Re: Typing the lexicon

On Mon, 24 Jul 2000, taliesin the storyteller wrote:

> * Roger Mills <romilly@...> [000724 19:23]:
> > BTW, does SIL mention why it's called _SHOEBOX_?
>
> Not on the site I think, but in the docs. In the olden, pre-computer
> days, the field-workers would keep the info and data on a language in a
> shoebox, or so the legend says. The format (\key) is from that time too,
> quick to make such a one in the margin of a ruled sheet of paper.
This is not a legend. During the time when I was working as a research
assistant to Wick Miller, I occasionally had to refer to his shoeboxes
of Shoshoni note cards, though not often; I usually worked from the
notebooks of transcribed oral narratives (actually, they weren't
shoeboxes; they were very sturdy, archival quality cardboard index
boxes). And there were in fact notebooks where the card numbers were
entered.

It was an amazing experience to see how massive amounts of field data
could be organized quickly but effectively without software.

Dirk

--
Dirk Elzinga
dirk.elzinga@m.cc.utah.edu