The textbook genre can be characterised by years of consistency but also by abrupt upheavals, certainly with regards to the texts the books contain. Some texts become canonical classics that are reproduced across many editions, for many types of schools and in many regions, whereas other texts may be short-lived or may only apply to a specific student sector.
This project examines the phenomenon of text reuse through a digital process that identifies and analyses similar passages of text from a comprehensive corpus consisting of approximately 6000 volumes of historical German-language textbooks.
The analysis focusses particularly on early textbook production in Lower Saxony. The Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel region is considered the most important centre of late philanthropism due to the textbook publishing house founded in 1788 by the Enlightenment educator Joachim Heinrich Campe. The regions’ publishing history in its socio-political context thus provides a unique setting in which to analyse the dynamics of how the genre of textbooks developed in the tug of war between innovation and conservatism.
The systematic examination of types, scope and content of reused texts will give insights into the history of publishing and copyright as well as that of knowledge, education and literature.
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Aims
The project team will create a corpus of approximately 6,000 historical textbooks, and will develop a digital research infrastructure for an interactively scalable, comparative analysis of this research data. The project’s central research questions are:
- Which algorithmic processes are best suited to identifying and illuminating texts or passages of text that have been reused in textbooks and how they have been modified over time?
- How do topics, texts and overall concepts in textbooks change over time?
- To what extent did works from Lower Saxony during the Enlightenment period have a stylistic influence?
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Methodology
Corpus Construction
Relevant textbook collections from Lower Saxony held by other libraries will be identified and integrated into GEI-Digital. The GLOTREC|Cat will be used to identify historic German-language textbooks required for the project. Meta data and full-texts of these works will be collated, pre-processed and indexed for the digitally-supported corpus analysis. In addition to the overall corpus, a core corpus of works relevant to textbook production in Lower Saxony will also be created.
Text Reuse Detection
At the start of the project, the newest methods and specifications of different text reuse detection approaches will be evaluated for their suitability to address the project’s research questions and use cases. A use detection tool will be developed alongside a user interface.
Studies
A dedicated study will be used to aid the design and initial testing of the re-use detection tools. When this has been completed, it will be reviewed in a further study to provide a synopsis, classification and explanation of the findings of the work with the reuse detection tool.
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Results
By quantifying reused texts and, if necessary, further specifying and categorising them by examining them in the context of their source material, the project will provide new starting points for questions of comparative historical educational media research, but also for literary studies and historical linguistics.
![[Translate to English:] Das Bild zeigt einen Ausschnitt einer Buchseite. Es handelt sich um ein Detail des Vorwortes aus der folgenden Publikation: Wilberg, Johann Friedrich. Lesebuch für Kinder, die gern verständiger und besser werden wollen. Frankfurt am Mayn: Brönner, 1793, S. 3.](/fileadmin/gei.de/bilder/projekte/wiu_schulbuchevolution/Abbildung_gei-digital_SchulbuchEvolution.png "Abbildung_gei-digital_SchulbuchEvolution")
