LGPN and Information Technology
LGPN began using computers to
store and manipulate its data as far back as 1975. Alongside the
publication programme, and despite the electronic upheavals which have
marked the last 30 years, LGPN has maintained the material from all the
published volumes in a consistent state in a relational database, which
was designed in 1984 to reflect the potential research values of all the
fields which make up an LGPN entry i.e. not only names, but places, dates,
references, relationships, statuses etc.
Historical
background to LGPN's use of IT
This database is the final repository
of material once it has been edited, and from it:
- the printed volumes are generated and typeset by computer program;
- research questions may be answered, for our own work and for
researchers who contact us;
- data are generated for online dissemination: currently, statistics
(numbers of people and names, distribution by gender, place), name indexes
and bibliographies;
- primary names are output for online analysis in a variety of
fonts.
Online facilities based on
the current database:
- Online searches: search and analyse over
35,000 published names, the LGPN website, or the LGPN database.
- Files for downloading: bibliographies,
forward and and reverse name indexes, from LGPN I-VA;
- addenda and corrigenda.to LGPN
II, Attica (1987), with supplementary bibliography, posted by Sean Byrne.
- LGPN IIA: is the completely
revised LGPN II, provided to the LGPN database by Sean Byrne. Full data
are not yet available on this site, but the forward and reverse name
indexes are available as downloadable
files, and statistics
about persons, names and places, are posted.
- More general statistics - in preparation.
The XML Project
Elaine Matthews and Sebastian
Rahtz have been working on a major conversion project using the Text Encoding
Initiative (TEI) and Extensible Mark-up Language (XML), as the basis for
LGPN's long-term preservation, online dissemination, and interoperability
with other online resources. Complete data from all published volumes
(currently I-IV) will be delivered as one integrated online resource.
**** LGPN is in the initial stages of a major upgrade which will see the migration of the data contained in the seven published volumes from the current Ingres database to a XML database. As part of the upgrade, the potential uses of the online search facility will be enhanced so as to provide in the future enriched information about the individual person and their family relations, the place where they are attested and the nature of the documentation, as well as linguistic analysis of the names themselves and their frequency over time and space. The project would therefore welcome suggestions from users of the existing online searching, concerning improvements to its general layout and organization, as well as additional features and searchable variables that could be made available. Please contact any one of the editors by email with suggestions and ideas.**** |
Email lgpn@classics.ox.ac.uk
© Lexicon of Greek Personal Names.
All rights reserved.
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Classics at Oxford
University of Oxford
British Academy
AHRC
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