This file describes the Oxford Text Archive. The first part is most of the file ota/textarchive.info on the anonymous ftp host black.ox.ac.uk, the second gives details of internet access to the archive. The seperarator is ">*" as below. The information was up to date as of today, 8 Oct 92, don't blame me if it changes, go get yourself the latest info. Tony Robinson >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ======================================================================== =This file (about 250 lines) contains general information about the = =Oxford Text Archive, about how to get copies of its catalogue, and how= =to get copies of the texts deposited there. = = Last update: 26 Aug 92 = ======================================================================== WHAT IS THE OXFORD TEXT ARCHIVE? The Oxford Text Archive is a facility provided by Oxford University Computing Services. It has no connexion with Oxford University Press or any other commercial organisation and exists to serve the interests of the academic community by providing archival and dissemination facilities for electronic texts at low cost. The Archive offers scholars long term storage and maintenance of their electronic texts free of charge. It manages non-commercial distribution of electronic texts and information about them on behalf of its depositors. WHAT TEXTS DOES IT CONTAIN? The Archive contains electronic versions of literary works by many major authors in Greek, Latin, English and a dozen or more other languages. It contains collections and corpora of unpublished materials prepared by field workers in linguistics. It contains electronic versions of some standard reference works. It has copies of texts and corpora prepared by individual scholars and major research projects worldwide. The total size of the Archive exceeds a gigabyte and there are about a thousand titles in its catalogue. WHERE CAN I GET A CATALOGUE? The Catalogue is available in paper form by post from the address below. New editions are published at least twice a year. It is also available in electronic form, either as a formatted file for display at a terminal or in a tagged form using SGML. These files are available from a number of different places under various names... (1) on the Oxford VAX Cluster as OX$DOC:TEXTARCHIVE.LIST and OX$DOC:TEXTARCHIVE.SGML (2) from various ListServers, e.g. LISTSERV@BROWNVM (send the mail message GET HUMANIST FILELIST for details) (3) by anonymous FTP from Internet site black.ox.ac.uk (129.67.1.165) in the directory /ota Wherever you are, you can send a note to ARCHIVE@VAX.OXFORD.AC.UK specifying which form you want. WHAT ARE THE TEXTS LIKE? Because the texts come from so many different sources, they are held in many different formats. The texts also vary greatly in their accuracy and the features which have been encoded. Some have been proof read to a high standard, while others may have come straight from an optical scanner, Some have been extensively tagged with special purpose analytic codes, and others simply designed to mimic the appearance of the printed source. The Archive does not require texts to conform to any standard of formatting or accuracy. HOW USABLE ARE THE TEXTS? Most of the texts can be used with commonly available text indexing and concordancing software, or can easily be converted for that purpose. All texts are held as `plain ASCII' files on magnetic tape, with no special formatting codes. Documentation of the coding scheme used in each text is supplied with it, wherever possible. WHAT ABOUT COPYRIGHT? Many of the texts in the Archive are subject to some form of copyright restriction. The Archive's obligations to its depositors generally restrict use of the texts to private study and research. In some cases, depositors have also authorised use of the texts in teaching. In all cases, users of the texts must agree not to use the texts commercially and not to redistribute copies of them without consultation. HOW DO I ACCESS THE TEXTS? If you are a registered user of Oxford University Computing Services (i.e. you have an account on OXFORD.VAX or black), just send an e-mail message to the username ARCHIVE (on either machine) specifying which texts you want to use and for what purpose. If you are not a registered OUCS user, you can access only texts in categories P, U and A as described further below. P category texts are in the public domain. No formality is needed for these texts. They can be downloaded directly by anonymous FTP, from black.ox.ac.uk or from other sites offering this facility. At present, very few texts are in this category; subject to agreement with our depositors we hope to increase the number greatly in the future. U and A texts are usually distributed on magnetic tape or cartridge, though smaller texts can be sent on diskette. We will also send copies to you via the network, if you send us the required information (i.e. a secure account-name and password), provided that this can be done with reasonable success. Where copies are made on disk or tape, we make a small distribution charge to cover media and postage which *must* be paid in advance. WHAT DO THE CODES IN THE CATALOGUE MEAN? Each title in the list is preceded by a code made of of a single letter indicating the availability of the text (U, A, P, or X), in some cases followed by a star, a number identifying the text and another single letter which gives some idea of the size of the text. Availability codes: X Available only to registered OUCS users. May not be copied U Freely available for scholarly use in private research. U* Freely available for scholarly use in private research and also for