Librarian
Finding Texts
Start with Project Gutenberg
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Project GutenbergWhen you find your text select the Plain Text version of the book. Then you have three options:
- 1. Copy the URL for that text when it loads and paste into Voyant.
2. Select All and copy the full text of the book that loads and paste into Voyant.
3. Select All and copy the full text of the book, paste it into a document that you save to your computer. Then upload that document to Voyant.
- 1. Copy the URL for that text when it loads and paste into Voyant.
If you don't find what you need in Project Gutenberg, contact Iris and she'll help you find a workable version of your text.
Voyant
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Voyant: See Through Your Text
Voyant is a powerful tool for Distant Reading and other text analysis. It will not save your work from session to session, so keep careful notes about what you do during an exploration session so that you can continue your work in future sessions.
The Texts for Your Class
Voyant Tool Instructions
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A guide to Voyant written here at CarletonA guide to analysis tools in Voyant that are most commonly used here at Carleton. Written by Digital Humanitis Associate Aaron Young '20.
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Voyant Tools Documentation - by VoyantIt is particularly useful to read through the descriptions of each Voyant tool so that you know what it's doing and how it presents information.
Other potentially useful tools
Depending on how you need to manipulate or clean your texts prior to or during analysis, these tools may come in handy. If you need to do something that isn't represented here, DHA drop-in hours would be a great place to talk to someone who can help you manipulate your text.
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Calibre: Ebook ManagementPowerful free tool for reading and working with ebooks. Note their documentation on converting ebooks to plain text.
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OpenRefineThis is a powerful tool for working with data (text or otherwise). You can clean and normalize messy data, transforming it from one format into another, and much more. Be sure to take a look at the three short tutorial videos on the main page before beginning your work.
Any good Plain Text Editor
While you can use Word or Google Docs, these introduce code in the background that can complicate the process down the road. Most computers come with at least one plain text editor built in (like TextEdit or Notepad) but there are lots of powerful free ones available for download as well. I use BBEdit (the free version).
