Rome Wasn't Digitized in a Day - Council on Library and Information ...

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is created of the entire bibliography; this is then uploaded <strong>in</strong>to the database where it can be searched by
author of the scholarly work, full text (of the abstract), ancient author and text that is referenced, and
subject and discipl<strong>in</strong>e. Currently, the APh <strong>in</strong>cludes bibliographic records for works published through
2008. It is available through subscription.
Two freely available bibliographic databases also exist for classical studies. Gnomon Onl<strong>in</strong>e 25 is
ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong>ed by Jürgen Malitz of Catholic University Eichstatt-Ingolstadt and Gregor Weber of the
University of Augsburg. Its ma<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>terface is <strong>in</strong> German, and the bibliographic metadata <strong>in</strong> the
database can be searched or browsed by a thesaurus. TOCS-IN 26 provides access to the tables of
contents from about 185 journals (and thus more than 45,000 articles) <strong>in</strong> classics, Near Eastern Studies,
and religion, both <strong>in</strong> a text format and through a web program. Accord<strong>in</strong>g to the website, access is
provided to full-text articles about 15 percent of the time. TOCS-IN is an entirely volunteer project that
began to archive tables of contents <strong>in</strong> 1992 and is currently managed by PMW Matheson <strong>in</strong> Toronto.
Some 80 volunteers from 16 countries contribute tables of contents to this service. TOCS-IN can be
either searched or browsed.
The digital environment has provided a useful way of updat<strong>in</strong>g and provid<strong>in</strong>g access to bibliographies.
One of the oldest bibliographies onl<strong>in</strong>e is Abzu, 27 which s<strong>in</strong>ce 1994 has provided a guide to
“networked open access data relevant to the study and public presentation of the Ancient Near East and
the Ancient Mediterranean world.” Charles E. Jones, head librarian at ISAW, manages Abzu, and
resources <strong>in</strong>clude websites as well as open-access electronic publications. The collection can either be
browsed by author or searched by a variety of criteria.
Another significant onl<strong>in</strong>e bibliography is the “Checklist of Greek, Lat<strong>in</strong>, Demotic and Coptic Papyri,
Ostraca and Tablets,” 28 which was created to provide for both librarians and scholars a comprehensive
“bibliography of all monographic volumes, both current and out-of-pr<strong>in</strong>t, of Greek, Lat<strong>in</strong>, Demotic and
Coptic documentary texts on papyrus, parchment, ostraca or wood tablets.” Accord<strong>in</strong>g to the website,
this checklist also sought to “establish a standard list of abbreviations for editions of Greek texts” and
thus serves as a convenient source for f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g the abbreviations used for various monograph
collections as well as a number of periodicals that are often required to fully decipher citations (e.g.,
BKT = Berl<strong>in</strong>er Klassikertexte).
A major bibliography regard<strong>in</strong>g the reception of classical texts 29 by later authors is “The Traditio
Classicorum,” 30 created by Charles H. Lahr of the University of Freiburg. Available <strong>in</strong> German and
English, this website conta<strong>in</strong>s “a bibliography of secondary literature concern<strong>in</strong>g the fortuna of
classical authors to the year 1650.” The bibliography is arranged by the common Lat<strong>in</strong> names of
authors (whether the author wrote <strong>in</strong> Arabic, Greek, or Lat<strong>in</strong>) and the entries for authors have been
divided <strong>in</strong>to general works with specific titles arranged chronologically.
The LDAB (Leuven Database of Ancient Books), 31 now a participant <strong>in</strong> the Trismegistos portal, also
supports research <strong>in</strong>to the reception of classical texts. This database collects basic <strong>in</strong>formation on
25 http://www.gnomon.ku-eichstaett.de/Gnomon/en/Gnomon.html
26 http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/amphoras/tocs.html
27 http://www.etana.org/abzu/
28 http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/papyrus/texts/clist.html
29 Another project that explores the cont<strong>in</strong>u<strong>in</strong>g reception of classical texts, albeit with a focus on classical drama, is the Archive of Performances of Greek
and Roman Drama Database (http://www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/database.htm), which “offers <strong>in</strong>formation on more than 9,000 productions of ancient Greek and
Roman drama performed <strong>in</strong>ternationally on stage, screen, and radio from the Renaissance to the present day.”
30 http://www.theol.uni-freiburg.de/forschung/projekte/tcdt/<strong>in</strong>dex_en.html
31 http://www.trismegistos.org/ldab/<strong>in</strong>dex.php