User guide for the digital edition of the David Simonsen Archives

In the following, the contents of the web pages of the indivdual letters will be explaind; for more information about the David Simonsen Archives (contents etc., see The David Simonsen Archives - an introduction.

Please note that only some 10+ % of the correspondence (starting with letter A) is available at the present (June 2011); the base will be updated regularly. For the remaining correspondents, please see The Correspondent list (Sep. 2006) – for further info, see The David Simonsen Archives – and introduction (inquiries should be directed to: eja@kb.dk). Also the layout and other facilities will be developed further. We are also aware of the slow loading speed of the pages, and are working to solve it. It seems, that the choice of web browser (Explorer, Firefox, Opera etc.) and its version number may have an inflence, and the assumption is "newer is faster".

The digital facsimile editions can be accessed in different ways.

1.The David Simonsen Archives (www.kb.dk/letters/judsam/2011/mar/dsa/en)
This web page, with clickable thumbnail pictures, is the portal page of the collection; so far letters to and from David Simonsen, and single letters between other correspondents (for further information, click here). The letters are made available in alphabetical order, based on the names of the correspondents. Individual letters are found by navigation via the "breadcrumb trail" at the top of the page, or by use of the search window at top (see further below).

The "breadcrumb trail" contains the following categories/starting points:
- Letters: 'Others to others' -  for more information, see here
- Letters by date - year, month, day
- Letters to/from David Simonsen - sorted according to the sender's/recipient's surname (etc.)
- Recipient's recidence - countries and places
- Sender's residence - countries and places
- Unidentified enclosures - loose enclosures, e.g. formely presumed to what has been discovered to be with the 'wrong' letter

Please note that:
- When navigating by use of Letters by date, the thumbnail pictures are NOT shown in chronological order. However, the “breadcrumb trail” allows you to navigate to specific years, months and dates. Furthermore, the order of letters under each correspondent’s name (0001, 0002, etc.) is chronological.
- The search facility covers all digital editions from the Royal Library, not only the David Simonsen Archives.
- At the bottom of each letter's individual web page, the Categories box can be used for navigation between the categories (under construction; at the moment, on ly the category Correspondents is available).
- All documents - regadless of type - are given the title "Letter to/from ... from/to ....", also "non-letters".

2.REX
The digitized content of the archives will soon be searchable in the Royal Library’s online catalogue REX, where a link in the catalogue record will lead to the webpage of the individual letter.

3. Google etc.
All data about the archive is available to the major search engines.

The web page of the individual letters
Every document has its own individual web page, with data and clickable picture(s), i.e. link(s) to the digital facsimile(s). The viewer, which enables browsing and zooming, opens in a new window. To get back to the web page, close the viewer or click on the dark area around the viewer window. The possibility of downloading pages as PDF files will be implemented in late 2011. Until then, if you want to save/print a page, we suggest that you make a "screen shot" and use the ensuing "picture" in another program. To order photo files (.jpg etc.), please use the contact information on the web page of the individual letter; for prices etc., see http://www.kb.dk/en/priser/foto/index.html.

Data about the individual letters
Please note that most data are in English, but comments in Danish may occur (mostly of linguistic interest). The transcription system used is a simplified version (no diacritics except ḥ and Ḥ for ח, ‘ for ע (and in a few instances for א); no gemination). For place names, The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names has served as the model.
(Title:) Letter from [not David Simonsen] to David Simonsen, alt. Letter to [not David Simonsen] from David Simonsen
Sender: in transcript and/or in original scripts (place of origin and country of origin in parentheses.
Recipient: in transcript and/or in original scripts (place of origin and country of origin in parentheses.
Resource type: always "text" (added for technical reasons)
Extent: number of pages
Language: codes according to the international standard RFC4646. For conversions from the Jewish calendar, http://www.hebcal.com/converter has been used.
Date created: secular date, based on the data accessible.For date format etc., see ISO8601.
Person: at present other persons, organsations etc. connected with the letter.
Comment: further comments, notes etc.

For questions & comments, please contact eja@kb.dk.