READ | Recognition and
Enrichment of Archival Data

2. Mission

READ | Recognition and
Enrichment of Archival Data

2. Mission

• increase accessibility of archival documents
• revolutionise Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR)
• establish Virtual Research Environments (VRE)

READ | Recognition and
Enrichment of Archival Data

3. Target User Groups

READ | Recognition and
Enrichment of Archival Data

3. Target User Groups

• Memory Institutions

READ | Recognition and
Enrichment of Archival Data

3. Target User Groups

• Memory Institutions
  • Archives
  • Libraries
  • Museums

READ | Recognition and
Enrichment of Archival Data

3. Target User Groups

• Memory Institutions
• Humanities Scholars
• Computer Scientists
• public users & volunteers (crowd-sourcing)

READ | Recognition and
Enrichment of Archival Data

4. READ | Tools

READ | Recognition and
Enrichment of Archival Data

4. READ | Tools

Transkribus

ScanREAD

e-Learning-App

READ | Recognition and
Enrichment of Archival Data

4. READ | Tools

Transkribus

ScanREAD

e-Learning-App

• utility app for digitisation of archival documents

READ | Recognition and
Enrichment of Archival Data

4. READ | Tools

Transkribus

ScanREAD

e-Learning-App

• utility app for digitisation of archival documents

• software intended to help users decipher historical handwritings

READ | Recognition and
Enrichment of Archival Data

4. READ | Tools

Transkribus

ScanREAD

e-Learning-App

• utility app for digitisation of archival documents

• software intended to help users decipher historical handwritings

• text segmentation, automated transcriptions, writer hand retrieval
• trainable software which is intended for unsupervised use

READ | Recognition and
Enrichment of Archival Data

4. READ | Tools

Transkribus

• text segmentation, automated transcriptions, writer hand retrieval
• trainable software which is intended for unsupervised use

• Transkribus is part webservice, part locally installed software & GUI and still in developement (current version: beta 0.10.1)
• Registration to online platform and software installation is required (proper JAVA-Environment mandatory)

READ | Recognition and
Enrichment of Archival Data

4. READ | Tools

Transkribus

• text segmentation, automated transcriptions, writer hand retrieval
• trainable software which is intended for unsupervised use

• Transkribus is part webservice, part locally installed software & GUI and still in developement (current version: beta 0.10.1)
• Registration to online platform and software installation is required (proper JAVA-Environment mandatory)

In case Transkribus_beta is not running let us take a look at the How-to-Guide in order to understand the functions provided:

https://transkribus.eu/wiki/images/7/77/How_to_use_TRANSKRIBUS_-_10_steps.pdf

4. READ | Tools

https://www.slm.uni-hamburg.de/forschung/tagungen/angewandte-dh/downloads/praesentation-transkribus-muehlberger.pdf

READ | Recognition and
Enrichment of Archival Data

5. Approaching Archival Documents

5. Approaching Archival Documents

Musical Instruments Museum Leipzig, Inv.: 926

5. Approaching Archival Documents

- Violin Labels are basically little snippets of paper which were/are used to authenticate musical instruments from the Violin family

- they serve as sources of information for the evaluation of Violin instruments

- prints and other facsimile like those published by Paul de Wit gave rise to industrial use of fake labels in order to gain profit

- extensive research on these historical documents promises to help distinguish fake from original (labels - and maybe even instruments)

5. Approaching Archival Documents

5. Approaching Archival Documents

Musical Instruments Museum Leipzig, Inv.: 793

Musical Instruments Museum Leipzig, Inv.: 926

READ | Recognition and
Enrichment of Archival Data

5. Approaching Archival Documents

• identifying documents

READ | Recognition and
Enrichment of Archival Data

5. Approaching Archival Documents

• identifying documents
• digitisation
  • images identified:
    4356
  • signatures identified:
    11722

READ | Recognition and
Enrichment of Archival Data

5. Approaching Archival Documents

• identifying documents
• digitisation

=> apply READ's tools

READ | Recognition and
Enrichment of Archival Data

6. Enriching Violin Labels

6. Enriching Violin Labels

-storing Violin Labels digitally requires use of machine-readable formats like XML

6. Enriching Violin Labels

-storing Violin Labels digitally requires use of machine-readable formats like XML

-XML stands for Extensible Markup Language

6. Enriching Violin Labels

-storing Violin Labels digitally requires use of machine-readable formats like XML

-XML stands for Extensible Markup Language

-XML's greatest benefits compared to other markup languages:

• allows to create own vocabulary
• provides interoperability (docs can be edited in any text editor)
• readable by humans & machines

6. Enriching Violin Labels

-storing Violin Labels digitally requires use of machine-readable formats like XML

-XML stands for Extensible Markup Language

-XML's greatest benefits compared to other markup languages:

• allows to create own vocabulary
• provides interoperability (docs can be edited in any text editor)
• readable by humans & machines

XML-documents themselves only store or interchange information

6. Enriching Violin Labels

-storing Violin Labels digitally requires use of machine-readable formats like XML

-XML stands for Extensible Markup Language

-XML's greatest benefits compared to other markup languages:

• allows to create own vocabulary
• provides interoperability (docs can be edited in any text editor)
• readable by humans & machines

XML-documents themselves only store or transport information

XML seperates data/information from its representation

6. Enriching Violin Labels

-the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) provides guidelines & semi-standardised modules in order to allow collaborative research & assure high quality

How can TEI-modules help to enrich Violin Labels?

