In message <[log in to unmask]>,
DAVID HEMMING <[log in to unmask]> writes
>I‚m writing on behalf of a small, volunteer-run town museum. We have
>about 8000 pages worth of text, perhaps half of which are available in
>Word format, documenting all aspects of the history of the town of
>Wallingford. These pages are currently in various physical folders in
>filing cabinet and include excerpts from wills, council minutes,
>miscellaneous reports and academic studies. What we want to do is
>create a searchable database for this information to make it easier to
>use as a research tool.
We‚d be very grateful for any examples of best practice from other
museums/collections.
This sounds like a classic "grey literature" project. While you can get
useful guidance on handling this type of information from MDA's SPECTRUM
Knowledge, you may not find that many real-life projects.
The Wordsworth Trust is starting on a project to transcribe letters
using ModesXML, which might be of interest. They are using the standard
object cataloguing application to record an analysed summary of each
letter, and a separate TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) application to
hold the complete transcript, where one exists.
They plan to use the TEI-OO filter for Open Office to save existing Word
transcriptions directly into TEI format.
All records are stored in XML, as suggested by other respondents.
Richard Light
--
Richard Light
SGML/XML and Museum Information Consultancy
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Don't forget the Autumn meeting: 16 November, Natural History Museum, London
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