Rebooting Electronic Literature, Volume 2  is the second of a series of open-source, multimedia books documenting works of electronic literature held in Dene Grigar's Electronic Literature Lab (ELL) library at Washington State University Vancouver. The seven works selected for this volume are among the most unique and fragile in the collection. All constitute long-form writing produced with stand-alone hypertext authoring systems available during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The hypertext novels include Kathryn Cramer's In Small & Large Pieces (1994), Richard Holeton's Figurski at Findhorn on Acid (2001), Tim McLaughlin's Notes toward Absolute Zero (1995), Stuart Moulthrop's Victory Garden (1991), and M.D. Coverley's Califia (2000). Also featured is Stephanie Strickland's long narrative poem, True North (1997) and Deena Larsen's anthology of interconnected hypertext stories, Sampler's (1996). All but Coverley's Califia, which was programmed with Toolbook, were produced with Storyspace, the software programmed created by Michael Joyce, Jay David Bolter, and John B. Smith in 1987 and licensed by Mark Bernstein of Eastgate Systems, Inc. in 1990. [1] All works, no matter the authoring system used, were published by the company. Additionally, all but Califia––which was published only on CD-ROM––were released originally on 3.5-inch floppy disks and later migrated to CD-ROM technology. With the demise of the CD-ROM drive on contemporary computers, all of these works are in danger of being lost to the public.

Documentation Methodology: Pathfinders
The documentation methodology, expanded from the Pathfinders project pioneered by Grigar and Moulthrop [2], centers on two important processes: First, live performances––or what they call Traversals [3]––streamed on YouTube by readers and/or authors performing the work on the hardware and software on which the works were originally intended; second, the addition of audience engagement via Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube live chat. Along with videos of the live stream Traversals and screenshots of social media posts, the book features images of the packaging of the work, such as folios, floppy disks, manuals, and paper inserts. It also includes historical information about the work and summaries of each work.

In developing the project, we aim to provide information helpful to scholars. Publication dates, versions, and production methods have been vetted by publishers and artists and, when possible, verified with archival material collected by the Electronic Literature Organization or found at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University with the intent of clearing up discrepancies relating to this information as well as offer previously unknown details about these works. The three versions of Strickland's True North, for example, have been known for a long the as having been published in 1997. Through conversations with Strickland during her visit to ELL to give a Traversal of True North and subsequent email exchanges, as well as research on the work in the Stephanie Strickland Papers at the Rubenstein Library, Grigar was able to provide a more exact order of the work's release in its various versions and formats. The PC version, for example, was produced first because Strickland used a PC to create the work and never had access to a Macintosh, the operating system in which Storyspace was originally built. The PC version, therefore, preceded the one released for the Macintosh computer and reflects the first work of electronic literature created for the Windows operating system. The CD-ROM version was released later that same year. The three versions held in the lab are those Grigar purchased directly from Eastgate Systems, Inc. upon their release. Thus, providing precise information regarding the development and provenance of the work ensures authority control, mitigates potential confusion and ambiguity, and, most importantly, helps to explain the development trajectory of particular works and establishes their contribution to the field. The publication history of True North, especially, shows the speed in which digital technology changed in the late 20th century and exerted pressure on publishing houses to stay abreast of technological innovation.

Selection Critieria
It is important to note that while the book is intended to document the works featured in the year's Traversals, readers will find two included in this volume that fall outside of that structure––Stuart Moulthrop's Victory Garden and M. D. Coverley's Califia. Both hypertext novels, however, have been previously featured in Traversals that Grigar organized. Victory Garden served as the proof of concept for the Pathfinders methodology in 2015 when Moulthrop and Grigar were developing the concept for the National Endowment for the Humanities grant they had received. At the time they opted not to include it since Moulthrop was co-author of the Pathfinders book that reflected the project. That said, his hypertext novel is considered one of the most important works of the period, lauded in various publications like The New York Times Book Review in 1992. Omitting it now from Rebooting Electronic Literature, a book in which he is not involved, makes no sense. Likewise, in 2017, just before she had begun work on Rebooting Electronic Literature, Volume 1, Grigar had invited another pioneering e-lit author, M. D. Coverley, to the lab for a Traversal of Califia. During that visit Grigar had collected a wealth of material that had not, heretofore, been published. It is included now in our book. Like the other works found in this volume, both were published by Eastgate Systems, Inc.

