DLAnnotator: an applet-based approach for annotating electronic texts

The Digital Library and Archives are working on a DLNet grant to develop an applet-based approach to adding in-line annotations to electronic texts. You can read the full text of our proposal (in PDF form) here.

In short, we use an applet to allow users to open an electronic text and add annotations to the text. Viewers will also be able view annotations other users have entered.

Current Status

1. open files containing text.
2. allow users to view, add and remove annotations.
3. add overlapping annotations
4. save non overlapping annotations to a file

1. read annotations from an input file.
2. store limited presentation formatting in input file and reflect presentation formatting in the display of electronic text.
3. save entered overlapping annotations to an output file.
4. load properly on older JVMs (including Macintosh computers, which support only version 1.1.8 of java).

The Applet

To see a demo of the applet as it is now, click here. Please note that you must have a compatible JVM. So far, the applet has been tested with version 1.3 of the Java Runtime Environment. The applet does not currently work on Macintosh computers (which can only support Java 1.1.8).

If you cannot view the applet, click here to view some screenshots.

This applet was developed by Aniket Sule.

Current Model for Integrating DLAnnotator into a Database-Driven System:

1. A script queries a database containing annotations. The script can filter annotations based on user, date, version of document, or other criteria; The script writes a file containing the original text and appropriate annotations.
2. The applet reads file (on launch) containing text and annotations.
3. The user views existing annotations and adds their own annotations.
4. The user saves their additions.
5. The applet writes the electronic text and annotations to a file and exits.
6. A script detects the file.
7. A script reads the file and adds the new annotations to a database.

The disadvantage of this model:

1. A user running the applet does not see new annotations made by other users until they close and reopen the applet.

The advantages of this model:

1. At no time does the user run the risk of overwriting another user's annotations.
2. A user can only delete annotations they have created during the current session, which the preserves continuity of interactions between different users.

Anthony Atkins
<anthony.atkins@vt.edu>
Technical Director
Digital Library and Archives
University Libraries
Virginia Tech