Developing an Online Database on a Shoestring: Growing Pains at the Online Medieval Sources Bibliography

• Main Authors: Morgan Kay, Maryanne Kowaleski
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Open Library of Humanities 2012-02-01
• Series: Digital Medievalist
• Subjects: Database; Ruby on Rails; Primary sources; Data entry
• Online Access: https://journal.digitalmedievalist.org/articles/41

The Online Medieval Sources Bibliography (OMSB) is a database of modern editions of medieval primary sources. This paper discusses the computing, financing, and logistical challenges we faced in creating the database, as well as our solutions. The OMSB is aimed at a wide audience, from high school students to professors, so we have had to tailor our data to the needs of many different types of researcher, and to keep in mind all of the different ways someone might search for sources. Working with a very limited budget, we have made use of graduate and undergraduate students to provide both programming and data entry, a solution that has provided excellent research experience (and often much-needed funding) for the students involved.