Ways into the collection
Move between an individual instrument and broader relationships in the corpus.
| Research interest | Route into the Navigator |
|---|---|
| An instrument’s history | Read attributed events and compare specification accounts. |
| Builders and workshops | Follow supported actor relationships and inspect their evidence. |
| A stop name or technical term | Explore terminology in its original source context. |
| A regional question | Start with places, retaining coordinate qualifications. |
| A reproducible selection | Record the dataset version, query and complete selection. |
Terminology in context
Different sources can use the same word differently, or different words for related concepts. The vocabulary hub connects source terminology and controlled references while keeping their roles distinguishable.
Three small investigations
The following are suggested research exercises, not claims of findings in the corpus. Their purpose is to show how the same interface can support different units of analysis.
| Exercise | Useful comparison | Question that remains open |
|---|---|---|
| Follow a workshop | Compare supported actor roles across a selected set of instruments. | Do matching names establish the same person or company? |
| Trace a specification | Compare attributed accounts of one instrument. | Are apparent differences dated changes, source conventions or unresolved conflict? |
| Follow a stop name | Inspect original spellings and their surrounding specification context. | Does a shared label imply comparable construction or sound? |
Make exclusions visible
A selection can look more consistent after uncertain records are removed. That can be appropriate for a bounded analysis, but the exclusion rule belongs in the method. Keep a separate count of records excluded because dates, roles or locations are unresolved. Otherwise the resulting map or chronology can imply a completeness the evidence does not support.
Source collections may also differ in focus. A catalogue of a particular builder, region or instrument type is not sampled in the same way as a broad inventory. When comparing groups, inspect source coverage before attributing a difference to the instruments themselves. A concentration of records can reflect documentation activity as well as historical activity.
Return from a term to its evidence
Use a controlled vocabulary to relate terms, then return to the original wording before drawing a substantive conclusion. A mapping can make records discoverable together while leaving the interpretation provisional. The OMARO notebook explains how a reference label, an attributed classification and a reviewed statement play different roles.
Sources & further reading
- Pipe Organ Dataset 1.6.0
The fixed dataset release, methods and checksums.
- OMARO 0.1.0
Organological reference vocabulary.
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