7 July 2023: Daniel Kinitz, Lecture on Manuscript Catalogues in the Digital Age

On 7 July 2023, Daniel Kinitz gives an online talk at the summerschool "Thinking with Islamicate Manuscripts: Critical Approaches to Historical Methodology, History of Collections, and Digital Tools in Islamic Studies" (Vienna, July 3–7, 2023).
https://summeruniversity.ceu.edu/courses/thinking-islamicate-manuscripts-critical-approaches-historical-methodology-history

Manuscript Catalogues in the Digital Age?

What digital tools and methods do we need to gain new insights into Islamicate manuscripts? What data already exists and in what form? Would a central (digital) union catalog be an adequate solution to answer research questions? The talk will explore these questions through a thought experiment: What if we design our own digital research platform (wishes) and confront it with the technical, academic, financial and legal realities (facts)? Among other things, we will have a brief look at (1) AI-based text recognition and how it works in principle with Arabic script, as well as possible sources of error, (2) authority control (as identity management) and what it means in practice, and (3) the possibilities offered by database queries.