The second part of my project, after getting the manuscripts all loaded into the Internet Archive BookReader, is to build a more extensive catalog for the manuscripts in Omeka. Eventually I’m going to experiment with some scholarly tools as well (I’m particularly interested in Scripto, which enables crowdsourced transcription, and the just released today Neatline, which supports temporal and geographic research) but for now I’m most interested in getting descriptive metadata out of the manuscript descriptions and into Omeka, where they can be searched and explored.
Tonight I generated a csv file from one of the Walters manuscripts (using XSLT), and then used the Omeka CSV plugin to import that data. I wasn’t really careful about mapping the fields (I’m using extended Dublin Core in Omeka), I’ll probably go back and take another look to make sure I’m mapping to the best DC fields. For now, I’m most interested in making sure the workflow is effective. So far, it’s great.
I’m using another plugin in Omeka that allows for hierarchical collections, so I’ve created one main collection, Digital Walters, and currently one subcollection, for manuscripts that are described according to their decoration rather than their textual divisions. I will create a second subcollection for those described according to textual divisions. I expect there are some (probably several) that have both extensive decoNote sections and msContents sections… I’ll deal with that when I get to it (ah, one benefit of experimenting, I don’t have to have all the answers before I start!).
For now, however, enjoy!