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Authority Vocabularies

Support Through TEI Publisher Annotation

  • Airtable: Project-specific database
  • Anton: Project-specific database
  • Custom: Project-specific XML data (Suitable for retro-digitization, especially when an index already exists)
  • Geonames: Places (International and includes coordinates; name searche is better for English)
  • GND: Common Authority File (The standard in German-speaking countries, great for historical data and alternative spellings)
  • KBGA: Karl Barth Complete Edition
  • Metagrid (Connects with Swiss data sources)
  • Reconciliation: Internal data?

Out of the box, GND or Metagrid (with GND and Helveticat) can be used for annotating people.

Internal and External IDs

Annotations can theoretically consist of web links directly pointing to authority data, but the standard practice is to aggregate them into a local directory. A local directory protects against the loss of authority data and also makes the edition accessible offline.

An example from a letter by Gaston Paris:

The reference in the text points to an internal ID, which is based on the GND number and therefore unique.

<closer facs="#facs_1_TextRegion_1701785821837_2221" xml:space="preserve">
    <signed><lb facs="#facs_1_tr_1_tl_16" n="N001"/><rs type="person" ref="gnd-118789627">GParis</rs></signed>
</closer>

The index entry generated by TEI-Publisher with GND data links directly to the GND entry. At this point, additional authority data can be incorporated. The information in the index entry can be displayed either on the person's page or in a dropdown within the annotation.

<person xml:id="gnd-118789627" when="2024-04-29" resp="p4de">
    <persName type="main">Paris, Gaston</persName>
    <persName type="sort">Paris, Gaston</persName>
    <gender value="M">male</gender>
    <birth>
        <date when="1839-08-09"/>
    </birth>
    <death>
        <date when="1903-03-05"/>
        <placeName ref="https://d-nb.info/gnd/4009413-3">Cannes</placeName>
    </death>
    <note type="bio">philologue et linguiste français</note>
    <occupation ref="https://d-nb.info/gnd/4199236-2">philologist</occupation>
    <occupation ref="https://d-nb.info/gnd/4219681-4">Romanist</occupation>
</person>

Mapping to Additional Authority Files

VIAF can be used to map authority data from various sources to one another. A mapping can be downloaded from the VIAF Dataset. Der GND-Nummer 118789627 corresponds to the VIAF ID 39382261, which in turn links to the IdRef 027058352.

The easiest way to enrich an index that is already enhanced with GND data is by using a Python script. Entries for which no identifiers are found can be manually edited.

Ideas for ensuring data quality:

  • Non-unique entries (such as GND to VIAF, VIAF to GND, IdRef to VIAF, etc.) can be supplemented manually.
  • Mappings with brief previews of the linked entries make the verification process easier.