Semantic enrichment on large scanned collections through their “satellite texts”: the paradigm of Migne’s Patrologia Graeca

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to present a methodology for the semantic enrichment on the scanned collection of Migne’s Patrologia Graeca (PG), attempting to easily locate on the Web domain the scanned PG source, when a reference of this source is described and commented on another scanned or textual document, and to semantically enrich PG through related scanned or textual documents named “satellite texts” published by third people. The present enrichment of PG uses as satellite texts the Dorotheos Scholarios's Synoptic Index (DSSI) which act as metadata for PG. Design/methodology/approach The methodology consists of two parts. The first part addresses the DSSI transcription via a proper web tool. The second part is divided into two subsections: the accomplishment of interlinking the printed column numbers of each scanned PG page with its actual filename, which is the build of a matching function, and the build of a web interface for PG, based on the generated Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) of the above first subsection. Findings The result of the implemented methodology is a Web portal, capable of providing server-less search of topics with direct (single click) navigation to sources. The produced system is static, scalable, easy to be managed and requires minimal cost to be completed and maintained. The produced data sets of transcribed DSSI and the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) matching functions are available for personal use of students and scholars under Creative Commons license (CC-BY-NC-SA). Social implications Scholars or anyone interested in a particular subject can easily locate topics in PG and reference them, using URIs that are easy to remember. This fact contributes significantly to the related scientific dialogue. Originality/value The methodology uses the transcribed satellite texts of DSSI, which act as metadata for PG, to semantically enrich PG collection. Furthermore, the built PG Web interface can be used by other satellite texts as a reference basis to further enrich PG, as it provides a direct identification of sources. The presented methodology is general and can be applied to any scanned collection using its own satellite texts.

metaGraphos: a Web-based system for transcribing, proofreading and publishing scanned documents

“…The semantic interconnection between documents, even if they are not fully editable, increases their usefulness, as they can be navigated and the information can be located in an easier and more direct way. As shown in Figure 6, each point in a scanned document can be viewed as a network of inbound and outbound links to other documents (Varthis et al , 2021). However, all these links cannot be resolved automatically because AI-automated systems can provide reliable interlinking implementation only in specific cases and when combined with pre-existing metadata, such as that of academic journals, books and so on.…”

“…It is worth noting that automated interlinking of scanned sources remains the big request from both librarians and collection curators, (Varthis et al , 2021) as it greatly aids in knowledge dissemination to users. In recent years, active research in the field of graph neural networks (GNNs) has been conducted to address the issue.…”

“…Because the system proposed in this study is parallelized, a 500-page book could potentially be transcribed in an hour by 500 volunteers, or ten hours by 50 volunteers, as each volunteer independently transcribes the pages assigned to him/her online. On a purely experimental basis, students in Varthis et al (2021) made a similar effort as a small part of their project. So, while manual transcription may appear somehow “primitive” today, it can be very efficient when the work simply “must be done” and the staff lacks experience with specialized transcription methods.…”