Transitional MerMEId – Responding to Community Needs in Software and Sustainability
Authors: Bue, Margrethe / Gammert, Jonathan / Gubsch, Clemens / Jettka, Daniel / Kolb, Severin / Lewis, David / Neumann, Joshua / Richter, Matthias / Richts-Matthaei, Kristina / Stadler, Peter
Date: Thursday, 7 September 2023, 4:15pm to 5:45pm
Location: Main Campus, L 1 <campus:stage>
Abstract
MerMEId is an established – and the only – tool in digital musicology that has been developed explicitly for creating and managing musical catalogue data in MEI. Its use in varied projects worldwide evinces its broad applicability. The MerMEId community regularly receives requests from musicological projects (catalogues, editions, etc.) that would like to use the tool for their specific needs and workflows. As such, a significant demand exists within the community for a stable and flexible MEI metadata editor. Originally developed as an in-house solution at the Danish Center for Music Editing, MerMEId has transitioned into a community driven, open-source project coordinated by Virtueller Forschungsverbund Edirom (ViFE) and the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage (ACDH-CH). While the change in governance – along with the establishment of platforms for regular communication and exchange – can be considered completed, the code basis of the software needs extensive revision for re-usability and sustainability.
Currently identified areas for updating include: more maintainable and modularized software, broad and nuanced testing (unit tests, regression tests, integration tests, end-to-end tests, performance tests), and better documentation for users and developers. Contextualized within an accounting of projects using the MerMEId and a review of its current functionality, this poster highlights these planned revisions and outlines a proposed infrastructure for enhancing sustainability. These changes aim to enhance usability and user-friendliness, thereby solidifying the MerMEId as the preeminent tool for creating digital catalogues.
These issues need substantial work that goes beyond the voluntary work of contributors from the community.
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