All data in the Perseus Catalog is or will be accessible as linked data in multiple formats.
Canonical URIs
The canonical URIs for all linkable Perseus Catalog records are visible in the interface and all adhere to the following syntax:
http://data.perseus.org/catalog/<record id>[/format]
CTS URNs are used as the record ids for CTS Textgroups, Works, Editions and Translations:
http://data.perseus.org/catalog/<textgroup urn>[/format]
http://data.perseus.org/catalog/<work urn>[/format]
http://data.perseus.org/catalog/<edition urn>[/format]
http://data.perseus.org/catalog/<translation urn>[/format]
So for example, the following are the canonical URIs for objects in the CTS hierarchy for Homer’s Iliad:
http://data.perseus.org/catalog/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012
http://data.perseus.org/catalog/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001
http://data.perseus.org/catalog/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-grc1
http://data.perseus.org/catalog/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1
And to specifically request the ATOM feed of the data, you append /atom to the URIs:
http://data.perseus.org/catalog/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012/atom
http://data.perseus.org/catalog/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001/atom
http://data.perseus.org/catalog/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-grc1/atom
http://data.perseus.org/catalog/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1/atom
Canonical URIs for author level records are not yet supported as of Release 1.0 but will be available in a future release.
Supported Data Formats
As of Release 1.0, we support the ATOM and HTML formats, and in future releases we anticipate supporting at least JSON and RDF.
If a format is not supplied in the URL, the canonical URIs will redirect to the HTML display for the record.
The ATOM format returns an ATOM feed containing entries for each underlying metadata type available in the Perseus Catalog for that record.
The ATOM feeds for textgroup records contain one entry each for:
- The CTS TextInventory metadata for the textgroup.
- Any MODS records available for editions or translations catalogued for the works in that textgroup. Note that MODS record entries at this level contain links only, and not the actual MODS metadata.
- Any MADS records available for the author(s) of the works included in the textgroup. Note that MADS record entries at this level contain links only, and not the actual MADS metadata.
- Future releases will also include MADS metadata for editors and translators of the editions and translations catalogued for the works in the textgroup.
The ATOM feeds for work records contain one entry each for:
- The CTS TextInventory metadata for the work
- Any MODS records available for editions or translations catalogued for the work. The full MODS metadata is included in the entries.
- Any MADS records available for the author(s) of the work. The full MADS metadata is included in the entries.
- Future releases will also include MADS metadata for editors and translators of the editions and translations catalogued for this work.
The ATOM feeds for edition and translation records contain one entry each for:
- The CTS TextInventory metadata for the edition or translation.
- Any MODS records available for the edition or translation. The full MODS metadata is included in the entries.
- Any MADS records available for the author(s) of the primary source work. The full MADS metadata is included in the entries.
- Future releases will also include MADS metadata for the editors and/or translators of the edition or translation.