CERL-Bernstein Collaboration

This page describes the collaboration topics between the Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL) and the Bernstein project.

The main collaboration topics are:

1. GIS applications
2. Relating paper data to incunabula non-geographical data
3. Future projects opportunities

Meetings

• 2009.02.20 Telemeeting
  • discussion on possible collaboration on visual exploration methods for CERL
    • a GIS prototype to be implemented shortly
  • CERL will offer in its next interface release (summer 2009) a webservice for imprint names outputting jsonp formatted data for display on the Bernstein GIS webservice
  • about 2/3 of CERL placenames could be georeferenced using the Dalek georeferences provided by Bernstein
  • participants: Vlad Atanasiu (Bernstein), Alexander Jahnke, Marian Lefferts (CERL)
• 2009.02.09 The Hague, Netherlands
  • presentation of the Bernstein GIS Atlas and webservice
  • presentation of CERL and Bernstein future plans
  • possible common actions:
    • visual exploration methods of CERL data
    • georeferencing of CERL data and mapping functionalities
    • placenames variants webservice
  • participants: Vlad Atanasiu (Bernstein), Marian Lefferts (CERL)
• 2007.10.04 The Hague, Netherlands
  • presentations of CERL and Bernstein
  • sorting out what could be useful for each party
  • CERL: recieveing georeferences (coordinates and region names)
  • Bernstein: access to a CERL webservice for placenames variants
  • participants: CERL: Alexander Jahnke, Marian Lefferts, David Shaw; Bernstein: Vlad Atanasiu, Marike van Delft

Documents

• Description of Bernstein GIS data: part 1, part 2
• Bernstein georeferences: GisServices > Datasets > Dalek

Work areas

Homonymy support for textual searches in GIS

If a user makes a textual search on a placename he is most likely to use the name of the place as it is known in his native language. A French speaker will use 'Vienne', a Geman 'Wien', a Hungarian 'Bec', etc. These homonymus variants are stored in CERL databases and Bernstein could make use of them.

The software process supporting this functionality is as follows:

• on a Bernstein webpage the user makes a request for information on a placename
• the Bernstein server send a request to the CERL server for a list of variants of the user's placename
• the CERL server sends back a list of variants with geographical coordinates, in the case of homonyms classified by location
• the user choses the place(s) he is interested in from the list
• the Bernstein server provides him with the available information

Interestingly, the 'user' can be a human or a software, like another database wanting paper information related to some place.

This functionality could be extended to the whole Bernstein Intergrated Workspace for searches on all the content, not just the GIS application.

Listing place names associated to imprint names

Part of the records in the Bernstein databases contain imprint names (of printers or publishers). By clicking on such a name, the CERL server could generate a list of places with which these individuals are associated in the CERL databases and send it to the Bernstein server. The user would be provided with this list in tabuar form and/or as a map.

Georeferencing

CERL placenames are enhanced with coordinates. On the CERL webpage the users have the option to see a map of location as soon as a palcenames list is generated, or they need to click on a link to get the map. The map can be generated by Bernstein or by other software, such as GoogleMaps^?.

Listing placenames associated to imprint names

A record on an imprint name contains also a list of placenames and/or a map (if data is available showing also timelines) associated to the imprint name.

Providing variants of imprint names for the incunabula records

Whenever an imprint name is present in a Bernstein record, a link on it to CERL could generate a list of variants for the imprint name, as well as a list of associated placenames and a map thereof.

Linking CERL records to ISTC

CERL users could be linked to ISTC via Bernstein. Bernstein gives the ISTC number for incunabula (presently only in WILC) and there is a software (hard)link between the two. If a name is provided for an incunabula in Bernstein, then it can be found also in CERL. Thus a limited - but automated! - link can be established between CERL and ISTC.

-- VladAtanasiu - updated: 2008.02.12, created: 07 Oct 2007