About the Written Documentation Found in This Book
Writing about electronic literature and literary games published on 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch floppy disks and CD-ROMS with software no longer supported by contemporary computers is vastly different than writing about literature still in circulation and found on people’s bookshelves or tablets, writing about the works themselves required a different approach. When the audience can’t touch the packaging the work comes bundled in, experience its interface, follow its navigation; or read the words, see the images, or hear the sound, it’s important to ask, “What is the best way to write about inaccessible works of born-digital media so that your audience gets a good understanding of it and its contribution?”

As Grigar and Moulthrop concluded for the Pathfinders project, description––that is, what they call ekphratic writing––is optimal for video clips, photos, and social media for providing detail and context and allowing for media objects to be read by computers for audience members who may be visually challenged. We follow this model, going as far as including the exact wording found on pages of a manual, for example, featured in a photo. We also tease out the most salient points on the video clips of the Traversals or interviews so that readers can more readily find information they may be seeking.

For writing about the works themselves, however, we took a different approach than Pathfinders. Rather than featuring critical essays, we instead offer a combination of explication, analysis, and criticism.

Explication is important because it allows for a detailed description of one’s experience with the work––essentially a blow-by-blow interaction with it. Analysis, on the other hand, calls for a deep dive into the work’s most salient features. Finally, criticism provides the opportunity to discuss the work’s connection to larger trends, to the larger body of work, to other works and authors. Taken together, these types of writing provide an audience, reliant upon my essay to learn about the work, as close of an experience with it and its cultural context as possible. For how else can scholars follow an argument about structure and meaning in Deena Larsen’s Samplers if they do not have a copy of Samplers and, so, cannot see for themselves the way in which Larsen names her paths? When writing the essay about this work for this book, Grigar found herself explicating the process of navigating the paths, discussing the names attributed to them, and then describing the lexias to which they lead. Likewise, how can scholars gain an understanding of the way Larsen employs the metaphor of stitching and sewing in Samplers? Here, Grigar analyzed the quilt and sampler that bring the nine small hypertexts together into a whole. How can scholars get a sense of the way Larsen’s work contributes to the zeitgeist of the period? It is here that she ties Samplers to Kathryn Cramer’s In Small & Large Pieces and Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl, three women writers who work against the notion of fragmentation so popular in hypertext theory of the period by literally suturing up text, ideas, and characters in their narratives. So few of the early hypertext literary works are available to the public. Eastgate Systems, Inc. has re-released Michael Joyce’s afternoon: a story and Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl on flash drive and numerous work from the mid-20th century onwards are still available on CD-ROM. But for most without CD-ROM readers on their desktops or only use tablets and phones, anything produced on floppy disk and CD-ROM technology is no longer available. Thus, it is imperative that those of us with access to these works write essays about them that involve these three approaches in order for them to be documented and live on through our scholarship for future publics to know they have existed and why they are important to read and study.

About the Book's Authors
Written and produced by the ELL Team––Dene Grigar, Nicholas Schiller, Holly Slocum, Mariah Gwin, Kathleen Zoller, Andrew Nevue, and Moneca Roath––Rebooting Electronic Literature features approximately 85,000 words devoted to artist biographies, descriptions of media, and essays; over 350 photos of artists, works, and their original packaging; and over 50 videos of artist readings and interviews and Live Stream Traversals. Producing a collaborative book such as this one meant we had to draw upon specific expertise and strengths each team member possessed and, at the same time, all be willing and able to jump in where needed. [4] We also recognized that because five of our team members were undergraduate researchers who may want to apply to graduate programs or one day seek employment––and one of which was graduating in December 2019––we acknowledge the importance of calling out each member's primary duties on the development of this book:

• Dene Grigar, PhD: Conceptualized the book, wrote the introduction and all essays, and developed all of the materials for the resource pages
• Nicholas Schiller, MLIS: Copyedited the book and wrote the bios for all authors
• Greg Philbrook, B.A.: On-going technical support
• Holly Slocum: Managed the project, and wrote the copy for photo descriptions for each of the works
• Mariah Gwin: Edited videos from the Live Stream Traversals for each of the works
• Kathleen Zoller.: Photographed all works and wrote the descriptions of the Traversal videos for most of the works
• Andrew Nevue: Edited all of the social media photos from all of the Live Stream Traversals and wrote the descriptions for each of them
• Moneca Roath: Videotaped all Traversals and edited the videos for the book

We also wish to acknowledge artist Will Luers who developed the art for the "cover" of the book and along with Greg Philbrook, helped us to style some of its pages. 

Finally, we thank the Electronic Literature Organization for its leadership in developing methods for evaluating quality of digital creative and critical works and its insights into cataloging its growing body of digital fiction, poetry, and other literary forms––activities from which this research grows.