Overview

The Citation Database, developed in partnership by the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies and Yale Digital Humanities Lab, provides a direct link from the citations of testimonies in published works back to the original audiovisual sources. Designed as a companion for any publication that cites Fortunoff material, the platform serves as a quasi-bibliometric database, providing a quantitative breakdown of references according to authors, publications, and testimonies.

The interface allows researchers to explore how different publications are linked through the shared citation of specific testimonies. The database stores information on three entities (testimonies, publications, and authors), each of which has its own profile page. A testimony page provides links to the publications that cite it, a publication page includes links to each cited testimony, and an author page provides links to their published works.

In addition to supporting discovery of scholarship and testimonies, the Citation Database is ultimately meant to serve as a rich companion to published works. When sufficient data is available for each citation in a publication, the dashboard links viewers directly to the moment in the video to which the citation refers. For example, complete timestamp data is currently available for Ruins of Memory by Lawrence Langer . This timestamping allows authenticated readers to view video clips of each statement as they’re quoted in Langer’s work.

“The direct links between a published work and its underlying source material is central to the mission of the Archive,” Stephen Naron, Director of the Fortunoff Archive, said. “It promotes engagement with the original audiovisual document, and it promotes accountability by making it easier for readers to view the citation in context.”

Published under a GNU Public License, the Citation Database is free and open source. To see and use the underlying code, visit the Fortunoff Archive’s GitHub Repository.