Documenting Text Encoding Practices for Academics
Julia Flanders
Brown University Women Writers Project
04/19/23 CNI Task Force 2003
Scholarly text encoding
• Specialized but significant
• Tension and ongoing debate about relationship of “scholarly” and “technical” realms
• Marked by direct, intensive engagement with textual materials and digital representation
04/19/23 CNI Task Force 2003
Overview
• Scholarly text encoding: what and why
• Text Encoding Initiative background
• Women Writers Project background
• NEH/Delmas documentation project– Goals and audience– Relationship to TEI Guidelines– Workplan, structure, progress, significance
04/19/23 CNI Task Force 2003
Text Encoding Initiative
• Founded 1987, funded by NEH
• Restructured as a membership consortium, 2000
• TEI Guidelines (P3) published 1994, updated (P4) 2003
• P5 forthcoming, 2005?
• http://www.tei-c.org
04/19/23 CNI Task Force 2003
TEI Guidelines
• A common language for humanities text encoding projects
• Standards-based: SGML, XML, Unicode
• Broad coverage of genre, discipline
• Open-ended rather than tightly specified
• Ongoing research effort
• Extensible by users
04/19/23 CNI Task Force 2003
<lg type=“poem.quatrain” lang=“en” id=“PP” corresp=“PQP”><head><name>Probable-Possible</name>, My Black
Hen</head><l><name>Probable-Possible</name>, my black hen</l><l>She lays eggs in the Relative When;</l><l>She never lays eggs in the Possible Now</l><l>Because she’s unable to postulate how.</l></lg><lg type=“poem.quatrain” lang=“fr” id=“PQP” corresp=“PP”><head><name>Plus-que-Possible</name>, Ma Poule
Noire</head><l><name>Plus-que-Possible</name>, ma poule noire</l><l>Elle pond ses oeufs dans la Quand-Provisoire;</l><l>Elle ne pond point dans une période sure</l><l>Car l’expérience serait bien trop dure.</l></lg>
04/19/23 CNI Task Force 2003
<pb n="04"><milestone unit="sig" n="A2v"><mw rend="align(center)" type="pagenum">4</mw>
<l>The In&s;piring Mind Illu&s;trious, Rich, and Great;</l> <l>A Mind that can inform your wond'rous Pen</l> <l rend="indent(1)">In all that's Perfect and Sublime:</l> <l>And with an Art beyond the Wit of Men,</l> <l rend="indent(1)">On what e're Thea<unclear reason=”damage">m</unclear>, on what e're great De&s;ign,</l> <l>It carries a Commanding Force, like that of Writ Divine.</l>
</lg>
04/19/23 CNI Task Force 2003
Motives for WWP effort
• To clarify where the TEI is unclear
• To specify where the TEI is general
• To document and publish WWP extensions
04/19/23 CNI Task Force 2003
Women Writers Project
• Text encoding research project
• Early women’s writing in English, 1450-1850s
• Publisher of Women Writers Online
• Founded 1987, first funded 1988
• Long history of affiliation and connection with TEI
04/19/23 CNI Task Force 2003
NEH/Delmas Project
• http://dev.stg.brown.edu/projects/wwpneh/
• Two years of funding
• Deliverables:– WWP internal documentation made public– Encoding Guide: a companion to the TEI
Guidelines
04/19/23 CNI Task Force 2003
Project Goals
• Increase comprehension of text encoding among academics
• Lower the start-up costs for small digitization projects
• Improve consistency and quality of encoding
04/19/23 CNI Task Force 2003
Audience
• Faculty advisors for text encoding projects
• Project directors and managers
• Individual faculty who want to do text encoding on their own
04/19/23 CNI Task Force 2003
Plan of work
• Revise the WWP’s internal documentation
• Review the work/documentation of other projects
• Publish drafts for critique
• Publish final version electronically
04/19/23 CNI Task Force 2003
Structure of the Guide
• Narrative– For initial learning process– Explanation of what text encoding is and does– Description of how to model textual
information usefully– Guide to decision-making
04/19/23 CNI Task Force 2003
Structure of the Guide
• Reference database– Keyworded for lookup, searching– Used for reference, training
• Cookbook and examples
04/19/23 CNI Task Force 2003
Progress so far
• Gathered documentation from other projects• Produced outline of entire Guide• Began revising WWP internal documentation• Produced internal drafts of two chapters• Project web site:
http://dev.stg.brown.edu/projects/wwpneh/
04/19/23 CNI Task Force 2003
Significance
• A model for work needed in other areas
• A sign of changes: how digital materials are being created and used
• A community to watch
Women Writers Projecthttp://www.wwp.brown.edu
http://dev.stg.brown.edu/projects/wwpneh/
Text Encoding Initiative Consortium
http://www.tei-c.org
Recommended
