Closed thehabes closed 9 years ago
Home page
The drop down list of indexes is does not contain the right options. At the moment several options
are duplicated
The option list should read:
All Indexes
Catalogues
{list of catalogues}
Repositories
{list of repositories}
Right now the list of options is being generated by a set of three queries. The first query should just
return ‘all indexes’ but perhaps it is returning the full set of possible results? That is what is causing
the duplication (I believe).
I am going to offer you some text to show when people click on the links on the main home page:
About Page
The seals and scholars
Hundreds of thousands of seals survive from medieval Europe, and they provide unique and
important information. A seal is ‘a mark of authority or ownership, pressed in relief upon a plastic
material by the impact of a matrix or die-engraved intaglio’. Men and women from all levels of
society used seals to validate documents, but also to make statements about their family
connections, social aspirations and personal values. Seals incorporate both text and images so they
are powerful tools of expression. In a period starved of evidence concerning the individual, seals
offer insight into identity, and expose regional and local cultural variations. The advent of digital
technology offers an unprecedented and exciting opportunity to harness the extraordinary potential
of this unique historical resource.
Today medieval seals are preserved in archives and museums across the British Isles where they are
often prominently and proudly displayed as iconic monuments of artistic and cultural heritage.
However, they remain poorly understood because there is no central place where researchers and
members of the general public can turn for information. This is partly because much of the
information is trapped in outdated and unstandardized formats. Many institutions began
cataloguing their collections in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, well before the advent of
electronic data management systems. The result is that we now have information in a wide variety
of formats ranging from card indexes, to printed catalogues, to electronic databases.
Scholars have long argued that to realize the full potential of sigillographic information, these
datasets need to be integrated. We have now reached the point where the technology makes this
entirely feasible, so sigillography has reached a critical juncture. The challenge is no longer
technological, but rather conceptual. The shift to a digital format offers an opportunity to investigate
the potential of new types of catalogues and indexes that enable novel ways of accessing the
materials, while also facilitating access for both scholars and the public.
DigiSig
DigiSig is an experimental digital humanities project which brings together a number of major
datasets, produced by the archives, museums, and the higher education sectors, that are publicly
accessible and extensively used by the public and academic researchers. These datasets have been
reconfigured, enhanced and integrated, so that can be searched in concert, and photographs added,
where possible. The system enables users to access sigillographic information in traditional ways,
but in a novel format.
The author
John McEwan BA (University of Western Ontario), MA PhD (Royal Holloway, University of London)
specializes in the political, social and cultural history of medieval Britain. His research focuses on
social organization, local government, and visual culture in London, c.1100-1350. He is involved in a
number of projects that investigate the application of electronic data management tools, including
geographic information systems, to the analysis of medieval sources. Among his recent publications
are: ‘Making a mark in medieval London: the social and economic status of seal-makers, c.1200-
1350', in Seals and their Context in the Middle Ages (2015), 'The politics of financial accountability:
auditing the chamberlain in London c.1298-1349', in Hiérarchie des Pouvoirs, Délégation de Pouvoir
et Responsabilité des Administrateurs dans L’Antiquité et au Moyen Âge (2012), and ‘The aldermen
of London, c.1200-80: Alfred Beaven revisited’, Transactions of the London and Middlesex
Archaeological Society (2012). His current book project is concerned with the formation, articulation
and expression of collective identities in thirteenth-century London.
Acknowledgements
This project was made possible by the generous support of a large number of scholars and
repositories who have offered both guidance and advice, as well as data and special access to the
historical materials. The project was carried out in 2014-15 at the Centre for Digital Humanities at St
Louis University, Missouri thanks to a fellowship provided by the Wash Allen foundation. The author
wishes to thank all the members the centre's web development team, as well as James Ginther and
Debra Cashions, for their support throughout the year.
