Quickstart for Research Assistants Working in HCMC

This documentation is for Research Assistants who are working in the Humanities Computing and Media Centre (HCMC) at the University of Victoria. It will introduce you to the expectations for working in HCMC and to working on a Linux operating system (all workstations in HCMC use Ubuntu, an open-source Linux distribution). It will also direct you towards further helpful documentation.

Introduction

The Humanities Computing and Media Centre supports LEMDO by hosting our websites, providing developer support, and allowing LEMDO RAs to work in their collaborative workspace. If you are working at UVic, you will attend team meetings in HCMC and may book a workstation to complete your LEMDO work on campus.

Book a Workstation in HCMC

You are responsible for booking your workstation in HCMC. Email the HCMC administrative assistant to book regular workstation times at the beginning of each semester and to book extra sessions if/as you need them. If, for any reason, you are unable to come into HCMC when you are booked on a workstation (e.g., you are sick), you must email the HCMC administrative assistant to cancel your booking.
HCMC has a number of workstations. When they book you in, the HCMC administrative assistant will assign you to a specific workstation and tell you the name of that workstation. Each workstation’s name is printed on a label; check the labels to make sure you are in the correct spot. If you are uncertain of which workstation you are booked on for a specific day, you can check the booking calendar to see where and when you are booked in. You do not have permissions to edit the calendar yourself.

Work on One of HCMC’s Linux Workstations

If you have never worked on a Linux computer before, you may find the experience of working on one of HCMC’s computers slightly different from what you are used to. If you have questions about how to use the computer, please ask one of the HCMC staff. Additionally, if there is an issue with your computer or its accessories (keyboard and mouse), please let the HCMC staff know.

Log into an HCMC Computer

You must use your NetLink ID and password to log into any HCMC computer. Logging into an HCMC computer with your NetLink ID will create a user for you on that machine. Although you may save files to your user profile on an HCMC computer, remember that they are not private computers and that you should not save any private or personal information on them.

Use Teams in HCMC

You will need to use the Microsoft Teams web app when working in HCMC. When you click on the web browser icon on an HCMC computer, it will automatically open a Firefox browser. Microsoft Teams is not fully compatible with Firefox on Linux (you cannot open or edit files when using Teams in Firefox on Linux), so we recommend you open Teams in a Microsoft Edge browser instead. To open Edge on an HCMC computer:
On your desktop, right-click the web browser icon.
Select Edge.

Edit Documents in HCMC

The HCMC computers do not have the Microsoft Office suite of apps downloaded. If you need to edit a non-XML document (e.g., a .docx file or a .xlsx spreadsheet), you can either use LibreOffice (which is an installed app that works similarly to Office apps) or use Microsoft’s web applications in your browser.

Use Terminal on a Linux Machine

There are a few ways in which Terminal differs on a Linux machine compared to either Mac or Windows:
You must use the correct case for directory names when changing directories (e.g., you must use the command cd data/BIBL1 rather than cd data/bibl1).
To copy text in Terminal, simply highlight it with your mouse. The Ctrl+C keyboard command does not work in Terminal on Linux.
To paste text in Terminal, click the scroll wheel on your mouse. The Ctrl+V keyboard command does not work in Terminal on Linux.

Access the LEMDO Repository from an HCMC Computer

You will need to check out the LEMDO repository on each HCMC workstation that you work at. You may also need to re-check out the repository on a workstation that you have previously worked at after the HCMC staff update their computers.
If you are unsure whether or not you have checked out the repository on the computer that you are working on, open Terminal and run the command cd lemdo. If it shows that you are in the lemdo directory, you have previously checked out the repository and should run svn up before working in Oxygen. If it returns the message No such file or directory, you must check out the repository following the instructions in Check Out the LEMDO Repository.
Each time that you check out the repository, you must open the lemdo-all.xpr file in Oxygen. To do so, follow the instructions in Practice: Open the XPR file for the LEMDO Project.

