Author Homepages - collection, analysis and long-term archiving of author homepages

The term "Author Homepage" refers to a form of self-projection used by authors and made possible by the World Wide Web. It is conventionally associated with websites created prior to the popularisation of the interactive Web 2.0, primarily appearing as a static publication format that authors use in a self-determined manner as a means of presenting their literary work to a public audience. This "traditional" kind of author homepage has actually started to go into decline, even before it was properly acknowledged by the field of literary criticism as a source worthy of further research. New communicative forms of presentation such as weblogs, social networks (Facebook and the like) and Twitter are edging to the fore and may well supersede the more "traditional" author homepages in the near future. The focus of our research project falls on the archiving and analysis of conventional author homepages in the German-speaking world, whilst also taking into account the newer methods of self-portrayal authors are using on the internet. The fast pace of change on the internet increasingly demonstrates that there is an urgent need to archive internet pages digitally so that these sources can be kept in their original form as far as possible and placed at the disposal of literary research. In conjunction with corresponding descriptions, metadata and individual analyses that will be compiled during this project, an archive of this kind will lay the necessary foundations for future research into individual authors, questions of authorship and the portrayal of authors in the literary field as well as different forms of media presentation. The foundations created by the database and the archive will provide an overview of the many media presentation possibilities for author homepages. To this end, various elements of the pages, such as biographical information, photos, literary texts and political statements will be examined with respect to the function they fulfil in the author`s self-portrayal. By archiving the homepages on a regular basis, it will also be possible to examine whether, how often and how the internet pages change over time. As a result, tendencies and trends in the field of author homepages can then be described and analysed at an academic level. Since internet archives need to be embedded in an institution to guarantee that they are maintained and secured beyond the duration of the project, the Innsbruck Newspaper Archive / IZA would form the ideal research centre, as has already been demonstrated by the FWF Project DILIMAG (Digital Literature Magazines; directed by: Stefan Neuhaus / conducted by: Renate Giacomuzzi) . Based on the experience and knowledge of potential problems accumulated so far, it will be possible to ensure that the "Author Homepages" project is managed to a high degree of efficiency. Moreover, cooperation with the Department for Digitisation and Electronic Archiving / DEA at the University Library in Innsbruck which has already proven highly successful with the DILIMAG project, will continue with respect to the project`s technical implementation. Accordingly, the project will benefit from and make use of a tried-and-tested technical platform and existing workflows, all of which will be adapted to the needs of the project in hand.

Autorenhomepages (Authors Websites) is a research project concerning the representation of authors on the internet. The main goal of the project was to select a broad range of websites, created by the authors themselves or commissioned by them, to describe them through metadata, and to make them accessible for the general public in a free online archive. The metadata was chosen to allow the users a fast overview of the character and content of the websites and thus to quickly select the content they are looking for. The online archive refines the project DILIMAG, also supported by the FWF, and firmly roots the collecting program of the Innsbrucker Zeitungsarchiv (Newspaper Archive Innsbruck) in the digital era.As little research had been done on the topic of authors websites and self-presentation on the internet, the project laid the groundwork for further research in the field. Future studies can build on the archive compiled over the course of the project. At a glance, the metadata database allows to recognize the content of a website, the creators, and who is responsible for the content. A short description of the design and of special contents is also available to give a first impression.