SEARCHstrata will offer a more robust search of the Harvard Libraries’ Islamic collections — the largest academic collection in the world — together with a virtual browser of it, and a collections curator. Users around the globe will be able to view the material housed in this library, as will collaborating institutions in the future who add additional sources on Islamic law (legislation, court cases, fatwas) and create their own “shelves” in a virtual library. The data science tools in development are designed by and with scholars in the field to make possible close and distant reading of historical and contemporary texts. Combined with our other data science tools currently in development, Beginning with the Harvard Islamic law collection, we will provide updates on the layered library search tool as we build, stratum by stratum.
