Did Emily Dickinson ever use the word “interoperability” (in-tuhr-op-uh-ruh-BIL-uh-tee) in any of her poems?
LOL – of course not. I don’t even have to check the online archive for that one. But here’s the skinny on why I asked such a ludicrous question.
I was checking the archive the other day – I believe I was checking on poems with the word “coffee” (there’s one) – and over on the right of the page, I saw this:
LOL – of course not. I don’t even have to check the online archive for that one. But here’s the skinny on why I asked such a ludicrous question.
I was checking the archive the other day – I believe I was checking on poems with the word “coffee” (there’s one) – and over on the right of the page, I saw this:
I’d not noticed this before (BTW: The archive was “updated” about a month or so ago – and this was added).
I clicked on where it says, “Copy Manifest Link.” I pasted it on a Word doc and got this:
https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.EDA:W2678:MANIFEST:3
Ooookay.
So I clicked on that and got this (and below is just a portion of it):
I clicked on where it says, “Copy Manifest Link.” I pasted it on a Word doc and got this:
https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.EDA:W2678:MANIFEST:3
Ooookay.
So I clicked on that and got this (and below is just a portion of it):
| Ooookay. Soooo…what is it I’m supposed to do with all that? Next, back on the archive site, I clicked on “What is IIIF?” (HERE) -- and it turns out that the IIIF is the International Image Interoperability Framework. |  |
Ooookay.
I scanned much of the site – and by the way, “IIIF” is pronounced “triple-eye-eff,” – but all the info is beyond me. LOL. I’m not sure how, on the Dickinson archive, that this is a “tool” for me. I’m pretty confident that I won’t be using whatever the IIIF has to offer.
So back to “Interoperability”. Isn’t that a fancy-schmancy word?
The term was first coined in the mid-1960s for use in the military regarding the ability of two or more pieces of equipment to operate in conjunction. Its etymology: “Formed within English, by derivation: interoperable adj.: see ‑bility suffix.”
In the 1970s the word was picked up by the computer industry concerning “the ability of two or more computer systems or pieces of software to exchange and subsequently make use of data.” Here’s an example of usage from an article from 1992: “For years, interoperability was an unrealized dream, and so-called compatible hardware and software packages frequently weren't.”
Of course, I opened today with a silly question – did Dickinson ever use the word “interoperability”? However, I went to the archive to see if she ever used any form of “operate,” and that’s when I saw the word “opera” embedded within the word “interoperability.” At first, I figured I’d make some sort of a joke with “opera” – but the joke’s on me!
Turns out that “opera,” derived from Latin “opus,” “to work,” is related to “operate” is related to “interoperability.” Who knew! LOL.
More info on the IIIF is HERE; and get this: down at the bottom of the page, it says, “SEE ALSO DjVu (HERE) – described as “a computer file format designed primarily to store scanned documents, especially those containing a combination of text, line drawings, indexed color images, and photographs.” I just thought the name, DjVu, was very clever!
By the way, a search for “opera” on the Dickinson archive results in eight entries representing three poems: “A feather from the whippowill” (sic), “I cannot dance upon my toes,” and “I think I was enchanted.” I wrote about these poems back in March of this year, HERE, and back in 2024, too, HERE.
I scanned much of the site – and by the way, “IIIF” is pronounced “triple-eye-eff,” – but all the info is beyond me. LOL. I’m not sure how, on the Dickinson archive, that this is a “tool” for me. I’m pretty confident that I won’t be using whatever the IIIF has to offer.
So back to “Interoperability”. Isn’t that a fancy-schmancy word?
The term was first coined in the mid-1960s for use in the military regarding the ability of two or more pieces of equipment to operate in conjunction. Its etymology: “Formed within English, by derivation: interoperable adj.: see ‑bility suffix.”
In the 1970s the word was picked up by the computer industry concerning “the ability of two or more computer systems or pieces of software to exchange and subsequently make use of data.” Here’s an example of usage from an article from 1992: “For years, interoperability was an unrealized dream, and so-called compatible hardware and software packages frequently weren't.”
Of course, I opened today with a silly question – did Dickinson ever use the word “interoperability”? However, I went to the archive to see if she ever used any form of “operate,” and that’s when I saw the word “opera” embedded within the word “interoperability.” At first, I figured I’d make some sort of a joke with “opera” – but the joke’s on me!
Turns out that “opera,” derived from Latin “opus,” “to work,” is related to “operate” is related to “interoperability.” Who knew! LOL.
More info on the IIIF is HERE; and get this: down at the bottom of the page, it says, “SEE ALSO DjVu (HERE) – described as “a computer file format designed primarily to store scanned documents, especially those containing a combination of text, line drawings, indexed color images, and photographs.” I just thought the name, DjVu, was very clever!
By the way, a search for “opera” on the Dickinson archive results in eight entries representing three poems: “A feather from the whippowill” (sic), “I cannot dance upon my toes,” and “I think I was enchanted.” I wrote about these poems back in March of this year, HERE, and back in 2024, too, HERE.
RSS Feed
