Evidence Workbench
Collaborative Research & Analysis Tool
The Evidence Workbench is a custom-built digital workspace integrated into the IN-NOLA Library. It is designed to allow researchers, community members, and authors to interact deeply with historical and contemporary texts by attaching specific evidence, commentary, and notes directly to the written word.
Key Features
Dynamic Text Highlighting
Any note connected to a specific passage in the book will automatically create a gold highlight in the text.
Clicking these highlights immediately opens the Workbench and scrolls to the relevant entry.
Footnotes vs. Endnotes
The Workbench intelligently sorts entries. If a note is connected to a specific quotation, it is categorized
as a Footnote and numbered by its location in the text. General commentary is collected under
Endnotes and sorted chronologically.
Intelligent Ordering
No matter when a note is added, the Workbench re-numbers the entire collection to ensure Footnotes
always appear in the same order as the passages they reference in the text.
Side-by-Side Analysis
On larger screens, opening the Workbench causes the document text to slide gracefully to the left,
reserving space for your analysis without obscuring the primary source material.
Try it Yourself
You can try out the tool right here on this guide! Follow these steps to see it in action:
- Click the Evidence Workbench button at the bottom right of your screen.
- Select any sentence in the paragraphs above with your mouse.
- In the Workbench panel, click Unlock Editor and use any authorized PIN (e.g., 519384 for Dublin).
- Click + Quote Selection to link your comment to the text you selected.
- Add your thoughts and click Save Evidence.
Note: Your saved evidence will be visible to others visiting this guide, just as it would be in the historical chapters of the library.