Dear list members,
Sincere thanks to all of you who replied on- or off-list with
information on small and large collections. My point of interest was
what happens to small digital (manuscript) collections (running their
own web sites or portals) when they get aggregated into some large
collection or digital library. How does this double modus vivendi look
like with regard to the visibility of the original small collection,
once aggregated into the large one?
The examples (that you helped me to collect) prove that the answer to
this question is not straightforward and unambiguous at all. There is a
range of practices how the web-design of the large collection represents
the original data and how it redirects (or not) the user to the original
collection.
To give an example, The European Library and Europeana seem to be two
similar large aggregators. But in fact, there is a serious difference:
The European Library strives to represent only the minimal metadata and
a small informative thumb picture of the primary material, where the
links to the original collection are visibly exposed to the user, who is
graphically "encouraged" to visit the original contributor. In my view,
this is an example of fair balance between the interests of the
aggregator and the contributor. If we have a look to the same material
in Europeana, on the other hand, we find that the interface is designed
rather to retain the user on the Europeana pages: it gives a bigger
image and the user is "warned" that he/she will leave the Europeana
pages (the link to the original collection is labelled "View item at
..."). Examples from other areas -- e.g. language technologies -- reveal
even more drastic conflicts. In the area of manuscript studies however,
in my opinion, MESA is by far the best aggregator. In the search-results
area, a small "card" with metadata and a thumb-image invite the user to
go deeper, and by one click, we come to the original collection.
In the field of Digital Humanities, there are "small" and "big players",
as we can call them. This is inevitable. Often, the big players are big
because they manage to attract and aggregate many small players. Yet, is
is true that the detail, analysis, commentary -- most of what in
Humanities constitutes the "quality" -- is provided by the small
players, while the big players, on the contrary, provide evidence,
quantity, and infrastructure. The two roles are profoundly different,
clearly. The rules which should govern a "fair aggregation", however,
are not so clear. Hopefully, good practise will establish them.
Regards,
Matija Ogrin
--
Matija Ogrin, Ph.D.
Register of Early Modern Slovenian Manuscripts (NRSS)
http://ezb.ijs.si/nrss/
Research Centre of Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Daniel O'Donnell je 28. 11. 2015 ob 20:21 napisal:
> It's by no means an off-topic question. Please let us know the results
> of your research!
>
> On Fri, 27 Nov 2015 at 08:22 Margot Fassler <margot.fassler@nd.edu
>
mailto:margot.fassler@nd.edu> wrote:
>
> Check out the CANTUS database, which is the basic search engine for
> medieval musicologists. You will see that many of the MSS in the
> database are linked to images that can be found on other sites, a
> greatly useful feature. It might be a good example for you as it is
> heavily trafficked.
> Margot Fassler
> Keough Hesburgh Professor of Music History and Liturgy
> Director, Program in Sacred Music
> University of Notre Dame
>
> On Fri, Nov 27, 2015 at 9:57 AM, Gabriel BODARD
> <Gabriel.bodard@sas.ac.uk
mailto:Gabriel.bodard@sas.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> Dear Matija,
>
> One example, which might or might not be the sort of thing you
> are looking for, is the catalogue of papyri at the University of
> Michigan, which is accessible both as a local catalogue
> (
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/a/apis?page=index) and through the
> Papyri.info portal
> (
http://papyri.info/search?COLLECTION=michigan). I think the
> data/metadata contained by the two sites is more or less the
> same, but Michigan may also maintain some catalogue data that
> isn't included in the APIS format that Papyri.info serve.
>
> (I picked Michigan at random, but I'm sure at least a few of the
> other contributing APIS institutions
> [
http://papyri.info/browse/apis/] also serve their collections
> locally as well as through Papyri.info.)
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Gabby
>
>
> On 27/11/2015 14:39, Matija Ogrin wrote:
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> Can you please give any example of a (small) digital
> collection of
> manuscript or printed primary sources which, 1) operates as an
> independent web-portal AND also 2) their data are in some way
> included/aggregated into some large collection or digital
> library?
>
> I am particularly interested in what happens as data pass
> from a "small"
> into a "large" digital resource? What kind of data are most
> suitable and
> frequent object of such aggregation in our area of digital
> humanities:
> only meta-data, or also msDesc, digital images,
> transcriptions? How
> "visible" is the original small collection after the
> aggregation? Etc.
>
> I hope this is not an off-topic question. Thank you for any
> advice,
>
> Matija
>
>
> --
> Dr Gabriel BODARD
> Reader in Digital Classics
>
> Institute of Classical Studies
> University of London
> Senate House
> Malet Street
> London WC1E 7HU
>
> E: Gabriel.bodard@sas.ac.uk
mailto:Gabriel.bodard@sas.ac.uk
> T: +44 (0)20 78628752
tel:%2B44%20%280%2920%2078628752
>
>
http://digitalclassicist.org/
>
>
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http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/journal/
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https://digitalmedievalist.wordpress.com/news/
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--
Matija Ogrin, dr.
Neznani rokopisi slovenskega slovstva 17. in 18. stoletja (NRSS)
http://ezb.ijs.si/nrss/
InĀtitut za slovensko literaturo in literarne vede
ZRC SAZU
