TM4DH: Topic Maps for Digital Humanities
Topic Maps are a powerful metadata and knowlege management tool that may be used to generate more flexible and dynamic digital representations of traditional tools upon which humanities scholars depends--tools such as indices, glossaries, and thesauri. Topic Maps are most often represented in an XML format, XML Topic Maps (XTM) <http://www.topicmaps.org/>. HyTime and other syntaxes, such as the very streamlined and concise Linear Topic Map (LTM) notation <http://www.ontopia.net/download/ltm.html> may also be used to represent topic maps.
This Web site, Topic Maps for Digital Humanities aims to be a resource for humanities scholars interested in incorporating topic maps into their research and digital scholarship. It includes links to topic map reference resources, tools, and most importantly for the humanities scholar, example topic maps about humanities topics, including more general topics maps about classical mythology, Arthurian legend, the bible, and poetic forms, and a much more focused topic map on the life and work of Victorian poet Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909). The general topic maps may be incorporated as templates into more focused topic maps, and the Swinburne topic map may serve as a model for an in-depth, detailed topic map on a specific research interest.