Defragmenting Digitized Manuscripts Sources

A unified portal to medieval manuscripts

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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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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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Results after five months

• 328 institutions in the database.

• Links to at least 30’000+ digitized objects.

• 25’000+ visitors.

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More results

First page for Google Search: Medieval Manuscripts

First page for Google Search: Digitized Medieval Manuscripts

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Part 2: How is the app made?

• Google Fusion Tables

• Google Maps API

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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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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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Extras

• Heatmap

• Spreadsheet

• Blogging / Digital Libraries reviews

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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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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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Future plans

• Continue adding libraries

• Review more libraries

• Develop app for smartphones / tablets

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