Web Pages
For Web Page content, we write scripts to scrape and process metadata from web sites. We then edit and standardize the content for the purposes of the catalog. When the records are ready, we upload them and add them to the catalog's Solr index so that they show up in searches. We're currently working on three major projects:
- Musisque deoque (http://www.mqdq.it/public/). This site aims to create “a singular database of Latin poetry, supported by a critical and exegetical electronic apparatus.” Since the database covers nearly 700 works from a wide range of time periods, we have had to pause development to add numerous authority records to the DLL Catalog in preparation for importing the records. The data was scraped from the site on 2018-02-29. We are currently in the process of reconciling MQDQ authors and titles with DLL authority records.
Projected date of availability: Autumn of 2018.
- Poeti d’Italia (http://www.poetiditalia.it/public/). This partner site to Musisque Deoque contains Latin poetry composed in Italy between 1250 and 1550. We scraped the data from this site on 2018-02-29, but, like its partner site, it has required us to add several author and work authority records to the DLL Catalog, so processing the metada has taken some time. Eventually, 806 items will be added to the DLL Catalog, buttressing its collection of Neo-Latin texts.
Projected date of availability: January 2019.
- The Latin Library (https://thelatinlibrary.com). This site is in many respects the grandparent of Latin sites on the internet, having been online since the late 20th century. Unfortunately, since the sources of the texts are not well documented, it has been difficult to catalog the texts with a high degree of confidence. Nevertheless, many of the texts are in the DLL catalog, but not yet public. We anticipate finishing this project in the spring of 2019.
Items in the queue after we finish those projects:
- Brepolis Library of Digital Latin Texts, series A and B ( http://apps.brepolis.net/BrepolisPortal/default.aspx). We have obtained a spreadsheet of the texts available in this subscription-only collection. This collection contains over 10,000 items. Although the items are available only on a limited basis to those without a subscription, it is important to include this valuable scholarly resource in the DLL Catalog.
- Loeb Classical Library Online (https://www.loebclassics.com/). Jeffrey Henderson, the General Editor of the LCL, provided a spreadsheet of metadata about the works in this subscription-only collection. Although the items are available only on a limited basis to those without a subscription, it is important to include this valuable scholarly resource in the DLL Catalog.
- Patrologia Latin Database (http://pld.chadwyck.co.uk/). Cataloging the items in this subscription-only database will facilitate the rapid addition of items from the PL that will be available from the Open Philology Project in the near future.
- Monumenta Germaniae Historica (http://www.dmgh.de/). This project aims to make volumes of the MGH available in PDF form, with a “moving wall” for newer volumes that remain under copyright protection.
- Library of Humanistic Texts (http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/library.html): This collection is the result of Dana Sutton’s efforts to make Neo-Latin texts available on an open basis.
- Bibliotheca Augustana (https://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/augustana.html): This collection is a project of Ulrich Harsch. It will require additional investigation, since the source and access rights to the texts are not clearly identifiable.
Digitized Books
We have built a number of repositories for Item Records using the Zotero application (https://www.zotero.org/), which facilitates the collection and management of bibliographical data from libraries and other online repositories. Using print reference works or other resources as a guide, DLL staff search online libraries for items and build up a Zotero library with the items’ metadata. After a collection is complete, the data is prepared for ingestion into the DLL’s catalog. Preparation involves proofreading, verifying that the information matches the record it describes, and adding links to authority records for authors, works, and editors to each record. If the repository includes authors and or works that do not yet have authority records, work on the repository is paused until those authority records have been created and added to the catalog. The data for the repository is then exported to a CSV file for uploading into the DLL Catalog’s database.
Current digitized books projects include:
- Editiones principes: a repository of books identified by various sources as the first printed editions of Classical Latin texts. As of this writing, there are 28 items. Since this is an ongoing, open-ended project, items from this collection will be added periodically.
Projected date of availability in DLL Catalog: The first upload will occur early in 2019.
- Budé–Hathi: a repository of items in the HathiTrust Digital Library published by or associated with the Association Guillaume Budé. As of this writing, the processing of this collection is still in its early stages.
Projected date of availability in DLL Catalog: early 2020.
- Teubners–Hathi: a repository of items in the HathiTrust Digital Library published by B.G. Teubner. As of this writing, the repository contains 871 items.
Projected date of availability in DLL Catalog: summer of 2019.
- Engelmann: a repository of editions of Latin texts as catalogued in Wilhelm Engelmann, Bibliotheca Scriptorum Classicorum, vol. 2: “Scriptores Latini” (Leipzig 1882). This collection currently contains 2836 items and is currently in progress. We consider this a priority collection, since it reflects the contents of a standard reference work for scholars of Classical Latin texts.
Projected date of availability: first half of 2019.
Digital Editions
After we have worked our way through the current backlog in Web Pages and other content, we will turn our attention to cataloging some of the excellent bona fide digital editions on the web. For example, no collection of Latin texts would be complete without a record of Dániel Kiss' Catullus Online or the editions in Franzini, G., Andorfer, P., Zaytseva, K. (2016-) Catalogue of Digital Editions: The Web Application. And, of course, we will be adding texts published in the DLL's own Library of Digital Latin Texts.
