Textual metadata is widely and extensively supported in various encoding schemes, from the most basic representations such as Simplified Dublin Core to the almost limitless extensions supported by the Text Encoding Initiative. Defined as "structured data about data" metadata functions, in both computerized and non-computerized (such as printed library card catalogues) primarily as means to manage and find information resources. The limits of what might be considered metadata, or more specifically textual metadata, are hazy. Many scholars in the human sciences have used data about text, which might not typically be considered to be metadata, to further analytical objectives. In my own work for example, I have used data about the production and distribution of printed books and the performance of plays to examine "reader response" to texts and to track the "consumption" of text in social, cultural and political contexts.° Rich textual metadata may serve as more than a vital means to manage and find information, but act as a basis for a variety of analytical functions and focus attention back to questions regarding the nature of textuality. This paper will first address extensions to the textual object model under PhiloLogic, the "chunky soup model"°, in which all elements of textual databases from words to documents may be considered to be objects with attributes. The utility of this model will be demonstrated by reference to databases produced by Alexander Street Press in conjunction with the University of Chicago, which combine a wide array of metadata, full text tools, and hypermedia integration. Finally, the ability to manage an almost unlimited array of textual metadata poses a set of questions about the nature and organization of text and metadata. PhiloLogic is a modular system, in which a textbase is really a set of coordinated or related databases, typically including an object database, a word forms database, a word concordance index mapped to textual objects, and an object manager mapping text objects to byte offsets in data files. Each of these databases is stored and managed using its own subsystem. To support a rich textual metadata, I implemented a perl/SQL object manager containing one or more SQL tables with full relational capabilities between them, linked by unique object identifiers to the text data. This unique key is, in most implementations, a logical address of the object. Typically, these are defined in a hierarchy descending from a document down to a word, without reference in the object mapper, to the type of object -- book, chapter, article, dictionary entry, poem, verse, sentence, etc. -- allowing for searching of words in selected objects and navigation up and down the hierarchy. The independence of the object hierarchy from the data associated with it allows for query driven access to any object at any level. Equally, this model supports creation of multiple metadata representations to support different query capabilities into the same textual database. The paragraph in Diderot's Encyclopédie, for example, containing the phrase étincelles lumineuses has the logical address: 35:78:0:51, being the 51st child object of the 78th top level object, of the 35th file (or document). The metadata associated with this object is stored in an SQL table points to 35:78 indicating that it is the main article Electricité, by d'Aumont, in the class of knowledge Physique, and is associated with the page object 35:43, the 43rd page object (not the page number which is stored in a related table) of the 35th file. In some databases, an individual file would correspond to a text or document, but this is not required since document definition is built dynamically from the metadata. This model may be extended to any depth of object and associate an arbitrary amount of metadata to any particular object. One may also create of multiple, related, metadata tables to permit handling objects of different granularity and definition. Chadwick-Healy's English Poetry database, for example, may be defined as a collection of volumes of poetry, with the typical metadata, such as author, title of the volume, date of publication. A second "look" into the same database may associate a different SQL table to individual poems, including year of composition, title, and type of poem. The poem "Vpon a Diamond cutt in forme..." in The English and Latin Poems of Sir Robert Ayton... is identified as object 1143:1:44 in the database. Two automatically generated SQL tables support different "looks" into the database, one as "books of poetry" and one as individual "poems", with data corresponding to the level of representation related by unique object identifier. The collaboration between the University of Chicago and Alexander Street Press (ASP) to develop large and important textual databases with unprecedented levels of metadata allowed me to implement, test and refine many of PhiloLogic's object and metadata handling capabilities. The currently released databases, North American Women's Letters and Diaries (currently 14,700 documents, with a final projected size of over 40,000) and Civil War Letters and Diaries --and those under development including Early Encounters in North America, Black Drama, and American Film Scripts Online -- are each composed of many SQL metadata tables containing of anywhere from 30 to well over 100 fields, associated with textual materials in various ways. Complementing normal kinds of metadata one would expect, such as author, date, genre, the editors of each database select different kinds of metadata to be included in the database. Some of these extend direct descriptions of the text, such as the social context of composition, occupation or social status of the author, names of battles or tribes, flora and fauna described, and so on. The databases also make use of extensive document indexing, such as subject, geographic, historical, personal events, and other controlled terminology descriptions of the contents of each document or object. Thus, for example, one can find or search documents referring to Lincoln's assassination where neither the word "Lincoln" nor "assassination" appear. The full paper will present examples of the interaction of rich metadata and full text searching to illustrate the utility of the object model in PhiloLogic and specific theoretical issues. The textual object model allows creation of multiple tables to support different looks into a textual database. Tables of chronological events may have data or descriptions regarding battles or encounters with native tribes. Tables of authors, might include number of children or number of marriages, military rank or age at death. These tables may include heterogeneous data types that might not be typically considered to be textual metadata, such as winners and losers of Civil War battles, commanding generals, and even the number of combatants and losses. Rich metadata also allows for greater flexibility definition of documents and how texts may be dynamically constructed. To date, ASP implementations are based on relatively small document segments as a basic unit of analysis. Rich metadata allows these small segments to be multi-threaded, providing an arbitrary number of lines of document definition and sequence, including the order in which documents are published in source volumes, letters to and from particular authors across published accounts, or sequence descriptions of particular events such as battles or encounters. Such threading may also serve as a means for handling hypertext/media relations, from one object to another. The textual object model outlined here blurs the distinctions between text and context, data and metadata. Metadata may well be found in places least expected, not limited to headers. Consider the type attribute of a line group tag
<lg type="Epithalamion"> It appears outside of a header but might be considered to be metadata because it is structured data, subsequently added, about the nature of the data contained in the line group. In the textual object model this would be accessed in the same way as any other metadata object, as an element in an SQL table. A rich textual metadata environment opens significant editorial and analytical freedom regarding the appropriate contexts for particular views of textual material and how these might be associated as metadata. The ability to manage practically unlimited amounts of multi-tiered metadata in an object oriented model might serve as an example of the intersection of humanities computing and digital librarianship. By adopting and extending indexing practiced by librarians, to include information not typically considered textual metadata, with fulltext analysis from humanities computing, we can further the goals of improving access to materials and introduce new analytical capabilities to large textbases.