TDS Curator: Typological Database System

The Typological Database System (TDS) is a web-based service that provides integrated access to a collection of independently created typological databases. It was developed with support from NWO grant 380-30-004 / INV-03-12 and from participating universities, and provides continued access and extended documentation for its component databases through a uniform interface. TDS Curator has turned the TDS into a sustainable service that conforms to CLARIN infrastructural requirements. We have adapted the TDS approach to the archiving domain, by formalizing the Integrated Data and Documentation Format (IDDF), which provides a rich XML-based container for the collected semi-structured data and their documentation; and coupling this with a service-based access point and a “generic” user interface, that is to say, a software suite that is independent of the particular data collections but provides a high level of functionality for navigating the IDDF structure and metadata. The TDS Curator server is hosted by DANS. The data resources of the TDS are made available through the User Interface, and separately as archived resources on the DANS archiving system, EASY.