The Combined Cairo Geniza

Michael ZarroDrexel University

http://mikezarro.com/geniza/index.phphttp://www.princeton.edu/~geniza/

http://sceti.library.upenn.edu/genizah/

The Cairo Geniza, a brief introduction

A geniza (or genizah) is a room which stores old texts and papers which are thought to hold the name of God for burial.

The Ben Ezra synagogue had such a room… and sealed the entrance for 1000 years. 9 to 19th century.

Approximately 220,000 documents/fragments preserved, including many non-sacred texts.

The Cairo Geniza collections

Documents now used by Judaic scholars in Europe and N. America.

British Library Jewish Theological Seminary (NY) Cambridge University *140,000+ documents University of Pennsylvania Princeton – transcriptions only (4,000+) And other institutions…

Obvious Issues

Preservation of originalsAccess for remote scholarsConsolidate disperse collections Wayfinding within 200,000+ documentsAccess points; genre, timeframe,

keywords, author, etc…

Cataloging the Geniza

“Its contents are better described as ‘scattered’ than ‘distributed’”

“institutions have come and gone; two world wars have been fought; and maps, states, governments, and ideologies have changed” - Lerner & Jerchower (2006)

1886: Adolf Neubauer1921: Elkan Nathan Alder collection

Cataloging Typology

Refers to the original, or earlier collection. Example:

Penn assigns “Halper numbers”after Benzion Halper’s: Descriptive catalogue of genizah fragments in Philadelphia (Philadelphia : Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning, 1924)

Princeton refers to the same objects with “Dropsie numbers” after the institution.

The Princeton Geniza Project

Department of Near Eastern Studies 1986 Funding: Princeton University, the Department of

Near Eastern Studies, and from 2000 to 2005 by the Friedberg Genizah Project.

Dedicated to “creating a full text retrieval text-base of transcribed documents, developing new tools such as dictionaries, semantic categories and morphological aids to further the study of Geniza texts.”

Princeton – original browser

Kedit/Semitic for DOS, line by line transcription Today, unicode is used.

Princeton – TextGarden

Holds transcriptions & photos, articles, etc… User provided comments. Documents continue to be stored line by line. http://gravitas.princeton.edu/tg/tt/

Penn/Cambridge

University of Pennsylvania Library and the Taylor-Schechtor Genizah Research Unit of the Cambridge University Library

Funding: “a generous gift from Mr. Jeffrey Keil, Penn alumnus and member of the Penn Library's Board of Overseers”

TextGarden Schema

<option value="22">dc:contributor</option>

<option value="30">dc:coverage</option>

<option value="18">dc:creator</option>

<option value="23">dc:date</option>

<option value="20">dc:description</option>

<option value="25">dc:format</option>

<option value="26">dc:identifier</option>

<option value="28">dc:language</option>

<option value="21">dc:publisher</option>

<option value="29">dc:relation</option>

<option value="31">dc:rights</option>

<option value="27">dc:source</option>

<option value="19">dc:subject</option>

<option value="17">dc:title</option>

<option value="24">dc:type</option>

<option value="35">tg:alias</option>

<option value="15">tg:genre</option>

<option value="5">tg:height</option>

<option value="14">tg:shelf mark</option>

<option value="34">tg:subtitle</option>

<option value="6">tg:weight</option>

<option value="32">tg:year born</option>

<option value="33">tg:year died</option>

Example: http://sceti.library.upenn.edu/pages/index.cfm?so_id=2362

Combined Geniza

Princeton“The project is committed to disseminating its materials as widely as possible to the international community of scholars with an interest in the life of the medieval Middle East, as well as to all with an interest in Judaica.

Penn/Cambridge“This web site is an evolving project. Its size and functionality will continue to grow and improve with time, experience, and additional partners.”

Fulfilling the mission of both institutions….

Combined Geniza

Fulfills desire of both projects to serve the community of scholars, and public.

Provides additional access points.Aggregation of multiple digital library

holdings… a record of records

Combined Geniza

http://mikezarro.com/geniza/index.php

Shared MetadataPenn/Cambridge Combined Princeton

recordTitle title main title

title [Varying Form of]&description [general notes]

description description

Identifier [Uniform Resource Identifier for facsimile]

relation

text text

subject [topical terms] type described by

description [provenance] owned by

date date date

language language language

DC: contributor/ coverage /creator/ format /identifier/ publisher /rights/ source /subject

Lessons Learned (1/3)

Requires robust networking technologyCollaboration between geographically

separated groups.Collaboration between professionals with

differing viewpoints and ideas: professors/students, librarians, and Information Services staff.

FlexibilityStaff turnover

Lessons Learned (2/3)

Use crosswalks and/or computer programming to combine metadata

Know what you are describing1) original ?2) digital surrogate ?3) transcription ?

Lessons Learned (3/3)

It could really be quite easy Once you know what you’re doing…. And where….And with whom…And for whom…And who’s paying for it…

Conclusion

800 - 1800 a.d. 20071985-2005