Technical details

We can take metadata on its own or with letter transcriptions in a variety of formats. It is mapped to TEI P5 XML encoding using the metadata exchange element set to be indexed for Ɛpsilon. TEI XML is a widely recognised and supported markup standard for long-term preservation and interoperability of historical text. Advice on conversion and on using XML as an editing format is available. Search is powered by XTF, an open source tool.

The minimum requirement is structured data from which we can extract sender, recipient, and date for individual letters. Dates may be conjectured, partial, or expressed as ranges. ‘Unknown’ dates will be defaulted to the lifetime of the author.

We do not ingest or store images of letters at this time, but we can link to externally held datasets.

The data, including the XML version, remains the property and responsibility of the contributor. We ask for permission, which you may revoke at any time, to access the XML version of the data for searching and display. We undertake to

  • Maintain the independent identity of ongoing projects
  • Recognise the right of the originator to be identified
  • Offer different levels of controlled access
    • Search of metadata and full texts returns ‘keywords in context’ results linking to display of full texts
    • Search of metadata and full texts returns ‘keywords in context’ results linking to display of full texts only where authorised and to metadata in all other cases
    • Search of metadata and full texts returns ‘keywords in context’ results pointing to external site – eg contributor’s or publisher’s own website
    • Searching of metadata only, results linking to relevant entry in external website

We will undertake to preserve the XML versions of the data deposited with us, and to continue to make them available. This will be done in conjunction with Cambridge University Library who will assume responsibility for data created by and in collaboration with the Darwin Correspondence Project when it completes in 2022.

It is not permissible at this time to scrape or download bulk data. If you wish to have access to the whole collection for data mining or similar activities, please get in touch directly.