Datenbankbasierte Publikationen in der Onomastik

Abstract

The documentation of names in large printed collections (in form of highly structured articles including the name's history, its etymology and variation etc.) has always been an important task of onomastic research. This paper presents a new, more effective way of publishing in onomastics, consisting of a combination of a database (AskSam 5) and a typesetting system (LaTeX). The input of the typesetting system is generated by an output program of the database. Some advantages of this solution are discussed: the independence of the data from the layout in the printed book, which allows to change the layout whenever needed (e.g. when combining different projects), and a higher data security by using basic ASCII code in the database combined with a markup language for professional typesetting. All corrections are made in the database. This keeps the database in accordance with the correct, finally printed text and opens new perspectives in using the data for additional projects, e.g. for indexes or other forms of publication (e.g. popular or short versions). All steps of this new approach are presented: the required features of the database, how to produce the printfile, and how to make the corrections. A detailed discussion of the advantages and the resulting savings of money and time aims to encourage the readers to follow our solution.