Digital Humanities (DH) combine traditional textual or archival work with the possibilities offered by modern digital technologies. On the one hand, DH projects focus on making data accessible (digital libraries, factual databases, etc.), while on the other hand, interdisciplinary teams use computational tools to explore entirely new questions and perspectives in research. In this spirit, the phenomena of interactive digital editions and digital storytelling are becoming an inspiring intersection. They combine methods of working with text sources and multimedia presentation of results, which opens up new possibilities for research, but also for teaching.
What is an interactive digital edition?
A traditional edition of manuscript or printed sources represents the work of a researcher on a critical edition of a text. Digital editions, however, go further. They are structured texts in computer format (often TEI XML) that contain layers of metadata, variant readings, comments, and links. The edition can thus offer hypertext navigation, maps, timelines, and other interactive elements. For example, Loren Lee of the University of Virginia describes her work on her edition of a medieval manuscript: Thanks to the digital form, she can display textual variants, zoom in on details of miniatures, and highlight scribal errors, i.e., elements that are present in the printed edition through footnotes or commentary but are not available on a single visual plane. At the same time, it also gives users access to different ways of reading.
“Readers of my edition will be able to more intuitively visualize common medieval manuscript features like textual variations among the extant copies, excised elements like cut out miniatures and ripped folios, and scribal errors and abbreviations. All of these common aspects of medieval manuscripts are typically lost as they are tidied up in print editions, but they are integral to the manuscript reading experience. Flexibility is something that digital editions can offer in a way print cannot.” [1]
Such an interactive edition is therefore not a static document, but rather a platform for discovering the text. Readers can take different paths (e.g., thematic or chronological) and discover hidden connections. One example is the Lady’s Museum project, an electronic critical edition of 18th-century texts designed specifically for collaboration between students, teachers, and researchers. Users can learn online directly from the text of Charlotte Lennox's Lady's Museum (1761–1762). According to its creators, the edition was launched as a tool for collective learning: teachers, researchers, and students can use it and actively participate in it.
Typical features of interactive editions include:
These technologies give researchers and students meaningful control over how they access the text. Instead of linearly browsing through a paper volume, users can create their own “narratives” about the text using paths and filters, transforming the edition from a neutral source into an environment for constructing stories.
What is digital storytelling?
Digital storytelling is a term borrowed from the media and applied to the humanities: it refers to working with stories using digital tools and new media forms. In DH, this may involve organizing historical or cultural data in such a way that it tells a comprehensible story. DS (digital storytelling) combines images, sound, text, and interactivity to add context to the story.
Simply put, digital storytelling gives researchers the opportunity to actively shape interpretations of historical and cultural phenomena. It allows a broader spectrum of participants or witnesses to view events alongside traditional authorities (scientists, chroniclers, etc.). At the same time, however, it requires a careful approach: the author of the story determines what data to select and how to connect it, and it is therefore necessary to resolve issues of interpretation and bias.
There are a number of projects abroad that connect archives with communities. For example, the British project Bristol Stories enabled city residents to create their own multimedia testimonies (photographs, videos, texts) and compile them into an interactive map of the city as a narrative. Museums and archives also use DS to capture unusual memories: digital stories from local residents supplement official archival records with previously neglected perspectives. Ultimately, digital storytelling enriches community memory with more diverse materials than would previously have found their way into institutions. It thus offers a new perspective on collective memory and on the ways in which the past is presented in public spaces.
How are interactive editions and digital storytelling related?
Interactive digital editions and digital storytelling complement each other: editions can serve as a platform for storytelling, and storytelling can use editorial methods. Digital editions with links and layers create a structure in which a story can be built, similar to a signpost connecting individual passages of text. The reader/user thus receives a kind of "story creation tool" from the available sources.
Let us imagine, for example, a critical edition that offers new thematic routes: for example, "in the footsteps of historically significant figures," "voices of women," or "life in a medieval city." Users could choose one of these routes, and the edition would provide them with relevant fragments of sources, period images, and expert commentary within that framework. The result would not be a linear excursion to the sources, but a coherent story compiled from the edition data.
In summary, interactive editions can become a backdrop for digital storytelling. Editions give data structure and context (who, when, where, in what order to display content), and DS can be cultivated more freely within them: offering different reading perspectives and combining multimedia elements.
Technologies and tools
Interactive editions and digital storytelling are based on various technical platforms and formats. From a technical point of view, an edition typically begins in TEI XML (or another structured format), which describes the text, variants, and annotations. The output can then be published on the web via specialized platforms or applications. Common tools and approaches include:
For whom are interactive editions and DS intended?
Interactive editions offer researchers a number of advantages: clarity of text versions, ease of working with extensive corpora of sources, and the ability to continuously edit or expand the edition. For students, these projects are an attractive form of teaching. They can try their hand at creating a digital edition or interactively study historical sources. For the public and memory institutions (museums, archives, libraries), DS and interactive editions are a way to present research results in an accessible and engaging way. Digital storytelling can also bring topics of interest to life for a wide audience, thereby raising awareness of cultural heritage.
Ultimately, these approaches build a bridge between academics and the public: academic text is transformed into a story that people can explore for themselves. Digital storytelling conveys a personal, human perspective, while interactive editions offer transparent insight into the creative process. Together, these two approaches can create an educational resource that is both understandable and inspiring.
New ways of storytelling
The future may bring even greater personalization (e.g., automatically generated routes based on interests, use of artificial intelligence to create story scenarios) and technological advances (e.g., AR/VR in historical storytelling). At the same time, however, ethics must be carefully monitored, especially issues of data rights, credibility, and narrative balance.
In any case, these approaches encourage researchers to think of an edition or project as a living, interactive medium. As Loren Lee summarizes, digital editions are changing the way we perceive access to modern sources and their preservation. Similarly, digital storytelling methods remind us that behind every historical text or object there are human stories and that today we have the tools to share them with a wider community.
[1]: Loren Lee. “Old Books, New Tricks: Introducing My Digital Edition with the SLab”. Published September 27, 2024. https://scholarslab.lib.virginia.edu/blog/introducing-loren/. Accessed on February 25, 2026.
Medieval sources in the digital age? Stanislav Bárta researches the documents of Sigismund of Luxembourg, archival theory, and trends in digital humanities. In this interview, he outlines how modern technology can help make historical documents more accessible.
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