1. What types of information does the Handschriftenportal provide?
2. Which manuscript (collections) does the portal provide infomartion on?
3. Functionality of the web portal
4. Presenting data in the portal
5. Reusing data from the portal
6. Information on data providing projects
Do you have any feedback for us?

1. What types of information does the Handscrhiftenportal provide? ↑

The Handschriftenportal (HSP) will be continuously developed and modified over the next few years. Currently, the development project is in its second DFG funding phase. You can learn more about what is planned in this phase of the project here.

When going live in June 2023, the HSP will offer you the following range of services.

Manuscript overview page (manuscript representation)

Each manuscript as a physical object is represented in the HSP with a technical identifier and a set of identifying basic data. This data set serves as an anchor for manuscript descriptions and digital copies.

The basic data can be derived from different descriptions and is dynamic in its content in order to reflect the current state of knowledge.

Manuscript descriptions (indexing data)

The description of a manuscript reflects the state of knowledge at a certain point in time. In order to be able to document the changing knowledge, it is possible in the HSP to add as many descriptions per manuscript as desired, from brief catalog data to abridged versions to detailed scholarly catalog records.

The manuscript descriptions in the HSP are either primarily documents created in a data environment or converted from printed manuscript catalogs. Primarily entered descriptions are displayed as purely electronic texts, originally printed descriptions as a digital copy of the catalog (with deposited fulltext).

Digitized manuscripts

The HSP does not host digitized materials, but gives the opportunity of acting as a central repository to display what is presented digitally by holding institutions. IIIF-compliant material can be integrated directly into the HSP working environment.

2. Which manuscript (collections) does the portal provide infomartion on? ↑

You can see the daily current HSP offer of manuscript information here.

An overview of the currently available manuscript descriptions and the further planned provision packages, sorted by owning institutions, can be found here.

The current updates of the dataset are documented in the release notes.

The previous central online catalog for manuscripts Manuscripta Mediaevalia will be closed down in the course of 2023. The HSP will provide sufficient advance notice of the exact date of the shutdown. The data stored in Manuscripta Mediaevalia will be transferred to the HSP. Permalinks from Manuscripta Mediaevalia will be redirected to the corresponding documents in the HSP.

3. Functionality of the web portal ↑

Search

Currently available:

• Basic search: fuzzy search, similar to Google
• Search in categories: Shelfmark, Fulltext, Basic data, Place of origin, Name (person), Work title, Incipit, Explicit.
• Exact search using enclosure in quotation marks (“XXXX”), truncation options with wildcards: Question mark (? = 1 character unknown) or asterisk (* = any number of characters unknown).

Advanced search: will be implemented during the second project phase

Result list

• Ranking of search results: Default setting “Sort by relevance”, can be switched to “Sort by Date of origin ascending/descending” or “Sort by Shelfmark (A-Z/Z-A)”; the ranking algorithm will be improved continuously.
• Filters: The currently provided filter categories in the filter at the top of the result list correspond to the current state of data preparation and will be extended in the second project phase.
• Saving searches and search results will be implemented in the second project phase.

Viewer

Manuscript descriptions, digitized manuscript catalogs, and digitized manuscript are displayed in the same environment, the “Workspace” ( icon in the left sidebar).

Digitized manuscripts can be integrated in the workspace if they are provided IIIF-capable by institutions. If not, a link leads into the presentation system of the institution hosting the digitized material. Any other IIIF-capable digitized materials from the worldwide supply can also be loaded into the HSP workspace.

Download options within the workspace will be implemented in the second phase of the project.

Persistent identifiers

All manuscript overview pages (Manuscript representation) and all primarily electronic manuscript descriptions are provided with permalinks (  button top right).

Digitized manuscripts and manuscript descriptions from digitized printed catalogs can also be addressed with a direct link (button top right).

Persistent urls of the digital images can be found at the institutions’ websites primarily providing the digitized material. The HSP supplies links to those hosting sites on the manuscript overview page.

Authority data

Authority data are already integrated, but currently used primarily for background processing, e.g. for filters. They will be made available for search and display in the second project phase.

4. Presenting data in the portal ↑

Registering new manuscripts in the HSP

If you would like to submit manuscripts for new registration in the portal, please fill in the Excel list deposited here with the required information and send it to the editors of the HSP. The editors are also available for help and advice on filling it in. After sending the file, the HSP editors will initiate the registration of the manuscripts in the system.

Contact the HSP editors: handschriftenportal@sbb.spk-berlin.de  

Presenting manuscript descriptions in the HSP

In order to be able to import existing electronic manuscript descriptions into the HSP, these must correspond to the adapted TEI format of the portal. The HSP TEI is documented here. Please contact the HSP editors with your manuscript descriptions in TEI format and with any questions, by which the import is carried out. In the second phase of the project, the import options will be expanded to include a MARC21 interface.

Directly generating manuscript descriptions within the HSP system will be possible starting in the summer of 2024 via the “Erfassung,” which is currently under development. Until the productive “HSP-Erfassung” is available, the submission of descriptions via the previous Manuscripta Mediaevalia software ManuscriptumXML (MXML) can continue. MXML is available from the manuscript centers. On the website of the Manuscript centers you will find your responsible contact.

MXML data is migrated to the HSP by the HSP editors in release cycles of currently two months. Please contact the HSP editors if you are generating descriptions in MXML so that this data is considered when migrating to the HSP. Beginning in the summer of 2024, new data entry should only be done through the “HSP-Erfassung”.

Contact the HSP editors: handschriftenportal@sbb.spk-berlin.de 

Providing digitized manuscripts in the HSP

If you would like to provide digitized manuscripts in the portal, please fill in the Excel list deposited here with the required information and send it to the editors of the HSP. The editors are also available for help and advice on filling it in. The editors will take care of the input of the digitized material.

The digitized manuscripts themselves are generally not hosted by the HSP, but by the presenting institutions. For institutions that do not have their own presentation system, the HSP project group is developing services with hosting of the presentation data in the second project phase. Services for IIIF-based presentations are also offered by the HSP.

Contact the presentation services: handschriftenportal@sbb.spk-berlin.de 

Please note: The presentation of manuscript descriptions and digitized manuscripts in the HSP requires in any case that the manuscript has been registered in the system first.

5. Reusing data from the portal ↑

In order to be able to reuse data from the manuscript overview page as well as from manuscript descriptions outside the HSP, an OAI or SRU interface will be provided in the second project phase. The data will be available in TEI-XML and MARC21 formats.

For the automatic export of HSP authority data, a SPARQL API will be provided in the second project phase, supporting JSON-LD and XML format.

If you currently want to reuse data from the HSP, the HSP editors can provide it for you from the system.

Contact the HSP editors: handschriftenportal@sbb.spk-berlin.de 

Information on data provoding projects ↑

A separate site provides information about projects that expand and improve the HSP dataset

The template for the information needed to create a project page can be found here.

Contact: Annika Schröer, UB Leipzig – schroeer@ub.uni-leipzig.de 

Do you have any feedback for us? ↑

Please recah out to handschriftenportal@sbb.spk-berlin.de.