Beyond Gutenberg: Transcending the Document Paradigm in Digital Humanities

Computer-aided research in the humanities has been inhibited by the prevailing paradigm of software design in humanities computing, namely, the document paradigm. This article discusses the limitations of the document paradigm and contrasts it with the database paradigm. It describes a database-oriented approach that provides a better way to create digital representations of scholarly knowledge, allowing individual observations and interpretations to be shared more widely, analyzed more effectively, and preserved indefinitely.