Commit Your Files from an HCMC Computer

When you commit your files back to the shared LEMDO repository from an HCMC computer, you will always be required to input your NetLink username and password. Make sure that you either remember your NetLink ID and password (the same username and password that you use to sign into your online tools on the UVic website) or that you have access to them when you work in HCMC.

End Your Work Session in HCMC

At the end of your work session in HCMC, make sure that you commit your work following the instructions in Commit Changes to the LEMDO Repository. You can then sign out of the computer
If you have modified the workstation in any way (e.g., plugged in your own keyboard), ensure that you return it to the state that it was in when you arrived.

Prosopography

Janelle Jenstad

Janelle Jenstad is a Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of The Map of Early Modern London, and Director of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media: Old Words, New Tools (Routledge). She has edited John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Elizabethan Theatre, Early Modern Literary Studies, Shakespeare Bulletin, Renaissance and Reformation, and The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. She contributed chapters to Approaches to Teaching Othello (MLA); Teaching Early Modern Literature from the Archives (MLA); Institutional Culture in Early Modern England (Brill); Shakespeare, Language, and the Stage (Arden); Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate); New Directions in the Geohumanities (Routledge); Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter); Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana); Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota); Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge); and Civic Performance: Pageantry and Entertainments in Early Modern London (Routledge). For more details, see janellejenstad.com.

Joey Takeda

Joey Takeda is LEMDO’s Consulting Programmer and Designer, a role he assumed in 2020 after three years as the Lead Developer on LEMDO.

Kim Shortreed

Kim is a PhD Candidate in Media Studies and Digital Humanities, through UVic’s English Department. Kim has worked for years in TEI and XML, mostly through the Colonial Despatches website, and in a number of roles, including technical editor, research and markup, writing and editing, documentation, and project management. Recently, Kim worked with a team of Indigenous students to find ways to decolonize the Despatches project’s content and encoding practices. Part of Kim’s dissertation project, Contracolonial Practices in Salish Sea Namescapes, is to prototype a haptic map, a motion-activated topography installation that plays audio clips of spoken toponyms, in SENĆOŦEN and English, of the W̱SÁNEĆ Territory/Saanich Peninsula, respectively.

Mahayla Galliford

Project manager, 2025-present; research assistant, 2021-present. Mahayla Galliford (she/her) graduated with a BA (Hons with distinction) from the University of Victoria in 2024. Mahayla’s undergraduate research explored early modern stage directions and civic water pageantry. Mahayla continues her studies through UVic’s English MA program and her SSHRC-funded thesis project focuses on editing and encoding girls’ manuscripts, specifically Lady Rachel Fane’s dramatic entertainments, in collaboration with LEMDO.

Martin Holmes

Martin Holmes has worked as a developer in the UVic’s Humanities Computing and Media Centre for over two decades, and has been involved with dozens of Digital Humanities projects. He has served on the TEI Technical Council and as Managing Editor of the Journal of the TEI. He took over from Joey Takeda as lead developer on LEMDO in 2020. He is a collaborator on the SSHRC Partnership Grant led by Janelle Jenstad.

Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

Nicole Vatcher

Technical Documentation Writer, 2020–2022. Nicole Vatcher completed her BA (Hons.) in English at the University of Victoria in 2021. Her primary research focus was women’s writing in the modernist period.

Tracey El Hajj

Junior Programmer 2019–2020. Research Associate 2020–2021. Tracey received her PhD from the Department of English at the University of Victoria in the field of Science and Technology Studies. Her research focuses on the algorhythmics of networked communications. She was a 2019–2020 President’s Fellow in Research-Enriched Teaching at UVic, where she taught an advanced course on Artificial Intelligence and Everyday Life. Tracey was also a member of the Map of Early Modern London team, between 2018 and 2021. Between 2020 and 2021, she was a fellow in residence at the Praxis Studio for Comparative Media Studies, where she investigated the relationships between artificial intelligence, creativity, health, and justice. As of July 2021, Tracey has moved into the alt-ac world for a term position, while also teaching in the English Department at the University of Victoria.

Orgography

LEMDO Team (LEMD1)

The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors.

Metadata