The Royal Library, Denmark

1
The Royal Library, Denmark

• - Copenhagen University Library since 1482
• - The Kings Library since 1660
• - National Deposit Library since 1697
• - Public Library since 1793
• - 150 kilometres printed matters
• electronic databases and periodicals
• 500 employees
• -------------------------------------
• Henrik Laursen, research librarian (hhl_at_kb.dk)
• - Mads Henriksen, bachelor in philosophy
  (mhe_at_kb.dk)

2
The incentive

• Subject catalogues from many merged libraries
• Subject catalogues from many periods
• Some subject catalogues are also shelf lists -
• with 3 sub-catalogues for different formats
• Historical knowledge is a prerequisite
• The project files includes 3 catalogues
• Foreign books catalogue from 1486 1950
• Systematic catalogue 1 1950 1995
• Systematic catalogue 2 1995 ?

3
Why now?

• Retro-digitalization
• The foreign books catalogue from 1486 1950 is
  under digitalization. The books are searchable by
  author, title and shelf number. But not by
  subject. The catalogue covers 400.000 books.

4
The means

• Topic maps
• Topic is in our case the subject classification.
  The topics are scoped in Danish, English,
  alternative name, alternative spelling and
  classification code .
• Occurrence is a search-string in the online
  library base for books with the specific
  classification. Other occurrences could be
  references to online reference works.
• Associations are in the project limited to two
  types
• Super-subclass and Search also

5
The conversion process

• OCR of the typewritten catalogues using
  FineReader in count spaces-mode
• proofreading, esp. correcting indentation
• running a perlscript that catches the
  hierarchical structure of the catalogues and
  prints a XML file
• the resulting topicmap conforms to the ISO
  standard following the XTM1.dtd, the XML
  interchange syntax for ISO 13250 Topic Maps)

6
The 3-format catalogue
7
Topic example

• lttopic id"BYH-SK2"gt
• ltinstanceOfgtlttopicRef xlinkhref"sk2"/gtlt/instanc
  eOfgt
• ltinstanceOfgtlttopicRef xlinkhref"filosofi"/gtlt/in
  stanceOfgt
• ltbaseNamegtltscopegtlttopicRef xlinkhref"da"/gtlt/sco
  pegt
• ltbaseNameStringgtEtiklt/baseNameStringgtlt/baseNamegt
• ltbaseNamegtltscopegtlttopicRef xlinkhref"en"/gtlt/sco
  pegt
• ltbaseNameStringgtEthicslt/baseNameStringgtlt/baseNamegt
  
• ltbaseNamegtltscopegtlttopicRef xlinkhref"alternativ
  "/gtlt/scopegt
• ltbaseNameStringgtMorallt/baseNameStringgtlt/baseNamegt
• ltbaseNamegtltscopegtlttopicRef xlinkhref"signatur"/
  gtlt/scopegt
• ltbaseNameStringgtBClt/baseNameStringgtlt/baseNamegt
• ltoccurrencegt
• ltresourceRef xlinkhref"https//rex.kb.dk/F?func
  find-camplocal_basekgl01ampccl_termwklBYH"/
  gt
• lt/occurrencegtlt/topicgt

8
Association example

• ltassociation id"BCL-IKI-SK2"gt
• ltinstanceOfgt
• lttopicRef xlinkhref"see-also"gtlt/topicRefgt
• lt/instanceOfgt
• ltmembergt
• ltroleSpecgt
• lttopicRef xlinkhref"referred-from"gtlt/topicRefgt
• lt/roleSpecgt
• lttopicRef xlinkhref"BCL-SK2"gtlt/topicRefgt
• lt/membergt
• ltmembergt
• ltroleSpecgt
• lttopicRef xlinkhref"referred-to"gtlt/topicRefgt
• lt/roleSpecgt
• lttopicRef xlinkhref"IKI-SK2"gtlt/topicRefgt
• lt/membergt
• lt/associationgt

9
Conclusions 1

• TM creates coherence within the catalogues
• TMs are scalable 1 new catalogues can be
  included
• TMs are scalable 2 new associations ad libitum
• User friendliness limit your search to a single
  subject in one catalogue or extend it to more
  subjects in more catalogues.
• Are scalable 3 subject specific thesauri can be
  added

10
Conclusions 2

• Off spin without a topicmaps engine
• subject hierarchy added to the online database
• subject search through different formats
• searchable catalogues as html-pages