Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal

Mission:

Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal is a collaborative digital project for the study of Syriac literature, culture, and history. The primary mission of Syriaca.org is to serve as an online search and discovery tool enabling scholarly access to the latest research in Syriac studies.

Syriaca.org furthers this mission in four ways:

• Syriaca.org creates and publishes a list of URIs (uniform resource identfiers) for core information in the field of Syriac studies. These URIs create a digital framework for linking scholarship into a Linked Open Data web.
• Syriaca.org designs and publishes technical standards (for XML and Linked Open Data) which scholars can use to publish their own Syriac scholarship online.
• Syriaca.org provides a search engine and a repository for the “web of data” generated from the shared use of the Syriaca.org URIs.
• As models for digital scholarship in the field, Syriaca.org itself also publishes new online reference works.

Audience:

Syriaca.org serves the needs of Syriac specialists, scholars in all fields, members of various cultural heritage communities, and the interested public.

Data:

Syriaca.org is currently creating URIs and linking information about seven types of historical data:

• Persons (including authors, saints, and corporate bodies), e.g., Ephrem the Syrian
• Literary Works, e.g., Ephrem’s Hymns on Paradise
• Places, e.g., Edessa
• Manuscripts, e.g., British Library Manuscript Add. 14,451
• Physical Objects, e.g., Orpheus Taming Wild Animals Mosaic
• Bibliographic Items (modern publications), e.g., J. Lebon, Le monophysisme sėvėrien (1909)
• Subject Headings (thematic keywords related to Syriac studies), e.g., Coonan Cross Oath

Technical Examples:

XML (eXtensible Markup Language): <place>Edessa</place>

URI (Uniform Resource Identifier): http://syriaca.org/place/78

URI in TEI XML: <place ref=”http://syriaca.org/place/78”>Edessa</place>