The Sophie Digital Library is a

digital library A digital library (also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, a library without walls, or a digital collection) is an online database of digital resources that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital ...

and resource center for works produced by

German-speaking German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It is a ...

women pre-17th century through the early 20th century, a group that has often been underrepresented in collections of historical printed works. Resources available at the site include literary and journalistic texts (including some English translations), music scores and recordings, screenplays and dramas, and a collection of colonial/travel texts. There is also an image gallery containing portraits and

photographs A photograph (also known as a photo, or more generically referred to as an ''image'' or ''picture'') is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor. The process and pra ...

of the artists and illustrations from some of the works. Most of the texts included in its collection are the full texts of

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

books. The project tries to make these as free as possible, in long-lasting, easy to use,

open format An open file format is a file format for storing digital data, defined by an openly published specification usually maintained by a standards organization, and which can be used and implemented by anyone. An open file format is licensed with a ...

s which can be used on any computer. The collection provides the texts as aids for research and teaching.

Publications

Since the beginning of The Sophie Project, undergraduate and graduate students, as well as academics, have been encouraged to expand their research of German-speaking women's writing. To foster such research, the Sophie Project has several different initiatives: # The ''Sophie Journal,'' an online

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

academic journal. #

Anthologies In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and ge ...

and academic treatments of German-speaking women's writing, including the following volumes: #* Down, Alec. ''Sophie Discovers Amerika: The Digital Companion''. Utah: The Sophie Digital Library, 2014. #* Down, Alec. ''Die deutsche Frau: An Anthology of German Women's Writing. The Sophie Digital Library, 2012''. #* McFarland, Rob. ''Red Vienna, White Socialism and the Blues: Ann Tizia Leitich's America.'' Rochester, NY: Camden House. 2015. #* McFarland, Rob & Michelle Stott James. ''Sophie Discovers Amerika: German-speaking Women Write the New World''. New York: Camden House, 2014. #* Stott, Michelle. ''Im Nonnengarten: An Anthology of German Women's Writing, 1850–1907''.

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

: Waveland Press, 1997

Copyright

The Sophie Project is careful to verify the status of all texts published to its website. Material is only added to the library if either a)

Copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

permissions have been sought and received by the owner or b) the work is no longer protected by copyright laws. The Sophie Project does not claim new copyright on titles it publishes. Instead, it encourages their free reproduction and distribution. Many of the works published by The Sophie Project are present in the public domain and can be reproduced, distributed, copied and edited by users. Copyright owners that have given The Sophie Project particular permission to publish their work have been credited on their site, such as Gisela Brinker-Gabler and her work ''Deutsche Dichterinnen vom 16. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart.''Brinker-Gabler, Gisela. ''Deutsche Dichterinnen vom 16. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart.'' Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1978.

References

{{Reflist

External links

The Sophie Project: A Digital Library of German-Speaking Women's Writing

The Sophie Journal
''McMaster University'' American digital libraries German-language literature Ebook suppliers Women in Germany Public copyright licenses