ManusKn

ManusKn is a fictional open-source software project and community designed to manage digitized manuscripts, metadata, and research access. The project is conceived as a neutral, modular platform to help libraries, archives, and museums curate digitized materials, capture provenance, and publish linked data about manuscripts.

Origins and scope: ManusKn was described in digital humanities discussions in 2023 as a case study for best practices in digitization and knowledge organization. The name blends “manuscript” and “knowledge.” The envisioned architecture emphasizes modular components for metadata modeling, digitization workflows, provenance tracking, search, and data export.

Architecture and features: The project offers a metadata model compatible with standards such as Dublin Core and METS, with extensions for manuscript-specific elements like foliation, scribal hands, and lineation. It includes optical character recognition (OCR) integration, transcript alignment, and provenance/version history. Access control and an application programming interface (API) are planned to facilitate integration with other systems. ManusKn supports IIIF manifests for image delivery and exports in JSON-LD and RDF to enable interlinking with external data sources.

Usage and status: In speculative or teaching scenarios, ManusKn is used to illustrate interoperability between library systems and the challenges of digitization metadata. It remains a conceptual tool rather than a widely adopted production platform.

Reception and influence: The concept serves to highlight issues in digitization workflows, metadata standardization, and linked data publishing within the manuscript domain.

See also: Digital humanities; Manuscript studies; Digitization; Linked data.