Frequently Asked Questions

What was Project Woruldhord?

Project Woruldhord was an initiative led by Oxford University to gather together and preserve, in digital form, digital objects to do with the understanding, teaching, and research of Old English and the Anglo-Saxon period. It is an example of a community collection whereby all the items collected were submitted by the international community (e.g. the general public, historical groups, learned societies, school teachers, academics, collectors, etc). These object have then been made freely available on the Web for teaching and research in schools, colleges and universities, both in the UK and worldwide. The project is based at Oxford University Computing Services, and is part of a larger initiative in the UK to create a series of community collections. Submissions ran from 1st July 2010 to the 14th October 2010.

What kind of material did you collect?

We were looking for anything related to the period and we were not disappointed. Submissions included: photographs of artefacts, archaeological sites, teaching handouts, talks, audio recordings of Old English, videos of re-enactments, etc. In fact a range of material that might be of interest to the general public, schools, Universities, researchers who wish to learn more about the Anglo-Saxon period of history and Old English language and literature. Note we did not collect the physical items themselves: they remained with the contributor. It was also a prerequisite that the contributor owned the copyright of the item they were uploading.

What do I do if I think something has been submitted which I own the copyright to?

Every contributor was asked to confirm that they held the copyright to the item they were sending us, and we also removed any submissions we felt may infringe the rights of others. However, if you do notice anything that slipped through the net please contact us immediately at woruldhord@oucs.ox.ac.uk.

What do I do if I see an error in the cataloguing?

We have tried to check all the cataloguing information provided by the contributor or the holding institution. However, if you do see anything wrong please let us know woruldhord@oucs.ox.ac.uk.

We would also like to encourage discussion of the items through the projects Google Group - http://groups.google.com/group/project-woruldhord.

Are you still collecting?

No. The project closed for submissions on the 14th October 2010. However, if you do have anything key you would like to draw our attention to please do so by contacting us at woruldhord@oucs.ox.ac.uk.

How do I type in thorns, eths, asc, diacritics, etc?

If you wish to search for a term that uses one of the Old English characters you can use the simple character input devices available in most computers now, e.g. Character Map on Windows machines, and the Special Characters features (or Character Viewer) on Macs running newer operating systems. With both of these you will be using a Unicode font, and the favoured font for most Anglo-Saxonists is Junicode by Peter Baker (free at http://sourceforge.net/projects/junicode/files/). However, if this proves impossible then use the following:

For	(explanation)	type in
þ	lower case thorn	þ
Þ	upper case thorn	Þ
ð	lower case eth	ð
Ð	upper case eth	Ð
æ	lower case asc	æ
Æ	upper case asc	Æ

How can the material be used (permitted use)?

All the material released under the Woruldhord project is under a Creative Commons Licence (CC-BY-NC-SA [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/]). What this means is you are able to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as you credit the project and the contributor. See 'Permitted Use' for more details on this.

Who is paying for the project?

Project Woruldhord was funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and is part of the initiative RunCoCo: How to Run a Community Collection Online, however its long-term support is covered by the University of Oxford.

What is a 'zipped file'?

Some contributions, particularly those including large collections of images, have been uploaded as 'zipped files' in order to save space and increase download speeds. In order to open a zipped file, you will need to:

• Download it as normal, choosing 'Save file' in the dialogue box if appropriate. The zipped file will then appear in your download window as a folder icon with a zipper across it.
• For Windows users right-click on this icon, and choose 'Extract all', then click 'Next', 'Next' and 'Finish'.You should then see an 'un-zipped' (without a zipper icon) file. Open this, and the contribution images or documents will be accessible inside.
• For Mac users the file will normally extract automatically but if not double click on it.

Any further questions?

If you have any further questions or want to become even more involved in Project Woruldhord, then you are welcome to contact us.

Contact Us

We always welcome your feedback. You can contact us using the following details:

email: woruldhord@oucs.ox.ac.uk

Postal address:
Dr Stuart Lee
Project Manager: Woruldhord
OUCS
13 Banbury Road
Oxford
OX2 6NN
UK

Telephone
+44(0)1865 283403

FAX
+44(0)1865 273275