Transcript The Royal Library, Denmark

The Royal Library, Denmark
- Copenhagen University Library since 1482
- The Kings Library since 1660
- National Deposit Library since 1697
- Public Library since 1793
- 150 kilometres printed matters
- electronic databases and periodicals
- 500 employees
-------------------------------------- Henrik Laursen, research librarian ([email protected])
- Mads Henriksen, bachelor in philosophy ([email protected])
Emnekart Oslo 2006
Henrik Laursen
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The incentive
• Subject catalogues from many merged libraries
• Subject catalogues from many periods
• Some subject catalogues are also shelf lists with 3 sub-catalogues for different formats
• Historical knowledge is a prerequisite
The project files includes 3 catalogues:
• Foreign books catalogue from 1486 – 1950
• Systematic catalogue 1: 1950 – 1995
• Systematic catalogue 2: 1995 
Emnekart Oslo 2006
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Why now?
Retro-digitalization
The foreign books catalogue from 1486 – 1950
is under digitalization. The books are
searchable by author, title and shelf number.
But not by subject. The catalogue covers
400.000 books.
Emnekart Oslo 2006
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The means
Topic maps
Topic is in our case the subject classification. The topics are scoped in
Danish, English, alternative name, alternative spelling and
classification code .
Occurrence is a search-string in the online library base for books
with the specific classification. Other occurrences could be
references to online reference works.
Associations are in the project limited to two types:
”Super-subclass” and ”Search also”
Emnekart Oslo 2006
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The conversion process
- OCR of the typewritten catalogues using FineReader in
”count spaces”-mode
- proofreading, esp. correcting indentation
- running a perlscript that catches the hierarchical structure of the
catalogues and prints a XML file
- the resulting topicmap conforms to the ISO standard following
the XTM1.dtd, the XML interchange syntax for ISO 13250
Topic Maps)
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The 3-format catalogue
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Topic example
<topic id="BYH-SK2">
<instanceOf><topicRef xlink:href="#sk2"/></instanceOf>
<instanceOf><topicRef xlink:href="#filosofi"/></instanceOf>
<baseName><scope><topicRef xlink:href="#da"/></scope>
<baseNameString>Etik</baseNameString></baseName>
<baseName><scope><topicRef xlink:href="#en"/></scope>
<baseNameString>Ethics</baseNameString></baseName>
<baseName><scope><topicRef
xlink:href="#alternativ"/></scope>
<baseNameString>Moral</baseNameString></baseName>
<baseName><scope><topicRef xlink:href="#signatur"/></scope>
<baseNameString>BC</baseNameString></baseName>
<occurrence>
<resourceRef xlink:href="https://rex.kb.dk/F?func=findc&amp;local_base=kgl01&amp;ccl_term=wkl=BYH"/>
</occurrence></topic>
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Association example
<association id="BCL-IKI-SK2">
<instanceOf>
<topicRef xlink:href="#see-also"></topicRef>
</instanceOf>
<member>
<roleSpec>
<topicRef xlink:href="#referred-from"></topicRef>
</roleSpec>
<topicRef xlink:href="#BCL-SK2"></topicRef>
</member>
<member>
<roleSpec>
<topicRef xlink:href="#referred-to"></topicRef>
</roleSpec>
<topicRef xlink:href="#IKI-SK2"></topicRef>
</member>
</association>
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Conclusions 1
• TM creates coherence within the catalogues
• TMs are scalable 1: new catalogues can be included
• TMs are scalable 2: new associations ad libitum
• User friendliness: limit your search to a single subject
in one catalogue or extend it to more subjects in more
catalogues.
• Are scalable 3: subject specific thesauri can be added
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Conclusions 2
Off spin without a topicmaps engine:
• subject hierarchy added to the online database
• subject search through different formats
• searchable catalogues as html-pages
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