6. Enriching Violin Labels

-the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) provides guidelines & semi-standardised modules in order to allow collaborative research & assure high quality

How can TEI-modules help to enrich Violin Labels?

TEI-modules already contain a lot of elements that can be used to thoroughly describe Violin Labels in high quantities.

6. Enriching Violin Labels

-the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) provides guidelines & semi-standardised modules in order to allow collaborative research & assure high quality

How can TEI-modules help to enrich Violin Labels?

TEI-modules already contain a lot of elements that can be used to thoroughly describe Violin Labels in high quantities.

How could TEI-XML encoding work on Violin Labels?

7. Encoding Violin Labels

READ | Recognition and
Enrichment of Archival Data

7. Encoding Violin Labels

- XML is relatively easy

- follows the same syntactic rules as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)

validate the document

elements are put in brackets "<" & ">" and are formed with an opening tag (<tag>) and a closing tag (</tag>)

7. Encoding Violin Labels

- XML is relatively easy

- follows the same syntactic rules as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)

validate the document

elements are put in brackets "<" & ">" and are formed with an opening tag (<tag>) and a closing tag (</tag>)

- there are lots of online resource that provide aid when learning to encode in XML

W3Schools:

http://www.w3schools.com/xml/

Tutorialspoint:

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/xml/

Youtube Tutorials (my favourite: Derek Banas):

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBB413675AFBDC1F4

hierarchical document structure

7. Encoding Violin Labels

- XML is relatively easy

- follows the same syntactic rules as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)

validate the document

elements are put in brackets "<" & ">" and are formed with an opening tag (<tag>) and a closing tag (</tag>)

- there are lots of online resource that provide aid when learning to encode in XML

W3Schools:

http://www.w3schools.com/xml/

Tutorialspoint:

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/xml/

Youtube Tutorials (my favourite: Derek Banas):

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBB413675AFBDC1F4

hierarchical document structure

well formed documents

7. Encoding Violin Labels

- well formed documents -

<!-- Write comments like this to keep track of your work! -->

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<body>
    <div>
        <element>Element names are case sensitive in XML! This Element is not well formed.</Element>
        <!-- The tagging above would produce an error because the contents of opening and closing tag differ. -->
    </div>
    <div>
        <table>I mean furniture not tabular data.</table>
        <!-- The tagging above might be well formed but its content/intent conflicts with HTML vocabulary and is     therefore invalid. -->
    </div>
</body>

correct syntax = well formed

7. Encoding Violin Labels

- valid documents -

- a XML document validated against either a Document Type Declaration (DTD) or a Schema is both well formed and valid

7. Encoding Violin Labels

- valid documents | DTD -

<!-- Write comments like this to keep track of your work! -->

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!-- The followong is an example of the content of a fictional external DTD file "violinLabel.dtd":

<!DOCTYPE violinLabel
[
<!ELEMENT violinLabel (name, term, location, year)>
<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT term (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT location (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT year (#PCDATA)>
]>

-->
<!-- The following is a reference to the external DTD file mentioned above -->

<!DOCTYPE violinLabel SYSTEM "violinLabel.dtd">
<!-- We will discuss the flaws of the following XML document. -->

<violinLabel>
    <name>Sympertus Niggell</name>
    <term>Geigen- und Lauten- Macher in</term>
    <location>Füssen</location>
    <year>1791</year>
</violinLabel>

Musical Instruments Museum Leipzig, Inv.: 926

7. Encoding Violin Labels

- valid documents | DTD -

<!-- Write comments like this to keep track of your work! -->

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE violinLabel SYSTEM "violinLabel.dtd">
<!-- We will discuss the flaws of the following XML document. -->

<violinLabel>
    <name>Sympertus Niggell</name>
    <term>Geigen- und Lauten- Macher in</term>
    <location>Füssen</location>
    <year>1791</year>
</violinLabel>

Musical Instruments Museum Leipzig, Inv.: 926

Flaws:

• does not include "," and other characters
• does not distinguish between printed and handwritten text
• does not describe material properties of the Violin Label
• does not reference existing resources

7. Encoding Violin Labels

- valid documents | DTD vs Schema -

- major disadvantage of DTD validation:

decreased flexibility of used elements

Schemas provide a powerful and XML-based alternative to DTD!

- advantageous due to allowing XML documents to carry their own format descriptions

7. Encoding Violin Labels

- valid documents | Schema -

Schemas provide a powerful and XML-based alternative to DTD!

- advantageous due to allowing XML documents to carry their own format descriptions

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Although more flexible, there are still flaws to discuss. -->
<xs:element name="violinLabel">

<xs:complexType>
  <xs:sequence>
    <xs:element name="name" type="xs:string"/>
    <xs:element name="term" type="xs:string"/>
    <xs:element name="location" type="xs:string"/>
    <xs:element name="year" type="xs:string"/>
  </xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>

</xs:element>

Flaws:

• does still not include "," and other characters
• does still not distinguish between printed and handwritten text
• does still not describe material properties of the Violin Label
• does still not reference existing resources

7. Encoding Violin Labels

- valid documents -

- in scientific contexts TEI-XML modules have proven useful

As outlined on the handout "TEI-XML & Violin Labels" I identified the following modules as useful for the description of Violin Labels: