Talk:Best Practices for TEI in Libraries

The following are revisions to make to the BP before making an official "release". There is a separate list of Future changes to Best Practices for TEI in Libraries.

Test ODDs and schemas derived from them

Test Syd's ODDs and schemas derived from them: http://bauman.zapto.org/~syd/temp/BestPractices/ . Just go to that URL, download the .rng files, and create a new XML document based on the schema. So if it allows you to insert all the elements you expect to be able to insert. Syd has been asked to make the following changes:

• in header ODD, allow only a structured <publicationStmt>
• lib1.rng: <oXygen/> says "Errors encountered: Probably no start pattern found".
• The only allowed child of front, body, or back *at any level* should be a div.
• note should not be allowed at in Level 1 or Level 2
• ab should be the only child allowed of any div (in both Level 1 and Level 2). This element seems to be missing from the schema.
• floatingText is missing in Level 3 or Level 4 schemas.

Possible additional tweaks to the ODDs based on email threads. Need to determine whether to move to Future changes to Best Practices for TEI in Libraries:

• Use of attribute(s) on sourceDesc/biblStruct/monogr/imprint/date is now required, and with attribute values mapping to the Dates fixed fields (per email sent by Kevin on 1/16/2010)
• normalizing AACR2 dates for machine processing, to be shared with Thutmose project (per email sent by Kevin on 1/16/2010)

Pending Review: Use of any P5 attributes

We need to figure out how much guidance we will give on use of attributes on elements within the body of a TEI document.

• Prose changed to reflect recommended/required attributes in the body of a text
  • This text may change again after the list has been generated (it's purposefully vague)
  • May add an appendix of all attributes identified
• Lisa is compiling a list of frequently used attributes, see List of attributes suggested to include in BPG, and those excluded
• The group will need to review the list for completeness
• Syd will constrain the ODDs accordingly

Resolved: Publication Statement

As of 5/26/2010, allow structured and unstructured publication statements, per Kevin: "In cataloging, I believe you don't state publication information if something is unpublished rather than saying something like "unpublished", but I don't have AACR2 with me at the moment to verify. However, we've been trying to give people the option of creating TEI headers conforming to the BP by hand (not from MARC source) in case they want to, and I agree that the TEI way to do this is with a <p> element. So I now favor allowing either the structured or unstructured publicationStmt in the ODD but saying in the prose that people they should only use the unstructured one for a statement such as your example. Does this sound okay to others?"

• Irrelevant since we are talking about fileDesc publicationStmt; stick with structred statement

Resolved: Direction of pointing between note references and notes themselves

Decide whether to change back to having <ref> point to <note> instead of <note> point to <ref>, as Syd recommended. See this ticket:

https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2796148&group_id=106328&atid=644062

and this change to the Guidelines:

http://tei.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/tei/trunk/P5/Source/Guidelines/en/CO-CoreElements.xml?r1=6937&r2=6936&pathrev=6937

or, for the full story, see Kevin's email from Nov. 6 and previous quoted messages.

• Kevin updated this in the Bp: Best_Practices_for_TEI_in_Libraries#Notes

Resolved: meeting element

• Header updated accordingly

Add history of version 3 to Appendix A

• Text migrating into main prose
• Could benefit from group review

Add Tite as Level 3.5

• Dependent on ongoing Tite revisions; need confirmation from Dan O'Donnell/Perry Trolard
• Adding level 3.5 on hold
• Updated clarification between Tite and the BP added to the main prose

This was strongly recommended by Daniel Pitti in Ann Arbor because he felt certain that administrators and funders would be confused about the difference between TEI Tite and the Best Practices ("don't the libraries already have a TEI customization?"); in fact, Kevin has known this same confusion to arise among TEI Council members. While we have a section of the BP discussion its relationship to Tite, by having a Level 3.5, we can be more explicit about mapping between the two.

Mapping clarification from Kevin: Instead of actually mapping elements, Daniel wanted us to simply proclaim use of Tite as one of a number of appropriate encoding levels for libraries.

Naturally we will not be able to describe Tite the way we do other levels -- by simply saying "all the elements in the previous levels, plus the following". Tite uses different element names of all sorts. There's no point in having Syd make an ODD for Tite since one already exists. So what Kevin envisions here is a sort of "sidebar" about Tite, inserted between Levels 3 and 4 that discusses Tite in a bit more detail than we currently have in the beginning of the BP, with particular discussion of mapping between the two.

We recently had some discussion about the merits of this, so maybe we won't do it in the end. But if we do, we'll need a draft of this new sidebar. Two paragraphs are already written for you (the brief discussion of the relationship between Tite and the BP), and you can pull more information from Tite's discussion of an earlier version of the Best Practices.

Would someone be willing to write a first draft of all of this? Two paragraphs are already written for you, and you can pull more information from Tite's discussion of an earlier version of the Best Practices.

• Can we just use what's written here (rather than link to it) and modify accordingly fpr our level 3.5: http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-exemplars/html/tei_tite.doc.html#tei-in-lib-bpg. Didn't Kevin write this anyway? If not, whose permission do we need?
  • I'm pretty sure Perry Trolard wrote this section. Shouldn't be a problem to use it. However, we should carefully check all the assertions since things have likely changed since Tite was last revised. Another round of Tite revisions is supposed to be forthcoming, so perhaps wait on this.

Revise section on hyphenation

• ediotorialDecl description in Header pending; Kevin will confirm with Perry W.

Acknowledgments

Tools Dev

Need to add Michael to this list and I think we should especially highlight Syd's ODD work so I propose we add the following section above the copy-editors:

The individuals who have contributed complementary tools to this document are:

• Syd Bauman (Brown University): ODD specifications for levels 1-4
• Michael Sperberg-McQueen (Black Mesa Technologies LLC): Thutmose stylesheets for MARC-to-TEI Header mappings

Great idea. (Kshawkin)

Editors

Do we want to higlight Kevin and Michelle as editors of this document? Who else?

I vote yes, to acknowledge these especially heroic efforts. (Gworthey)