Contact page
case 'contact': {
echo "<br>" . "<br>Center for Digital Humanities
Pius XII Memorial Library, 324 AB Tower
Saint Louis University
3650 Lindell Blvd
St. Louis, MO 63103
http://slu.academia.edu/JohnMcEwan";}
Pages have been populated
thehabes
commented
9 years ago
Home page
The drop down list of indexes is does not contain the right options. At the moment several options
are duplicated
The option list should read:
All Indexes
Catalogues
{list of catalogues}
Repositories
{list of repositories}
Right now the list of options is being generated by a set of three queries. The first query should just
return ‘all indexes’ but perhaps it is returning the full set of possible results? That is what is causing
the duplication (I believe).
I am going to offer you some text to show when people click on the links on the main home page:
About Page
The seals and scholars
Hundreds of thousands of seals survive from medieval Europe, and they provide unique and
important information. A seal is ‘a mark of authority or ownership, pressed in relief upon a plastic
material by the impact of a matrix or die-engraved intaglio’. Men and women from all levels of
society used seals to validate documents, but also to make statements about their family
connections, social aspirations and personal values. Seals incorporate both text and images so they
are powerful tools of expression. In a period starved of evidence concerning the individual, seals
offer insight into identity, and expose regional and local cultural variations. The advent of digital
technology offers an unprecedented and exciting opportunity to harness the extraordinary potential
of this unique historical resource.
Today medieval seals are preserved in archives and museums across the British Isles where they are
often prominently and proudly displayed as iconic monuments of artistic and cultural heritage.
However, they remain poorly understood because there is no central place where researchers and
members of the general public can turn for information. This is partly because much of the
information is trapped in outdated and unstandardized formats. Many institutions began
cataloguing their collections in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, well before the advent of
electronic data management systems. The result is that we now have information in a wide variety
of formats ranging from card indexes, to printed catalogues, to electronic databases.
Scholars have long argued that to realize the full potential of sigillographic information, these
datasets need to be integrated. We have now reached the point where the technology makes this
entirely feasible, so sigillography has reached a critical juncture. The challenge is no longer
technological, but rather conceptual. The shift to a digital format offers an opportunity to investigate
the potential of new types of catalogues and indexes that enable novel ways of accessing the
materials, while also facilitating access for both scholars and the public.
DigiSig
DigiSig is an experimental digital humanities project which brings together a number of major
datasets, produced by the archives, museums, and the higher education sectors, that are publicly
accessible and extensively used by the public and academic researchers. These datasets have been
reconfigured, enhanced and integrated, so that can be searched in concert, and photographs added,
where possible. The system enables users to access sigillographic information in traditional ways,
but in a novel format.
The author
John McEwan BA (University of Western Ontario), MA PhD (Royal Holloway, University of London)
specializes in the political, social and cultural history of medieval Britain. His research focuses on
social organization, local government, and visual culture in London, c.1100-1350. He is involved in a
number of projects that investigate the application of electronic data management tools, including
geographic information systems, to the analysis of medieval sources. Among his recent publications
are: ‘Making a mark in medieval London: the social and economic status of seal-makers, c.1200-
1350', in Seals and their Context in the Middle Ages (2015), 'The politics of financial accountability:
auditing the chamberlain in London c.1298-1349', in Hiérarchie des Pouvoirs, Délégation de Pouvoir
et Responsabilité des Administrateurs dans L’Antiquité et au Moyen Âge (2012), and ‘The aldermen
of London, c.1200-80: Alfred Beaven revisited’, Transactions of the London and Middlesex
Archaeological Society (2012). His current book project is concerned with the formation, articulation
and expression of collective identities in thirteenth-century London.
Acknowledgements
This project was made possible by the generous support of a large number of scholars and
repositories who have offered both guidance and advice, as well as data and special access to the
historical materials. The project was carried out in 2014-15 at the Centre for Digital Humanities at St
Louis University, Missouri thanks to a fellowship provided by the Wash Allen foundation. The author
wishes to thank all the members the centre's web development team, as well as James Ginther and
Debra Cashions, for their support throughout the year.
Contact page
case 'contact': {
Pius XII Memorial Library, 324 AB Tower
Saint Louis University
3650 Lindell Blvd
St. Louis, MO 63103
http://slu.academia.edu/JohnMcEwan";}