K A B I K A D J

Database for Manuscripts in Arabic Characters

Documentation: Introduction > Access Catalog Develop
  1. Search
  2. Results
  3. Manuscript page
  4. Reproductions
Access to the catalogued manuscripts is taking place in four steps: search of database by user specified criteria, display of results, access to the descriptive files of individual manuscripts and display of manuscript digital reproductions.


  1. Search

    1. Methods

      List all manuscripts is producing a list of all manuscripts from the catalog made available to Kabikadj. It the most basic search method and can be used as an easy way to look up a specific ms.

      Index is specific to each descriptor field and provides the data available in the catalog for that specific descriptor together with the mss in which it occurs and the quantity of occurrences.

      This functionality is appropriated for queries done on one descriptor only - it spares you typing. Also, it is a convenient way of filling in forms in multicriteria searches by select, drag & drop specific words you want to look for. Criticaly, it allows fast use of characters not directly available from the keyboard. Accents, transliteration characters or scripts of different cultures are necessary to be used in order to make an efficient usage of the database. This can only happen from the keyboard when switching between character sets is possible or from character displaying software such as Character Map in Windows - a tedious way anyhow that can be bypassed with Index in conjunction with select, drag & drop.

      Statistics for individual descriptors is provided for numerical fields. It visualizes the distribution of data in the specified descriptor over the entire collection of mss in one single plot.

      The default range is that between the lowest and the highest value for the descriptor (excepting for equivalent & estimated date, where it covers the Islamic era in the Gregorian calendar system, from 600 to 2000 AD). It is possible to zoom in on a specific range by entering the wanted values in the range fields.

      Multicriteria search is done by entering words in several description fields, as desired - and then pressing the arrow. A number of wildcards and logical operators can be used, as shown below. The search is not case sensitive, but accents and other signs must be entered (both /T/ehrān and /t/ehrān are acceptable, but not spelled without <ā> (a macron)).

    2. Wildcards & logical operators

      Symbol

      		 Name

      		 Function

      * simple open ending finds all data occurrences starting with the characters given before the asterisk
      > ex: kerm* finds /Kerm/an and /Kerm/anshah

      % double open ending finds all occurrences containing the characters preceding the wildcard, independently on thier position in the word
      > ex: m% finds /M/ashhad, Ker/m/an & Qo/m/

      ! only finds fields containing only the characters following the logical operator and none other
      > ex: !persian will select mss written in Persian and containing no other language

      - not finds fields not containing the characters following the logical operator, but which can contain any other character strings
      > ex: -persian will produce a list of all mss written in any language expect for Persian

      & and finds catalog fields containing all the characters preceding and following the logical operator even if they are not contiguous
      > ex: persian & arabic is a research on mss containing both Persian and Arabic text portions - mss only in one of the two langugaes will be excluded

      | or finds catalog fields containing at least one of the character strings separated by the logical operator
      > ex: persian | arabic displays mss written in Persian, in Arabic or in Arabic and Persian

      Mixing of wildcards and logical operators is allowed (ex: -per* & -ara* stands for 'all mss written in all other languages than Persian and Arabic').

      Research criteria are to be entered in the language of the active Kabikadj interface. Abbreviation through the use of wildcards is possible for every language. (Caveat: this is true provided the cataloguer has given translations for the description keywords in the lexical files ../ KABIKADJ/ SCRIPT/ [language]/ LEX{EN2[language], [language]2EN}.)

    3. Input
      For a definition of each descriptive field you might want to look up the information given in the section of this help, as well as reading Manuel de codicologie des manuscrits en écriture arabe by François Déroche (Paris: Bibliotheque nationale de France, 2000, 413 p. - English version in the making).

    4. Accessories
      The search page provides the user with the possibility of changing the interface language for both display and query. It gives a 'clear' button to clear all the fields of the query form. The documentation of Kabikadj is also accessd from the Search page .

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  2. Results

    3. The function of the results page is that of a research tool for statistical analysis or that of an intermediary step towards the consultation of individual manuscripts.

    There are two statistical tools: a bar graph for numerical fields as described above and a percentage bar for visualizing the query distribution among the data of the whole catalog.

    The percentage bar (restricted to alphanumerics in Index to keep the layout free of cluttering) gives a detailed distribution of the data types in the catalog for the queried fields: amount of mss positively identified as containing the requested search criteria, mss having other contents than that or the query, mss not having any catalog input at all for the specified descriptive fields and the total number of cataloged mss.

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  3. Manuscripts page

    4. Accessed from the links provided on the results page, the manuscript page contains a description of individual mss as given in the catalog. Refer to the above note under Input for the definition of each described aspect. Some descriptors such as 'title' are given in the original language and script, in latin script transliteration and in the interface language when so provided by the cataloger.

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  4. Reproductions

    5. Thumbnails of the digital reproductions of mss are given on the 'manuscript page' and they act as an index from which particular images can be selected for closer examination. This can be done via a filmstripe by clicking the legends below the thumbnails or via a maximum detail image by clicking directly on the thumbnails.

    The filmstrip contains all the reproductions displayed as thumbnails in a bigger size. You can browse through them by using the horizontal scroll bar. If you are interested by a particular detail a magnifier is provided: just click on the image and a close-up image will appear. While the tip of the pointer is over the detail to be magnified, you can move the image around with the cursor (it's position in pixels is given in the status bar). Click again and the magnifier will disappear, gone with the passing photons.

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2001 © Vlad Atanasiu
atanasiu@excite.com
Last update: 29 November 2009