Technological Considerations: Information Management and Delivery

The data universe for Documentary Sources includes the 6,429 volumes of documents in the Archivio Mediceo del Principato and the people, places and topics referenced in those documents. The goal was to develop a suitable database for managing this information and one which could eventually be linked to digitized document images and delivered on the World Web Wide. In addressing this task, two relevant sets of standards were identified:

1. The Encoded Archival Description (EAD) DTD, a standard for encoding archival finding aids using the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML)
   
   
2. SQL-compliant relational database technology

After careful consideration, the EAD DTD was determined to be an inappropriate encoding standard for this data since the EAD DTD is primarily intended for inventories and registers and thus does not provide the level of authority control required for Documentary Sources.

In contrast, a relational database system provides a stable, scalable structure for the data, including tools for creating customizable interfaces to manage authority controls. (See Appendix VI: Data Entry Interface) The standard user and application program interface to a relational database is the structured query language (SQL), used both for interactive queries for information from a relational database and for gathering data for reports.

Thus, it was determined that the core technology for storing and managing the Documentary Sources data should be an SQL-compliant relational database management system. The Project’s database management system adheres to the standard rules of data normalization (rules for arranging attributes into relations to avoid redundant data storage). (See Appendix III: Main Table Relationships)

Founding the structure of the M.A.P. Documentary Sources technology on proven industry standards for data management ensures compatibility with other non-proprietary data projects and with emerging technologies. As an example of the extensibility of the Documentary Sources database structure, in December, 1998, M.A.P. technology staff seamlessly incorporated a subset of the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN) vocabulary as an adjunct lookup table for place assignments. This type of extensibility opens the door to a range of collaborations or data sharing with similar or related activities.