Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 16, No. 375.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
Submit to: humanist@princeton.edu
[1] From: cbf@socrates.Berkeley.EDU (37)
Subject: Re: 16.372 encoded text vs database?
[2] From: "Borovsky, Zoe" <zoe@humnet.ucla.edu> (39)
Subject: RE: 16.372 encoded text vs database?
--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 09 Dec 2002 07:51:16 +0000
From: cbf@socrates.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: Re: 16.372 encoded text vs database?
Willard asks:
> A technical question: what might be reliable criteria for determining when
> a given research problem involving textual data is approached with
> relational database technology, when with text encoding? A related
> non-technical question: how does one cultivate the ability to keep such
> questions always in mind? As has been said, we tend to view each thing
> as something to be hammered with the hammer in hand.
This is of more than theoretical interest for librarians and cataloguers.
Having used both database technology and text encoding for medieval
manuscript cataloguing. There is no question that databases allow much
more sophisticated query and sorting capabilities. Right now the text
encoded projects with which I am familiar only allow string searches,
sometimes within a given tag, but with no way to sort the output or do the
"find me all the MSS written in Florence between 1400 and 1450 on
parchment and with illustrations and sort them by author and date."
On the other hand, text encoding captures much better the messiness of the
data. I don't know positively, but I do not think it is possible to OCR a
printed text and then put it into a relational database without losing a
lot of the stuff that doesn't fit in any particular field. Text encoding
is quite good at this.
I know that Timino is making it possible to do database-like searching on
text encoded material, e.g., materials encoded using the Encoded Archival
Description format.
I'd love to have my cake and eat it, too.
Charles Faulhaber The Bancroft Library UC Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
(510) 642-3782 FAX (510) 642-7589 cfaulhab@library.berkeley.edu
>
>
> Yours,
> WM
>
>
> Dr Willard McCarty | Senior Lecturer | Centre for Computing in the
> Humanities | King's College London | Strand | London WC2R 2LS || +44 (0)20
> 7848-2784 fax: -2980 || willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk
> www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/wlm/
>
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 09 Dec 2002 07:52:15 +0000
From: "Borovsky, Zoe" <zoe@humnet.ucla.edu>
Subject: RE: 16.372 encoded text vs database?
a follow-up question:
does anyone know of a project/product that uses XML to mark up
bibliographies suitable for Web delivery/searching, etc?
i have found:
http://refdb.sourceforge.net/features.html
and this example of using BibTeX for markup and Glimpse as the search
function:
http://liinwww.ira.uka.de/bibliography/
i would be interested in finding other examples. --zoe
............................
Zoe Borovsky, PhD
Academic Services Manager
UCLA, Center for Digital Humanities
-----Original Message-----
From: Humanist Discussion Group
<willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk>)
To: humanist@Princeton.EDU
Sent: 12/7/2002 12:36 AM
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 16, No. 372.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
Submit to: humanist@princeton.edu
Date: Sat, 07 Dec 2002 07:54:34 +0000
From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk>
Subject: encoded text vs database?
A technical question: what might be reliable criteria for determining
when
a given research problem involving textual data is approached with
relational database technology, when with text encoding? A related
non-technical question: how does one cultivate the ability to keep such
questions always in mind? As has been said, we tend to view each thing
as something to be hammered with the hammer in hand.
Yours,
WM
Dr Willard McCarty | Senior Lecturer | Centre for Computing in the
Humanities | King's College London | Strand | London WC2R 2LS || +44
(0)20
7848-2784 fax: -2980 || willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk
www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/wlm/
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