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

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(Research Archive for Ancient Sculpture-Cologne), 281 the Beazley Research Archive, 282 the Lexicon
Iconographicum Mythologicae Classicae (LIMC Basel 283 and LIMC Paris 284 ), the German
Archaeological Institute (DAI), 285 the LGPN (Lexicon of Greek Personal Names) 286 along with
several other partner projects.
All these found<strong>in</strong>g members have extensive data sets on antiquity <strong>in</strong> vary<strong>in</strong>g formats, with more than 2
million records collectively. To beg<strong>in</strong> with, Arachne is the “central object database” of the DAI and the
Archaeological Institute of the University of Cologne. While registration is required, this database
provides free access to hundreds of thousands of records on archaeological objects and their attributes,
<strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g a large number of digitized photographs (e.g., Roman and Greek antiquities, museum
artifacts, archaeological draw<strong>in</strong>gs) both from traditional publications that have been digitized and from
current archaeological digs. Arachne also provides access to a monument browser and has recently
launched the iDAi bookbrowser that “<strong>in</strong>tegrates documents <strong>in</strong> the object structure of Arachne,
provid<strong>in</strong>g direct l<strong>in</strong>ks between “real world” objects and their textual descriptions.” 287 This new tool
addresses the frequently stated desire of many digital classicists to better l<strong>in</strong>k the material and textual
records.
The Beazley Research Archive onl<strong>in</strong>e provides access to more than 20 databases of different types of
objects from classical antiquity (e.g., pottery, gems, sculpture, antiquaria, and <strong>in</strong>scriptions). Databases
can be searched <strong>in</strong>dividually or the entire archive can be searched at once through a general keyword
search. A variety of tools are also available for use <strong>in</strong> search<strong>in</strong>g this database, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g an illustrated
dictionary and a series of time l<strong>in</strong>es. Individual records for objects <strong>in</strong>clude extensive metadata such as
an object description, a full publication record, and images of the object. F<strong>in</strong>ally, both the LIMC Basel
and the LIMC Paris provide access to records and images of religious and mythological iconography
drawn from more than 2,000 museums and collections.
CLAROS is us<strong>in</strong>g the CIDOC-CRM 288 ontology to <strong>in</strong>tegrate these collections and is <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g the
LGPN to place classical “art <strong>in</strong> its ancient cultural context” and provide “a natural bridge to the large
and well developed epidoc community” (Kurtz et al. 2009). While data <strong>in</strong>tegration presents a number
of difficulties, the authors emphasize that:
A guid<strong>in</strong>g pr<strong>in</strong>ciple of CLAROS is that no partner should need to change the format of his data
to jo<strong>in</strong>. Each of the founder members uses different databases and front end programs for
enter<strong>in</strong>g, query<strong>in</strong>g and display<strong>in</strong>g results through their own websites. Data have been exported
from each partner <strong>in</strong>to a common CIDOC CRM format (Kurtz et al. 2009).
Consequently, this approach presents the challenge of provid<strong>in</strong>g a “data web” that supports search<strong>in</strong>g
across multiple different collections while still permitt<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>dividual organizations to ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong> their
own databases with their own unique standards.
281 http://www.arachne.uni-koeln.de/
282 http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/
283 http://www.limcnet.org/Home/tabid/77/Default.aspx
284 http://www.mae.u-paris10.fr/limc-france/
285 http://www.da<strong>in</strong>st.org/
286 http://www.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/
287 http://www.arachne.uni-koeln.de/drupal/q=en/node/188
288 CIDOC-CRM is a conceptual reference model that “provides def<strong>in</strong>itions and a formal structure for describ<strong>in</strong>g the implicit and explicit concepts and
relationships used <strong>in</strong> cultural heritage documentation” (http://www.cidoc-crm.org/) and was designed to promote and support the use of a “common and
extensible semantic framework” by various cultural heritage organizations <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g museums, libraries and archives. For more on the CIDOC-CRM and
its potential for support<strong>in</strong>g semantic <strong>in</strong>teroperability between various digital resources and systems, see Doerr and Iorizzo (2008).