austraLasia #2221
Take a careful look at SDL
ROME: 9th August 2008 -- If you have not recently consulted the Salesian Digital Library (SDL) at http://sdl.sdb.org or available from the www.sdb.org home page, you might like to do so again. SDL has been quietly but consistently making progress.
The first thing you will note is the altered presentation. SDL is now much more clearly integrated in design terms with sdb.org. It has also developed in content and ease of use. Some statistics:
- Now occupying 30 GB of disk pace, SDL contains some 217,000 digital objects in 19 languages, covered by 30 collections. More than half of these collections are language-based, but there are a range of special topic collections. The three largest of these in order of collection size are Cimatti (6,000 letters plus other items), Rua (5,700 letters plus other items) and Don Bosco's writings and other resources including hundreds of DB images.
- Other than Italian, English, Spanish, French and Portuguese, the largest language collection is Russian. Confrères in that part of the world have found accessing items such as the Rector Major's letters and other documentation far easier via SDL than relying on the Russian - or is it the Italian? - postal system!
One of the most useful features of SDL is the complete text search within collections, and in several instances across collections. The search result is instantaneous without any adjustment of parameters. If you know something of search features, you can fiddle and twiddle to your heart's content to achieve specific results. One search parameter you ought know about, of course, is that if you are searching a phrase, even of two words, it needs to be enclosed in quotation marks, otherwise it will return the results for the individual words. If you already know what you might be looking for, then the categories under which items are labelled (such as 'title', 'author', 'keyword', 'date') in a collection should help you quickly locate an item.
All text-based items, including most pdf files, are converted into a text format for quick reference purposes. The original format is always available for reference or download. Indeed, what SDL achieves for the long-term is the safe preservation of texts, since all digital objects are actually converted into an archive format that is platform independent and open, while the original is also preserved in its often proprietary format. What you see as an 'original' is in fact a copy.
And at this point, a request. It is quite possible that confrères around the region have Salesian material in digital form that would be of benefit to others. Some may have done studies on Salesian topics and, as a result, may have scanned or retyped or otherwise digitized materials that are not currently available. Some may have written books, magazine articles, prepared presentations, taken photos.......
We have, at least theoretically speaking, no limitations on disk space, and no language or format limitations. SDL can handle right to left, left to right, vertical direction and any script covered by Unicode standards - which as far as I know is practically every scripted language on the planet. It can handle any known digital format. And since SDL is open source, if an existing format appears to be unconvertible, then we write our own converter. So, over to you. Hope to hear from you! jbf.
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2008 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at at http://sdl.sdb.org
Title: australasia 2221
Subject and key words: SDB General SDL
Date (year): 2008
ID: 2000-2099|2221
Take a careful look at SDL
ROME: 9th August 2008 -- If you have not recently consulted the Salesian Digital Library (SDL) at http://sdl.sdb.org or available from the www.sdb.org home page, you might like to do so again. SDL has been quietly but consistently making progress.
The first thing you will note is the altered presentation. SDL is now much more clearly integrated in design terms with sdb.org. It has also developed in content and ease of use. Some statistics:
- Now occupying 30 GB of disk pace, SDL contains some 217,000 digital objects in 19 languages, covered by 30 collections. More than half of these collections are language-based, but there are a range of special topic collections. The three largest of these in order of collection size are Cimatti (6,000 letters plus other items), Rua (5,700 letters plus other items) and Don Bosco's writings and other resources including hundreds of DB images.
- Other than Italian, English, Spanish, French and Portuguese, the largest language collection is Russian. Confrères in that part of the world have found accessing items such as the Rector Major's letters and other documentation far easier via SDL than relying on the Russian - or is it the Italian? - postal system!
One of the most useful features of SDL is the complete text search within collections, and in several instances across collections. The search result is instantaneous without any adjustment of parameters. If you know something of search features, you can fiddle and twiddle to your heart's content to achieve specific results. One search parameter you ought know about, of course, is that if you are searching a phrase, even of two words, it needs to be enclosed in quotation marks, otherwise it will return the results for the individual words. If you already know what you might be looking for, then the categories under which items are labelled (such as 'title', 'author', 'keyword', 'date') in a collection should help you quickly locate an item.
All text-based items, including most pdf files, are converted into a text format for quick reference purposes. The original format is always available for reference or download. Indeed, what SDL achieves for the long-term is the safe preservation of texts, since all digital objects are actually converted into an archive format that is platform independent and open, while the original is also preserved in its often proprietary format. What you see as an 'original' is in fact a copy.
And at this point, a request. It is quite possible that confrères around the region have Salesian material in digital form that would be of benefit to others. Some may have done studies on Salesian topics and, as a result, may have scanned or retyped or otherwise digitized materials that are not currently available. Some may have written books, magazine articles, prepared presentations, taken photos.......
We have, at least theoretically speaking, no limitations on disk space, and no language or format limitations. SDL can handle right to left, left to right, vertical direction and any script covered by Unicode standards - which as far as I know is practically every scripted language on the planet. It can handle any known digital format. And since SDL is open source, if an existing format appears to be unconvertible, then we write our own converter. So, over to you. Hope to hear from you! jbf.
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2008 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at at http://sdl.sdb.org
Title: australasia 2221
Subject and key words: SDB General SDL
Date (year): 2008
ID: 2000-2099|2221
