Insulae
early modern island perceptions
Why select this database?
*Contains all the records cataloged by OCLC member libraries.
*Offers millions of bibliographic records.
*Includes records representing 400 languages.
Collecting search results
General island information on all islands / archipelagoes known in the early modern period are collected in a CSV table with the following columns:
| GeoNamesID | WikipediaID | IslandName | WikipediaLabel | LatGeonames | LongGeonames | GeodataWiki | ArchipelagoID | ArchipelagoName | Events | PubNumDE | PubNumEN | PubNumFR | PubNumLAT | etc. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| extracted via webautomation | via webautomation | via webautomation | via webautomation | via webautomation | via webautomation | via webautomation | via webautomation | via webautomation | added manually as pseudo-XML | extracted from Worldcat result page | extracted from Worldcat result page | extracted from Worldcat result page | extracted from Worldcat result page | extracted from Worldcat result page | extracted from Worldcat result page |
The number of publications per language were extracted from Worldcat with Python Selenium to get a general overview of the importance of specific islands across space and time. For each search, HathiTrust displays the number of publications per language in filters on the first result page. Those filters could be used to create the various “PubNum” columns in the CSV table. Both mentions of an individual island and its archipelago were counted. All languages identified by HathiTrust were included in the statistics.
Problems to consider:
a) possible dublicates of entries b) misattribution of publication languages
HTML structure of language information on result list:
<div id="SpracheRefinement">
<div class="head"><strong>Sprache</strong></div>
<ul class="refinement">
<li>
<a rel="nofollow" title="Englisch" href="/search?q=su%3AGreece+Crete.&dblist=638&fq=ln%3Aeng&qt=facet_ln%3A">Englisch</a> (4261)
</li>
<li>
<a rel="nofollow" title="Neugriechisch [1453- ]" href="/search?q=su%3AGreece+Crete.&dblist=638&fq=ln%3Agre&qt=facet_ln%3A">Neugriechisch [1453- ]</a> (2183)
</li>
<li>
<a rel="nofollow" title="Deutsch" href="/search?q=su%3AGreece+Crete.&dblist=638&fq=ln%3Ager&qt=facet_ln%3A">Deutsch</a> (877)
</li>
<li>
LINK TO MORE RESULTS IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES:
view-source:https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=su%3AGreece+Crete.&fq=&dblist=638&fc=ln:_50&qt=show_more_ln%3A&cookie
ln:_150 shows all languages including Welsh and Church Slawonik!
URL structure of WorldCat query with several keywords:
https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=kw%3Ainsul+OR+insula+OR+isle+OR+insel+OR+island+OR+inseln+OR+insuln+OR+isola&fq=yr%3A1600..1800+%3E&qt=advanced&dblist=638
URL structure of WorldCat query with “subject” and “title” words:
https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=su%3Aislands+OR+ti%3Ainsula&qt=advanced&dblist=638
URLs of consecutive WorldCat result pages:
https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=kw%3Ainsul+OR+insula+OR+isle+OR+insel+OR+island+OR+inseln+OR+insuln+OR+isola&fq=yr%3A1600..1800+%3E&dblist=638&start=01&qt=page_number_link
https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=kw%3Ainsul+OR+insula+OR+isle+OR+insel+OR+island+OR+inseln+OR+insuln+OR+isola&fq=yr%3A1600..1800+%3E&dblist=638&start=11&qt=page_number_link
https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=kw%3Ainsul+OR+insula+OR+isle+OR+insel+OR+island+OR+inseln+OR+insuln+OR+isola&fq=yr%3A1600..1800+%3E&dblist=638&start=21&qt=page_number_link
https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=kw%3Ainsul+OR+insula+OR+isle+OR+insel+OR+island+OR+inseln+OR+insuln+OR+isola&fq=yr%3A1600..1800+%3E&dblist=638&start=31&qt=page_number_link
etc.
https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=kw%3Ainsul+OR+insula+OR+isle+OR+insel+OR+island+OR+inseln+OR+insuln+OR+isola&fq=yr%3A1600..1800+%3E&dblist=638&start=111&qt=page_number_link
etc.
https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=kw%3Ainsul+OR+insula+OR+isle+OR+insel+OR+island+OR+inseln+OR+insuln+OR+isola&fq=yr%3A1600..1800+%3E&dblist=638&start=231&qt=page_number_link
etc.
https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=kw%3Ainsul+OR+insula+OR+isle+OR+insel+OR+island+OR+inseln+OR+insuln+OR+isola&fq=yr%3A1600..1800+%3E&dblist=638&start=4991&qt=page_number_link
etc.
5000 results max.
HTML structure of WorldCat result page:
```<tr class="menuElem">
</tr>```