Minutes from October 23, 2014
In attendance:
- Kevin Hawkins (University of North Texas)
- Torsten Schaßan (Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel)
- Laura Weakly (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
- Harriett Green (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
- Dan Tracy (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
- Patrik Granholm (Uppsala University)
- Jindřich Marek (National Library of the Czech Republic)
- Julia Flanders (Northeastern University)
- Elli Mylonas (Brown University)
- Syd Bauman (Northeastern University)
- Glen Worthey (Stanford University)
- Paul Schaffner (University of Michigan)
- Meaghan Brown (Folger Shakespeare Library)
- Meridith Beck Sayre (Indiana University)
- Nick Homenda (Indiana University)
- Emily McGinn (Lafayette College)
- Eva Nyström (Uppsala University)
- Peter Gorman (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Kevin Hawkins welcomed everyone. He explained, for those who were attending the Chicago Colloquium on Digital Humanities and Computer Science but not the TEI conference, the role of SIGs in the TEI Consortium and explained that his co-convenor, Stefanie Gehrke, could not attend. He added that Martin Mueller arranged for the dinner meeting and that Elena Pierazzo asked him to pass along to the group that "the TEI needs libraries!".
He asked everyone to introduce themselves.
He summarized recent activities of the SIG on Libraries and possibly future directions:
- Members of the group collaborated on a complete rewriting of the document now called Best Practices for TEI in Libraries, plus development of an ODD-based customization. We know some people have mentioned using it the document as a point of reference, but we're unaware of anyone using schemas derived from the ODDs. As the TEI Guidelines continue to evolve, there's a growing list of things which should be addressed in this document in a new version. There's been some discussion with the Technical Council about whether they would take over maintenance of the Best Practices and its associated customization, but Council didn't want to do this. Instead, we began an effort to incorporate aspects of the Best Practices fully applicable to non-library users into the Guidelines. We might try to find funding to pay a student to go through the Best Practices and create such tickets.
- The SIG received a grant from the TEI-C which was used to pay Michael Sperberg-McQueen to develop a tool now called Thutmose II. There is work on it remaining to be done, so we might try to find a way to make this happen.
- At our SIG meeting two years ago, Harriett, Michelle, and Kevin drafted what they nicknamed the "TEI in libraries manifesto". We should think about what to do with this.
- Some of us who have worked for Google Library Partner institutions have been discussing the possibility of Google creating TEI versions of books they scanned. Peter helped him explain that there have been two topics of discussion:
- Making TEI available as a format that Google Library Partner institutions can download for titles digitized from their collections.
- Making TEI available as a download format for users of Google Books.
- We might create an OAI-PMH profile (called "community guidelines") for sharing metadata about TEI documents, allowing someone to develop a discovery service based on OAI-PMH. The profile could even be mentioned in the Best Practices. Jindřich noted that the Czech National Library is already doing using OAI-PMH but exposing the whole TEI document.
- Figure out how TEI Simple might relate to the Best Practices.
- Come up with topics for a TEI Tweet Chat focusing on libraries.
- Discuss the relationship of our SIG with the proposed ADHO SIG on Libraries and DH.
During discussion, the following ideas arose:
- Create tutorials and starting points for learning the TEI, especially aimed at librarians.
- Update the Best Practices document and Thutmose II to reflect changes from AACR2 to RDA and in how RDA is encoded in MARC (using different fields).
- Giving guidance on mapping between TEI and MODS. (A number of people said they were using MODS.)
- Inventory crosswalks involving TEI, perhaps on the TEI wiki.
- Turn the text of the manifesto into an eye-catching design for a poster that could be circulated. Models of similar efforts were cited.
- TEI Tweet Chat:
- Find a prominent library blogger to promote the event.
- During the TEI Tweet Chat, mention the Best Practices, Thutmose II, etc.
- Ask if people are using the Best Practices and Thutmose II.
- Provide advice for those migrating TEI collections into Fedora (including Hydra and Islandora). Julia noted that TAPAS is developing a Hydra gem and will release as open-source software.
- Meet virtually in between our annual face-to-face meetings to keep ourselves on task.
Kevin invited people to join the SIG mailing list if they weren't already a member, and said he would circulate our minutes on that list.
Volunteers for next steps:
Task | Who |
---|---|
Co-host TEI Tweet Chat on Libraries with Paul O'Shea and Kevin Hawkins. | (never mind) |
Organize virtual meetings in between face-to-face meetings | |
Create a page the TEI wiki about crosswalks involving TEI and then invite contributions on TEI-L and in the library metadata community | Kevin |
Rework the "manifesto" into an eye-catching poster for office doors (with a more conceptual and less text-heavy layout) | |
(your task here!) | (your name here!) |