The New Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts: A Research Tool for Tracking the Current and Historic Locations of Manuscripts

FAIN: PW-51580-14

University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA 19104-6205)
Lynn Ransom (Project Director: July 2013 to October 2017)

Development of an online collaborative catalog for researching the historic and current locations of manuscript books produced before 1600.

The New Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts: A Research Tool for Tracking the Current & Historic Locations of Manuscripts is a three-year project to redevelop the current Schoenberg Database into an online, collaborative tool for researching the historic & current locations of the world's manuscripts produced before the age of print. This project will result in a simple, innovative solution to a historic problem & a global task. Starting with existing data from the current version, the new Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts will be an online, user-driven, collaborative tool for creating a "meta-catalogue" for indexing & finding the world's manuscripts. The New Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts will employ numerous strategies to build, maintain & encourage a vibrant & proactive user-community & will seek partnerships with other similar, online resources to strengthen the content of the database as well as our partners' content by allowing cross-searching capabilities across platforms.

Media Coverage

Staff Q&A with Lynn Ransom (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Heather A. Davis
Date: 1/19/2017
Abstract: Interview with Lynn Ransom, Principal Investigator of The New Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts: A Research Tool for Tracking the Current and Historic Locations of Manuscripts."
URL: https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/staff-qa-lynn-ransom

Associated Products

"The New Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts: Creating an open-source tool for manuscript research and discovery," Proceedings of the 16th International Seminar Held at the University of Copenhagen, 13th-15th April, 2016 (Article)
Title: "The New Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts: Creating an open-source tool for manuscript research and discovery," Proceedings of the 16th International Seminar Held at the University of Copenhagen, 13th-15th April, 2016
Author: Lynn Ransom
Author: Doug Emery
Author: Emma Cawlfield
Author: Benjamin Heller
Author: Matija Budisin
Abstract: The Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts (SDBM) provides an incomparable resource for the study of the provenance of manuscript books produced before 1600. The SDBM is the largest repository of descriptive data on medieval and early modern manuscripts freely and openly available online. With a continually expanding database of over 225,000 records representing data drawn from over 12,000 auction and sales catalogues,inventories, catalogues from institutional and private collections and other sources that document sales and locations of manuscript books since as early as the fifteenth century, it serves a wide range of users: an international body of scholars, book collectors and booksellers, students at various levels and citizen scholars interested in the movement of manuscript books across time and geography. With the support of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded in 2014, it has recently undergone redevelopment to become an online, collaborative tool for researching the historic and current locations of the world’s manuscripts, allowing anyone with an internet connection to contribute information from a variety of sources, including their own personal observations, regarding both the current and historic locations of manuscript books (available at sdbm.library.upenn.edu).This report on the redevelopment discusses the history and purposes of the new SDBM, describes the new data model upon which it is based and identifies new functions that make it possible for users to participate in a global user-community charged with contributing to its content and maintaining the integrity of the data as a product of their own research.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: http://http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1041153519
Primary URL Description: WorldCat.org entry.
Secondary URL: https://www.mtp.dk/details.asp?eln=202492
Secondary URL Description: Museum Tusculaneum Press catalog.
Format: Other
Publisher: Museum Tusculanum Press

The New Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts (Web Resource)
Title: The New Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts
Author: The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies
Abstract: The SDBM continuously aggregates and updates observations of premodern manuscripts drawn from over 13,000 auction and sales catalogs, inventories, catalogs from institutional and private collections, and other sources that document sales and locations of these books from around the world. We invite members of our user community to contribute data and engage with other users to share and record information about the movement of manuscripts across time and space.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: https://sdbm.library.upenn.edu/

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