Case Study:
Digital Zettelkasten

Customer

The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities is a renowned institution based in Munich, dedicated to interdisciplinary scientific research. A major focus of its work is Ancient Studies, for which it develops sophisticated digital tools to support academic dialogue and the management of extensive source materials. The Academy coordinates several long-term scholarly projects and relies on modern, sustainable solutions for the digitalization of its research infrastructure. Its working style features close collaboration between academic departments and technical experts, ensuring that both practical needs and the highest academic standards are reflected in its digital ventures.

Project

For several projects in Ancient Studies, the Bavarian Academy of Sciences had previously operated digital Zettelkasten systems for managing core research data, such as lemmas, works, and academic citations. The existing application had become outdated in terms of functionality, usability, and technical architecture, and no longer met the evolving needs of researchers and staff. In particular, the ability to perform flexible, fast searches across many interconnected entries, edit multiple records simultaneously, and access a multilingual interface became critical focal points for modernization.

The aim of the project was thus to completely redevelop a modern, web-based Zettelkasten application that would optimally support scholarly workflows. The new application needed to offer an intuitive and responsive interface that felt familiar to users of the previous system but expanded with new features such as efficient search and filter tools, and personalized organization tools for users. Special emphasis was placed on granular linking and a clear, readable structure throughout the content, facilitating seamless collaboration and sharing of research outcomes.

The organization also faced the challenge of keeping the ever-growing volume of academic data both organized and manageable in a performant and sustainable way. Another difficulty was migrating the existing collection of varied entities—zettels, works, lemmas, editions, and their complex relationships and attributes—into a flexible, robust data model capable of adapting to future needs. Additionally, processes for importing scanned notes and their metadata needed to be made more reliable and user-friendly. Finally, it was essential to develop a solution that the Academy could operate, maintain, and extend independently over the long term.

Implementation

To realize the Digital Zettelkasten, CosmoCode developed a comprehensive solution using state-of-the-art web technologies and established frameworks. The backbone is built on the Python Django framework, which provides a robust foundation for the data model, user and permission management, and API development. For the frontend, Next.js and React were chosen, enabling the creation of a high-performance, interactive user interface with a clear component structure. All communication between the frontend and backend is handled via a REST API based on Django Rest Framework's standard mechanisms.

Data modeling translated the Academy's complex requirements into a well-structured database schema, representing the intricate relationships between zettels, lemmata, works, editions, and projects. At the client's request, MariaDB was selected as the database system. The model also incorporated features such as the sorting of Latin words, generating citation-ready identifiers, and supporting annotations and markup.

On the frontend, a flexible grid-based layout presents various list and detail views in an organized manner, complemented by interactive components such as editor overlays, auto-completion for entity linking, and a convenient multi-edit mode. The search functionality, with its custom query syntax, enables precise and complex cross-entity queries, utilizing the parser from the Whoosh project for query parsing.

Deployment is handled through an automated setup with GitLab Build Pipelines for Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment. Both test and production server environments are built and provisioned directly from the GitLab repository. Comprehensive documentation of the source code and deployment routines ensures long-term maintainability and transparency.