PhiloBiblon: From Siloed Databases to Linked Open Data via Wikibase: Proof of Concept
Charles Faulhaber
PhiloBiblon is a database of the Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Galician primary sources, both MS and printed, for the study of medieval Iberian culture, along with the texts they contain, the individuals involved with the production and transmission of those sources and texts, and the libraries holding them, along with relevant secondary references and authority files for persons, places, and institutions. It currently contains over 415,000 records.
This NEH-supported pilot project is intended to demonstrate that a Wikibase platform, as instantiated in Wikidata, would position PhiloBiblon to take advantage of current and future semantic web developments and decrease long-term sustainability costs. Moreover, we hope to demonstrate that this project can serve as a model for low-cost light-weight database development for similar academic projects with limited resources.
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Charles Faulhaber is the interim director of UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library. He previously served as director of the Bancroft Library for 16 years until his retirement as in 2011. He is also a professor emeritus of medieval Spanish literature.
Contact
If you have questions about this event, please contact Michael Buckland.
