Manuscripts and old prints of the Karaim Digital Archive – from Ms Word files to TEI P5

Abstract

Gathering metadata regarding historical resources, such as manuscripts and old prints, requires determining their structure. Archiving data in the form of Ms Word files containing descriptions of these objects seems to be a simple and effective solution. However, problems arise when we want to unify recurring information, analyze and publish metadata and accompanied scans to a wide range of researchers and the community. In that case, the TEI P5 format (http://www.tei-c.org/) can help us. We present the process of creating a digital archive of Karaim literature called eJazyszłar. We describe source data of this archive and justify the proposed solutions, especially TEI P5.