teaching purposes. A Available for scholarly use, but only with written authorisation from the depositor. P Public domain text. Available without formality to anyone. Size codes: A Size less than 512 Kb B Size between 512 Kb and 1 Mb C Size between 1 and 2 Mb D Size between 2 and 5 Mb E Size greater than 5 Mb Depending on format, a standard 600 foot magnetic tape will hold up to 50 texts of size category A. Most texts of size code A will fit on a standard double density floppy diskette; any text of size code A or B will fit on a standard high density diskette. WHAT DO I DO TO ORDER A COPY OF A TEXT? Texts with availability code P may be downloaded directly, either from our anonymous FTP server at black.ox.ac.uk [129.67.1.165] or from other FTP servers on the InterNet. For more information on using FTP, please contact your local computing service. For all other texts, you must complete and return the following proforma. For texts with availability code U, the only authorisation needed is your signature on the Order Form. For A category texts, you must also provide written authorisation from the depositor of the text; you should therefore ask us for depositor details before ordering. All orders must be prepaid to the account of Oxford University Computing Service, in sterling or in US dollars. We cannot issue invoices, and any orders which are not prepaid or not submitted on the standard order form will be ignored. ====================================================================== Oxford Text Archive email ARCHIVE @ UK.Ac.Oxford.VAX OUCS, 13 Banbury Road voice +44 (865) 273 238 Oxford OX2 6NN, UK fax +44 (865) 273 275 ====================================================================== >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ==================================================================== ===== INTERNET ACCESS TO THE OXFORD TEXT ARCHIVE === ==================================================================== As of this month, it is now possible to access machines here on JANET directly from the InterNet. As of today, it is also (ipso facto) possible directly to transfer files from a machine here to any other machine on the InterNet, without specifying a password, filling in a form, or any of that other stuff that some people find so difficult. We'd like to start making some -- not all -- of the Oxford Text Archive's materials available in this way. There are two constraints. Firstly, we cannot distribute material that does not belong to us. But there is a small quantity of material we can distribute, which we believe to be in the public domain. Secondly, we want to begin as we intend to go on: by distributing materials in TEI SGML only. But there is a small number of (mostly very large) files which we will make available 'as is' to test the procedure immediately. We'd appreciate your comments as to how useful/reliable you've found the procedure. Here's what you need to know: >From a machine on the Internet, you should type FTP black.ox.ac.uk << N.B. this is *not* VAX.OX.AC.UK! or, since we're not in many people's official name tables yet, FTP 129.67.1.165 When connected, you will see the prompt login: to which you respond ftp (or anonymous). You will be asked to supply a password, in response to which you should type your email address. All text archive files are kept in the directory ota. Your first command should therefore be cd ota To see a list of the files and directories currently available, type ls To download a copy of a file (say shortlist.sgml), type get textarchive.list To log out, type bye Unless otherwise stated, all files contain plain uncompressed character data The following files are currently available in the directory ota: textarchive.sgml List of OTA Holdings as of 11 August 92 in SGML textarchive.list Same list, no SGML tags textarchive.info Text Archive Order form and general information The following are currently available in the directory ota/dicts 710 Directory containing the three files making up the 'computer-usable' dictionary derived from OALDCE by Roger Mitton 1054 Directory containing the MRC Psycholinguistic Database, complete with manuals and simple C programs for accessing the database 1192 Directory containing CED Prolog Factbase, a set of prolog facts generated at Virginia Tech from the Collins English Dictionary info File containing brief descriptive details of all machine readable dictionaries currently held in the Archive, with illustrative examples from each The following files are currently available in the directory ota/french 192tei.queneau Raymond Queneau: Exercices de Style (1946) in TEI SGML 192text.moliere Moliere: Dom Juan in TEI SGML The following files are currently available in the directory ota/laws ec Directory containing the text of the Treaty on European Union (the "Maastricht Treaty") of 1992 usa Directory containing a collection of US constitutional and legislative papers, polemics etc. The following files are currently available in the directory ota/tei vm2tar.Z The public domain ARC SGML parser: complete source code and documentation for UNIX systems. (This version has been modified to support TEI dtds; it is in compressed TAR format) So, for example, to get the plain shortlist, you'd type ftp 129.67.1.165 anonymous myname@mysite cd ota get textarchive.list bye Internet access is regarded here as a privilege, not a right. Please don't overuse it! And please remember that this is an experimental facility, which may be withdrawn or substantially modified at any time without notice. Lou Burnard Alan Morrison Oxford Text Archive 5 Feb 92; updated 1 July 92 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>