Bull's Head and Mermaid - The Bernstein Project - Österreichische ...
Bull's Head and Mermaid - The Bernstein Project - Österreichische ...
Bull's Head and Mermaid - The Bernstein Project - Österreichische ...
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MA for “Wasserzeichen des Mittelalters” of the Austrian<br />
Academy of Sciences in Vienna (www.ksbm.oeaw.ac.at/wz/wzma.php);<br />
<strong>and</strong> NIKI, the database of the Dutch University<br />
Institute for Art History Florence.<br />
<strong>The</strong> simple search <strong>and</strong> the advanced search each have<br />
their own search mask, as is common on all sites that offer<br />
a free text search. <strong>The</strong> simple search has a so-called Google<br />
slot that is used to search in all fields. In the advanced<br />
search, the user can freely choose <strong>and</strong> combine the individual<br />
fields <strong>and</strong> additionally, can navigate special search fields<br />
in the individual databases. As in Piccard-Online, in the<br />
<strong>Bernstein</strong>-Portal, it is possible to truncate watermark motifs<br />
<strong>and</strong> to query by means of an “<strong>and</strong>” or “or” search; this is<br />
augmented by a non-link. In addition, one can open dropdown<br />
menus to find indices in the various search fields, including<br />
motifs, location, archive, date, <strong>and</strong> card number, in<br />
order to select a search term (see Ill. 8).<br />
<strong>The</strong> query results are listed first in an abbreviated form,<br />
from which one can choose individual hits. Based on the<br />
defining parameters, this short list contains abridged metadata<br />
<strong>and</strong>, in some cases, thumbnails of the watermarks to<br />
give a first visual impression. In the single hit display, the exact<br />
metadata of the chosen watermark is given; from here<br />
one is able to return to the original database. In addition,<br />
one can generate additional statistical <strong>and</strong> geographical information.<br />
Integration of Piccard-Online<br />
into the <strong>Bernstein</strong>-Portal<br />
In order to integrate Piccard-Online into the <strong>Bernstein</strong>-<br />
Workspace it is necessary for the two to be terminologically<br />
<strong>and</strong> technologically correlated. Since the <strong>Bernstein</strong> collaboration<br />
partners decided to leave all data in their individual<br />
local servers, queries <strong>and</strong> responses are through the SRU interface.<br />
SRU st<strong>and</strong>s for “Search/Retrieval via URL” <strong>and</strong> is<br />
based on the Z 39.50 interface that is commonly used for library<br />
links, as for example the library portal Bibnetz<br />
(www.bibnetz.de). It was developed further for archival<br />
purposes <strong>and</strong> is already being used in a British archive portal<br />
(www.archiveshub.ac.uk/).<br />
In the <strong>Bernstein</strong>-Portal, a decentralised data administration<br />
is used instead of a data warehouse, an administration<br />
that has advantages <strong>and</strong> disadvantages. <strong>The</strong> main advantage<br />
of a decentralised data administration is that the sovereignty<br />
over the data remains in the individual institutions.<br />
<strong>The</strong> disadvantages include occasional slow responses for<br />
queries, consequences for the searches after possible data<br />
fields changes in the original databases, <strong>and</strong> result hits that<br />
are merely based on the databases’ lowest common denominator.<br />
In order to avoid such problems, a correlation at<br />
the terminological level has been worked out between Piccard-Online<br />
<strong>and</strong> WZMA <strong>and</strong> WILC, the so-called <strong>Bernstein</strong>-<br />
<strong>The</strong>saurus. It already exists in English, German, <strong>and</strong> French,<br />
<strong>and</strong> is just being translated into other languages, as for example<br />
into Russian.<br />
In addition to a unification of terminology, a prerequisite<br />
for an overall search in the databases is also a correlation<br />
between the databases or their comparable fields. <strong>The</strong><br />
overall goal is to develop a system for watermark classifica-<br />
106<br />
tion that allows the incorporation of new databases. In the<br />
<strong>Bernstein</strong>-Workspace, “Dublin Core Extended” is used to<br />
define the fields. In the participating databases WILC, WZ-<br />
MA <strong>and</strong> Piccard-Online, there are currently thirteen data<br />
fields that are underlying the <strong>Bernstein</strong>-Portal.<br />
Piccard-Online is a relational database <strong>and</strong> is based on a<br />
MySQL database. In order to be integrated in the <strong>Bernstein</strong>-<br />
Portal, the data model of Piccard-Online has been modified.<br />
A query from the <strong>Bernstein</strong>-Workspace uses CQL (Contextual<br />
Query Language), which is converted through the SRUgateway<br />
into SQL. <strong>The</strong> results from Piccard-Online are then<br />
presented in XML format from SQL over the SRU interface.<br />
In the process, the following specific data fields are mapped<br />
in the data query:<br />
Piccard-Online <strong>Bernstein</strong><br />
KartenNr Ref. Number<br />
Ueberschrift Motif<br />
Ueberschrift_en Motif<br />
Ueberschrift_fr Motif<br />
Abst<strong>and</strong>_Bindedrähte Distance of ChainLines<br />
Hoehe Height<br />
Ort Place<br />
Datierung_Anfang Date<br />
Datierung_Ende Date<br />
Herkunft_Archiv Depository<br />
Aussteller Creator<br />
Herkunft_Signatur Shelfmark<br />
Breite Width<br />
<strong>The</strong> planned hierarchical visual search in the <strong>Bernstein</strong>-Portal<br />
will result in some optical changes, since in contrast to<br />
the Piccard online classification of thirty-eight upper classes,<br />
in <strong>Bernstein</strong> it is thought to have, for the time being, twelve<br />
upper classes. <strong>The</strong> second level is divided into as many as<br />
ninety-nine lower classes. <strong>The</strong> reduction in number of upper<br />
<strong>and</strong> lower classes is based on already existing watermark<br />
collections that have influenced the <strong>Bernstein</strong> classification<br />
system. Nonetheless, the reduction of the upper<br />
classes in <strong>Bernstein</strong> does not result in Piccard-Online changing<br />
its normal hierarchy. <strong>The</strong> upper <strong>and</strong> lower classes are<br />
merely defined differently, such as the upper class “Lily” in<br />
Piccard-Online becoming a lower class of <strong>Bernstein</strong>’s classification<br />
“Flora”, to mention only one example.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Bernstein</strong>-Portal allows the user to undertake a systematic<br />
navigation as well as a meta-search of watermarks<br />
by means of the linked databases. During the search, the<br />
user should always be able to return to the original system,<br />
in order to have the possibility of seeing the conventional<br />
embedding of the watermark under consideration, or be<br />
able to evaluate its traditional classification as has arisen<br />
historically.<br />
C.P. (C.-P.-K.)