From Parchment to the Network: Manuscript Management and Cataloguing (original) (raw)

From Parchment to the Network: Manuscripts Management

2013

Conservation libraries, which hold manuscripts and are willing to provide catalogues, face the problem of their diversity: each manuscript, document or archive has its own features, due to its history. Information technology helps librarians both to record ancient documents descriptions, dealing with highly non-standard data, and to allow their dissemination. Biblioteca Ambrosiana collaborates with DSI of the Universita degli Studi di Milano to find solutions to a variety of problems related to management, catalogue and description of these documents. In this paper we present some results: a topographical inventory and a filter to interface and make comoatible archives of manuscript documents in Manus, a relational DB distributed in Italy, and XML descriptions, adopting the DTD for manuscripts defined by the EU Project MASTER.

The Cataloguing of Western Medieval Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library: a TEI approach

users.ox.ac.uk

There are three main series of published catalogues of the western manuscripts at the Bodleian Library: the so-called "Quarto" catalogues, published between 1845 and 1900, in quarto format, which cover the major collections acquired (for the most part) in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Coxe , the purpose of which is to make available descriptions of the medieval western manuscripts acquired by the Library since 1916, for which no full published catalogue yet exists. For more detailed bibliographical information on the catalogues of western manuscripts at the Bodleian, see http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/guides/wmss/wmss02.htm.

Some thoughts on the cataloguing of medieval manuscripts

Quaerendo, 2003

Some thoughts on the cataloguing of medieval manuscripts To write about the cataloguing of medieval manuscripts could soon become stating the obvious and carrying coals to Newcastle: so much has been written about it, both on the theoretical aspects and the actual practice. 1 The general, methodological principles are well-known and there is a wealth of examples of concrete applications available in the form of innumerable, widely diVerent catalogues. Indeed, various aims can be pursued in the cataloguing of manuscripts, resulting in, for instance, a 'general' scholarly catalogue of all manuscripts of a particular library or in a speci c collection. In such a catalogue attention will have been paid to both the contents, the form or the external appearance and the history of the manuscripts, while the (principal) literature on the manuscripts will also have been indicated. It could also concern an exhibition catalogue in which in the description of the exhibits the decoration and the illustration of the codices are particularly emphasized, while information on the contents is much sparser and in which especially art-historical publications are incorporated and referred to. An entirely diVerent catalogue will accompany a completely diVerent exhibition, for example an exhibition devoted to the collecting of manuscripts by one or more scholarly amateurs of that type of books: the accompanying catalogue can throw light on the mutual contacts between these collectors and their relations with antiquarian booksellers and auctioneers. Then again, another category is the catalogue consisting of a series of descriptions of all manuscripts that constitute a corpus for the purpose of speci c scholarly research. In such a catalogue particularly those aspects will be described that underpin the results of this research and make them veri able. In short, the typology of manuscript catalogues shows many varieties and the catalogue descriptions will always be geared to the purpose for which the catalogue was made. 2 In the present contribution, however, I will restrict myself to formulating some stray thoughts on web-catalogues (deliberately I do not speak of 'the web-catalogue', for in this eld too there are of course diVerent categories). The element 'web' already implies that it concerns a catalogue which is constructed,

Cataloging Medieval Manuscripts, from Beasts to Bytes

This article investigates the history of cataloging medieval manuscripts in order to determine a paradigm for digital catalogs of the present. Inspired by the work of Suzanne Briet (1894–1989), it argues in favor of a culturally informed “documentation” that considers not only the complexity of medieval manuscripts as information objects, but also anticipates the diverse interests of users who depend on digital images and supporting metadata to access manuscripts as primary sources for research. Presented here is a faceted metadata structure that considers the premodernmanuscript as physical, textual, historical, as well as digital information. This approach is built upon various traditions for cataloging medieval manuscripts, from Cassiodorus in the sixth century to the electronic databases and digital catalogs of the present.

Toward a new generation of databases and database applications for describing ancient manuscripts

Digital Scholarship in the Humanities

This article analyses the reasons why current manuscript databases provide unsatisfying results about a codex’s historical layers and why they fall short when scanned for data with a date limit. It links this primarily to the fact that the data model (how the information is organized internally) and the description model (how the information is organized in the description presented to the users) are too closely and rigidly aligned. It advocates for developing a new model that would first allow users to define and save their own structural and historical interpretation of a codex, and use this when displaying or searching manuscripts. Secondly, users should be able to select the description model according to which manuscript information is displayed, including new and more detailed description models.

ENRICH : Building a European Digital Library of Manuscripts

2007

The Manuscriptorium Digital Library provides access to catalogue data, fully digitized documents, and selected structured full texts from more than thirty various memory institutions in country and abroad. It is the largest digital library of manuscripts operated by any national library in Europe. Thanks to the new EU project ENRICH. Manuscriptorium, as a product based on 15 years of cooperation of the Czech National Library and AiP Beroun Co. Ltd., will try to aggregate similar information from many countries in Europe to provide seamless access to already dispersed historical documents. The works on which the Manuscriptorium is based were the main reason why the National Library of the Czech Republic was awarded the UNESCO Memory of the World prize in 2005 as the first institution ever. The paper gives an overview of plans and goals to be achieved during the coming two years. When in 1992, a few people from the National Library and the company whose today’s name is AiP Beroun Ltd....

The ENRICH project: Towards a European digital manuscript library

2010

The idea of using computers to provide greater access to medieval manuscripts and other primary sources dates from the late 70s and early 80s, when a number of attempts were made to apply relational database technology to manuscript studies, in particular in the form of searchable electronic catalogues. Unfortunately – but understandably – these projects generally relied on locally developed or proprietary software, with all the problems for long-term maintenance and interoperability that entails. Moreover, each system tended also to have its own standards with regard to the nature, extent and organisation of information included, reflecting the lack of often even national standards for manuscript description at the time.

Development of a digital library of manuscripts

Program, 2011

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to focus on the technical know‐how required for digitisation of manuscripts. It aims to discuss the digitisation process of manuscripts adopted in the Jayakar Library, University of Pune in India and also to evaluate the digitisation software used in this project.Design/methodology/approachThe paper explains different steps of the digitisation process. It also explains the process for creating metadata fields for easy retrieval of manuscripts and evaluates the digitisation software.FindingsDigitisation of manuscripts is a difficult process because of the fragility and discolouration (yellowishness) of manuscripts. Creation of metadata and especially subject headings for manuscripts is difficult and time consuming. QuickScan software is good for image capturing and DSpace is good for providing access to digital contents.Originality/valueThe project details and use of different software in this project may be useful for others carrying out digitisat...