Dear colleagues,

I am pleased to announce on behalf of Digital Scriptorium<https://digital-scriptorium.org/> that the DS Catalog<https://digital-scriptorium.org/catalog/> has completed development and beta testing. Fully redesigned and developed to take advantage of new technologies and to meet the challenges of sustainability, the new DS Catalog is a data repository, semantic portal, and knowledge base, allowing users to find manuscripts and explore a growing roster of member institutions'<https://digital-scriptorium.org/directory/> collections in a single platform powered by Linked Open Data. Built on Wikibase, the DS Catalog aggregates supplied DS member metadata and enriches it by linking to external authorities and resources for enhanced research in a LOD environment. With the ultimate goal of becoming an online national union catalog of all pre- and early modern manuscript books representing global traditions in North American collections, the DS Catalog currently offers over 12,000 entries representing manuscript objects from over 35 member institutions in North America.

We invite you to explore the DS Catalog using either the user-friendly  faceted and keyword search interface<https://search.digital-scriptorium.org/> or the Wikibase<https://catalog.digital-scriptorium.org/wiki/Main_Page>, starting with this list of basic SPARQL queries<https://catalog.digital-scriptorium.org/wiki/DS_Catalog:SPARQL_Query_Service/example_queries> developed by the DS Project and Data Manager L. P. Coladangelo as a starting point for deeper linked data research.

If you are interested in learning more about exploring the potential of linked data research using the DS Catalog, including developing complex SPARQL queries for more powerful searching, we invite you to fill out this survey<https://forms.gle/o7wXTkNyZ1whThXv6> to help us to identify the topics of the most interest to the community as well as the best way to schedule sessions.

To join the DS community and receive updates on new additions of data, sign up here for the DS newsletter.<http://eepurl.com/hKznqL>

And finally, if  you represent an institution with a collection of pre- and early modern manuscripts and are interested in learning more about membership, please contact us at [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>.

Best,
Lynn Ransom, Ph.D.
Curator of Programs, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies<http://schoenberginstitute.org/>
Executive Director, Digital Scriptorium<https://digital-scriptorium.org/>
The University of Pennsylvania Libraries
3420 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206
215.898.7851


Executive Director, Digital Scriptorium