Defragmenting Digitized Manuscripts Sources: A Unified Portal to Medieval Manuscripts Giulio Menna and Marjolein de Vos

1. Defragmenting Digitized Manuscripts
Sources
A unified portal to medieval manuscripts
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2. Part 1: Who we are and what we do
• Giulio Menna, MA & Marjolein de Vos, MA
• DigitizedMedievalManuscripts.org
• SexyCodicology.net/blog
• Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr...
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3. The DMMmaps in short
• A simple idea:
A database containing links to digital libraries that are home to digitized western
medieval manuscripts.
• Presented in a different way:
On an interactive map.
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4. Results after five months
• 328 institutions in the database.
• Links to at least 30’000+ digitized objects.
• 25’000+ visitors.
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5. More results
First page for Google Search: Medieval
Manuscripts
First page for Google Search: Digitized
Medieval Manuscripts
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6. Part 2: How is the app made?
• Google Fusion Tables
• Google Maps API
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7. Behind the scenes
1. Data:
• Name and location of the institution that hosts the digitized manuscripts.
• Number of digitized objects available on the institution’s website.
• Link to the website of the digital repository.
2. Google Fusion Tables (and some JavaScript)
3. Google Maps API
4. App (digitizedmedievalmanuscripts.org/app)
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8. The end product
On the right: the DMMapp in
action, showing data about the
National Library of Spain
inserted in the Google Fusion
Tables (latitude, longitude, link,
library name, nation and number
of digitized manuscripts
available).
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9. Extras
• Heatmap
• Spreadsheet
• Blogging / Digital Libraries
reviews
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10. Issues
• No funding: Weak infrastructure.
• Uncountable digitized manuscripts / mixed subject repositories.
• Broken links (and no redirects to new pages).
• Fully digitized manuscripts / partially digitized manuscripts.
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11. Key features
1. Easy and fast to update
2. Easy to use
3. Easy to find
4. Cheap to make
5. Useful
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12. Future plans
• Continue adding libraries
• Review more libraries
• Develop app for smartphones / tablets
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