Manuscripts Portal. Development of a central online portal for data and images on book manuscripts

Since October 2018, the new German ?Handschriftenportal“ is being developed as an up-to-date, future-oriented central registry for textual information and digital images related to codex manuscripts in German cultural heritage institutions. The HSP is conceived as a material-specific central portal for objects dating from all periods belonging to the object type “European codex manuscript”. It supersedes the former central online catalogue, Manuscripta Mediaevalia (MM).The integration of authority data, descriptive data and digital images in standardized formats will make the HSP a central provider of digital information on codex manuscripts. Its development will be accompanied by a continuous consultation of the targeted communities and respect the requirements of usability and user experience (UX) at all stages. The implementation will follow the principles of agile software development, and is based on open source software and the principles of linked open data. In the second phase of development, the focus will be on the authority data module and the backend of the portal, which includes the cataloguing tool and user administration, on the further enhancement of data quality and the creation of thesauri, the implementation of personalized and collaborative workspaces, on augmenting and optimizing search options, the integration of data from external sources, the establishment of IIIF hosting and consulting services and on the revision of the DFG guidelines for the cataloguing of manuscripts. As in the first phase, the project will be carried out collaboratively by the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preu?ischer Kulturbesitz, the Universit?tsbibliothek Leipzig, the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. In addition, Prof. Elke Greifeneder from the Institut for library and information science at the Humboldt University, Berlin, will join the partners for usability and UX consulting.