Revisiting the Past. Visualising a Multilingual Private Guestbook from 20th Century Jerusalem

VISUALISING A MULTILINGUAL PRIVATE GUESTBOOK FROM 20 -CENTURY JERUSALEM
TH
Full page scans
Recogi o
OpenRe ine
OSD
Vikus
Py hon
p ep ocessing
signa u e only 52%
wi h ex 47%
non-sc ip 3%
En ies by con en ype
Lan 66%
Heb ew 35%
F equency o alphabe s
o he 1%
ink 56%
ball pen 31% pencil 13%
Use o w i ing implemen s
Sun 31% Wed 20%
Mon 14 %
Tue 11%
Thu 11%
Sa 11%
F i 5%
Visi o s by weekdays*
*based on en ies wi h exac da e
Visi o s by gende (m/ )*
*based on au ho i y ile o i s name
50 %
50 %
Visi o s wi h academic i le
11 %
Resea ch Con ex : Explo ing Digi ised Cul u al Collec ions
The main objec i e o he esea ch p ojec “A F esh Look. Visualising Digi ised Ge man-Jewish
A chi es” a he Clus e o Excellence “Unde s anding W i en A e ac s” is o in es iga e
human in o ma ion seeking s a egies in a chi al con ex s ha go beyond a ge ed, sys ema ic
sea ching, namely open-ended, cu iosi y-d i en b owsing based on he a ailable isual
in o ma ion. In he digi al con ex , app op ia e and use - iendly isualisa ion solu ions can
enable and acili a e explo a o y app oaches and inc ease he chance o se endipi ous
disco e ies by humani ies schola s ac ing as so-called “in o ma ion laneu ”.
The p ojec d aws on ma e ial om he digi isa ion o 24 pe sonal a chi es and collec ions o
19 and 20 cen u y Ge man-Jewish in ellec uals, which was ca ied ou in 2021–2022 in
coope a ion wi h he Na ional Lib a y o Is ael. The con en s o 19,000+ a chi al iles was
ans o med in o 740,000+ digi al images. As an exempla y use case, Signa u es o F iendship,
he digi al edi ion o a 20 -cen u y mul ilingual gues book om Je usalem combines wo
open-sou ce iewe s, each o e ing a di e en isual expe ience, di e en in e ac ion op ions
and hus a di e en pe spec i e on he same his o ical ma e ial.
h h
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His o ical Con ex : a Place o Ga he ing
The Je usalem home o he a is couple Mi yam Ben-Ga iêl (bo n Ma ha Schnabel, 1893–
1980) and Moshe Ya’ako Ben-Ga iêl (bo n Eugen Hoe lich, 1891–1965) was a place o c oss-
cul u al ga he ing and in ellec ual encoun e . F om hei immig a ion o Manda o y Pales ine in
1927 and un il he husband’s dea h in 1965 he wo kep a gues book eco ding he isi o s o
hei house. Today, i is held in he Moshe Ya’ako Ben-Ga iêl A chi e a he Na ional Lib a y o
Is ael (call no. ARC. Ms. Va . 365 1 11).
Nea ly 1,200 indi idual en ies in Ge man, Heb ew, English, F ench, A abic and mo e han a
dozen o he languages p o ide a ascina ing glimpse in o he pe sonal and p o essional
ne wo ks o he Ben-Ga iêls. Signa u es, g ee ings, dedica ions, poems and d awings o e a
window in o a a ie y o con ex s, including Ge man-Jewish immig a ion, Ge man exile
li e a u e, Heb ew li e a u e, Zionism, B i ish Manda e Je usalem, Ge man-Is aeli pos -wa
ela ions and mo e. Abo e all, he gues book is a es amen o he ideals o hospi ali y,
ole ance and las ing iendship pu in o p ac ice in a u bulen his o ical se ing a he
c oss oads o Eas and Wes .
F om Objec o Code o Viewe s: he Technical Pa h
High quali y scanned images o each page o he gues book we e anno a ed using Recogi o, a
ee, open sou ce Web pla o m. Each gues book en y was delimi ed and ma ked on he page
using a bounding box. Whe e possible, he ex was ansc ibed, and he anno a ions we e
expo ed o a da abase. Fu he me ada a in o ma ion was added o each en y, including
whe e possible he name o he isi o (s), plus au ho i y iles and addi ional esou ces. The
language and sc ip o he en ies was iden i ied and a ansla ion in o English p o ided. Some
e en s we e also iden i ied whe e a numbe o isi o s a ended and signed he gues book.
On he basis o he images, bounding boxes, and me ada a, wo sepa a e iewe s we e c ea ed,
using py hon p ocessing o load and p ep ocess he da a, hen gene a e and ou pu HTML, CSS,
Ja asc ip and JSON iles. The Can as iew uses Vikus Viewe , a web-based isualiza ion sys em
ha displays indi idual en ies which can be clicked o iew a de ails panel, plus keywo ds and a
sea ch unc ion. The Full-Page iew uses he OpenSead agon ja asc ip lib a y, and shows he
en ies in con ex wi h nex and p e ious page bu ons and image zoom and pan, and also
ea u es a de ails panel. In bo h iews, links a e p o ided o ela ed en ies, such as e en s and
o he isi s by he same gues s.
Can as View: VIKUS Viewe
Amy Isa d
Hub o Compu ing and Da a Science
Uni e si ä Hambu g
Full-Page View: OpenSead agon
D . Sebas ian Schi meis e
Clus e o Excellence ‘Unde s anding W i en A e ac s’
Uni e si ä Hambu g
Gues boook
Hos s
Alphabe s
Languages
Yea s
Pages
Visi o s
En ies
Da a poin s
Figu es S a is ics
Samuel Jose Agnon | Max B od | Oska Kokoschka | A nold Zweig | A hu Schnabel | Khushwan Singh | Saul Tche nichowsky | A min T. Wegne |
Theodo Lessing | Mascha Kaléko | Joseph Klausne | Da id F ank u e | Nahum Goldmann | Ku Ho mann | Hugo Be gmann | Albe Eh ens ein
Mos Famous Visi o s*
* based on numbe o Wikipedia en y language e sions
1
2
9
23
39
200
700+
1,189
24,000+
REVISITING THE PAST