Sayeed Choudhury
Associate Dean for Research Data Management
Johns Hopkins University
Mark Patton
Senior Software Engineer
Johns Hopkins University
The Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins University have developed the Digital Library of Medieval Manuscripts (DLMM), which represents the next stage of digital humanities program development based on over 20 years of scholarly, library, and technology activity. From a scholarly perspective, the DLMM brings together two signature collections, the Roman de la Rose Digital Library and the Christine de Pizan Digital Scriptorium. Previously available through two separate web-based platforms, the DLMM connects the two collections without compromising the depth of exploration and functionality available through the individual websites. Through faceted browsing and searching that accounts for different data models, scholars retain the ability to use both collections comprehensively through a unified interface. The facets can be customized on a per-collection basis. In addition to these digital manuscript collections, the underlying technology platform can support additional forms of content such as early modern books. As part of this overall development effort, the Sheridan Libraries migrated content and implemented a new image server for better functionality, performance, and scalability. The DLMM represents a major shift from customized, locally developed code to leveraging community-developed code for greater efficiency. It exposes data as IIIF so it be reused easily. The development of the DLMM represents a progression of scholarly and technology programs that have been demonstrated at previous CNI meetings.