For manuscripts in the Cotton and Royal collections which are ones the search tools seem to struggle with the most, if I know the shelf-mark and just want to view the images I find the quickest way to get to them is the HViewer tool. Is this one of the tools you were talking about? The HViewer tool is just a hierarchical tree with each MS listed, and it tells you if there are digital images. You still have to check the other search tools to find the more detailed catalogue entry (the one with the thumbnail images at the bottom of the page rather than the link to the digital viewer) because HViewer only takes you to either the tiny "this object has a shelfmark" page or the digitised manuscripts catalogue pages, but it's good if you know exactly what you want. If all else fails just typing something like "BL cotton julius a ii" directly into google tends to get quicker results then using one of the search tools on the British Library.
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(18-04-2020, 01:14 AM)arca_libraria Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view....
If all else fails just typing something like "BL cotton julius a ii" directly into google tends to get quicker results then using one of the search tools on the British Library.
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LOL! Yes! I often end up doing it that way.
(17-04-2020, 10:16 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.If there was a payed service that streamlines all these viewers, I would subscribe to it. I would also imagine that for institutions it could be more efficient to share their knowledge and cooperate instead of all developing and implementing their own tools.
It's not everything, but it's 73,000 manuscripts ... You are not allowed to view links.
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I knew the IIIF group were building this, but I didn't know it was publicly available and seems to have been for a while! This tool will let you search the combined collections of some of the major manuscript libraries around the world. 50,000 of the items are in the BNF, which makes the tool less helpful, because as we have all noted, the BNF/Gallica website is already brilliant, but maybe this will be helpful for some types of research?
Libraries involved:
- France, BNF (main library)
- France, BNF (Arsenal)
- France, BVMM
- France, Bib Mazarine
- France, NuBIS (Sorbonne)
- France, Médiathèque Pierre-Amalric in Albi
- Belgium, Ghent Univ Bib
- UK, Bodleian Library Oxford
- UK, British Library (MSS from c. 700–1200 only)
- UK, Durham Cathedral Library
- Switzerland, multiple libraries via e-codices
- Germany, Hochschul- und Landesbibliothek Fulda
- UK, Cambridge Parker Library
- UK, Cambridge Digital Library (University Library holdings only, I think?)
- European miscellaneous stuff, via Europeana project
Negative points:
- The website interface is only in English however it is quite simple to use. If you are looking for something specific you will probably need to use the medieval title in Latin/Old French/Old German etc.
- As we have all noted, one of the big problems with manuscript research is that the libraries with good online tools (such as all of the libraries and collections above) are already very accessible and easy to use, but many important libraries have not updated their online collections to join this project, and many manuscripts have not yet been digitised at all. I know that many other "big name" libraries are members of the IIIF project and so they are trying to update their digital collections to be compatible with this new standard, but it will be a few more years before they have succeeded.