart printed books, documents and handwritten manuscripts.
Tim put the idea for the Texts in Context website to the British Library, and the project eventually went ahead with funding from the Department of Culture Museums and Sport and Tim in place as a lead consultant. At one point it was the only resource to have achieved more BL webpage hits than their Shakespeare and Magna Carta resources. It remains a popular site and has been the foundation of much of our thinking about mass digitisation, online learning and ways of supporting the study of language change.