Peter Liddell and Polly Low (Manchester University) have been working for a couple of years now on a collection of inscriptions “quoted or mentioned in ancient Greek and Latin literary texts”. For reference purposes, a prototype database showcasing some of their data and ideas for presentation has been made available. They now ask:
There appear to be two options for the next stage. One possibility is that we put together a major grant application to the Arts and Humanities Research Council to support an open-access database, based possibly in Manchester. The other possibility is collaboration with [an academic publisher]. Whichever option we decide on, the establishment of an editorial board which would oversee contributions by scholars working on assigned literary texts is a desideratum.
We would like to establish what other scholars would like to see in such a database, the kinds of fields and search-options that would be useful, how the management of such a database would work, and who would be willing to be involved on an editorial board.
With this in mind, we would like to invite [a small group] to a workshop to discuss the design and running of such a database. We intend to hold a meeting at the forthcoming 13th International Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy in Oxford in September 2007 at 4pm on Friday 7th of September. We would be very grateful for any advice that you are willing to offer, and if you were to extend this invitation to others who may be interested in the project.
The first question that I can think of, of course, is how to make sure that this collection becomes compatible with AIEGL-approved archival and interchange standards such as EpiDoc and the EAGLE databases.
