If you have data, we want it! You might not realise you have data - transcriptions of letters and lists of letters both count as data, and we’d love to incorporate them if at least some of it has scientific content and touches on the nineteenth century. We’re keen to add to our collection, whether you’re a project or archive with a large collection, or a scholar sitting on a set of transcriptions produced as a research side product. If you have anything that seems appropriate for Epsilon, please get in touch with us at epsilon@cam.ac.uk.
Epsilon’s core data is all in TEI XML and we encourage anyone starting out to use that form (we’re happy to talk to anyone wanting to start a project about working in TEI). However, we can take data in multiple formats. The most important thing is the regularity of the data. Please see below for our requirements.
Two separate collections of data are needed when you want to submit materials that aren’t in TEI XML:
The field names in the file must match the following exactly and those marked as ‘Required’ must be present.
| Field Name | Status | Description |
| id | Optional | A unique identifying record number for the record |
| sender_surname | Required | Surname of the sender |
| sender_forename | Required | Forename(s) of the sender |
| recipient_surname | Required | Surname of the recipient |
| recipient_forename | Required | Forenames(s) of the recipient |
| sorting_date | Required |
An iso formatted version of the date of the letter. This value is used for sorting. It’s also used when the desired textual version exactly corresponds to it. For example, YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY-MM, YYYY will be automatically rendered as Day MonthName Year, MonthName Year and Year. If the desired date string is more complex than that, a value can be provided in the ‘date’ field. NB: The -MM-DD format is not supported. |
| date | Optional | A textual version of the date of the letter when it cannot be rendered from the sorting_date value. For example: 15-16 Oct 1870 15? Oct 1870 15 Oct? 1870 [1, 8, 15, 22, 29] Oct 1870 Late Oct 1870 |
| sender_address | Optional | A textual version of the sender’s address |
| recipient_address | Optional | A textual version of the recipient’s address |
| source_custodian | Required | The name of the custodian of the item, possibly an institution or a private collection or the full bibliographical reference if the source is printed. |
| source_classmark | Required | Classmark for the item (if manuscript), otherwise, blank. |
| languages | Optional | The language(s) of the letter |
| extent | Optional | The length of the letter, expressed in either pages or folios. |
| filename | Required | Filename of the transcription of the letter (if any). |
Try to be consistent when entering the data.