Automation on Parnassus: Clio - a databank oriented system for historians

Abstract

To support several ongoing research projects, the development of a general purpose system was started 18 months ago at the Max-Planck-Institut fur Geschichte in Gottingen. A second version of this system has already been implemented - one which offers the user a simple control language Its most important features are: a flexible input system combining free field and tag/ content representation of data that can be structured in very complex hierarchies; a retrieval system; a system for the interactive coding of historical sources. Various ways of entering codebook like "thesauri" provide a cheap way to recode as often as necessary material of doubtful semantics; a system for nominative record linkage. Name comparisons by two classes of algorithms are supported. The entry of new algorithms to suit the dialects of a particular area is facilitated by a simple set of algorithm defining directives.