Funded by:
© AHDS
Oxford Text Archiveand good practice in the creation
of electronic resources
http://ota.ahds.ac.uk
Martin Wynne
with a lot of help from Ylva Berglund
Funded by:
© AHDS
Case study: Terms of Address in Ben Jonson’s plays
• Database of all address terms
• Instances coded for various parameters– addresser/addressee, type of address,
reference, etc.
• Stored on computer + back-ups on floppy disks
• The creator is happy to share the resource…
Funded by:
© AHDS
Problem 1: Hardware/media
• Changes in hardware → data on old computer and floppies now largely inaccessible
• Storage media vulnerable
Funded by:
© AHDS
Problem 2: Software
• Specialist software → data tied into application
• Proprietary software → ongoing support for application reliant on commercial interests
• Program versions: compatibility, different platforms → not compatible
Funded by:
© AHDS
Problem 3: Coding/mark-up
• Personal scheme – not comparable to other resources– doesn’t work with generic software
• Documentation– resource soon becomes unusable if
documentation is inadequate or impossible to find
Funded by:
© AHDS
Problem 4: Sharing
• Dissemination– Awareness– Distribution– Sustainability
Funded by:
© AHDS
Solution 1: Hardware/media
• Migrate data from old hardware
• Don’t keep on only one machine
• Don’t store on vulnerable media
Funded by:
© AHDS
Solution 2: Software • Avoid specialised software unless
possible to migrate data
• Consider open source
Funded by:
© AHDS
Solution 3: Coding/mark-up
• Use standards
• Document!
Funded by:
© AHDS
Example: html
This is bold
This is <b>bold</b>
This is a noun
This is a <b>noun</b>
Funded by:
© AHDS
Example: COCOA<Q FRENCH><A SARTRE><T NAUSEE><I 9><L 1> %"$C' EST UN GAR*CON SANS IMPORTANCE COLLECTIVE,%%C' EST TOUT JUSTE UN INDIVIDU."%\L#-\F# \CE[LINE.%\L' E[GLISE\.%<F 00><P 11><L 1>%%AVERTISSEMENT DES E[DITEURS%% %$CES CAHIERS ONT E[TE[ TROUVE[S PARMI LES PAPIERS D' \
ANTOINE R\OQUENTIN.\%%$NOUS LES PUBLIONS SANS Y RIEN CHANGER.% …
Funded by:
© AHDS
Example: XML<s n="97">
<w type="AJ0">Normal</w>
<w type="NN1">economy</w>
<w type="NN1">return</w>
<w type="VBZ">is</w>
<w type="NN0">£262</w>
<c type="PUN">.</c>
</s>
Funded by:
© AHDS
Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)• Guidelines for the encoding of electronic
texts using XML
• For interchange
• Guidelines freely available
• http://www.tei-c.org/
Funded by:
© AHDS
Encoding
• Choose language/format– e.g. XML
• Choose coding scheme– e.g. TEI
Funded by:
© AHDS
Markup and encoding options
• Word processing files• PDF• Database• HTML• SGML• XML• Plain text• Unicode
Funded by:
© AHDS
Advantages of XML
• Standard not only in scholarly text encoding, but publishing, web, etc.
• Growing number of tools
• Community of users, support
• Re-usable skills, useful to learn
• XML resources good for repurposing
• XML resources good for preservation
• Disadvantages? Cost, complexity
Funded by:
© AHDS
Advantages of TEI
• Standard in scholarly text encoding,
• Community of users, support available
• Extensible
• TEI resources good for interchange
• Disadvantages:– Cost, complexity– Compromises to text integrity– Overlapping hierarchies
Funded by:
© AHDS
Disadvantages of TEI
• Cost, complexity
• Compromises to text integrity
• Overlapping hierarchies…
Funded by:
© AHDS
<p><sp cat=”NRS”>One officer said:</sptag><sp cat=”DS”>'This is like an episode from Inspector Morse.</p><p>"The victim was single but we believe he had several lady friends.</p><p>"It is possible that it was something in the background of one of those relationships that caused his death. .</p><p>"We don't think he was linked with any criminals or involved in any secret wrong doing." .</p></sp><p><sp cat=”N”>Police have not ruled out the possibility of a contract killing by a hitman.</sp></p>
Funded by:
© AHDS
Solution 4: Sharing
• Inform user/subject communities
• Metadata
• Consider using archives
Funded by:
© AHDS
Oxford Text Archive
• Founded in 1976
• Collect, catalogue, preserve, and distribute high-quality electronic resources
• Advise creators and users
• Part of the AHDS
Funded by:
© AHDS
AHDS http://www.ahds.ac.uk
• Archaeology
• History
• Literature, Languages and Linguistics
• Performing Arts
• Visual Arts
+
• Executive
Funded by:
© AHDS
The OTA today
• About 2000 resources, in 25 languages
• Mostly primary texts, ‘classics’
• Language corpora
• Increasingly, more complex resources, with more intellectual content
• http://www.ota.ahds.ac.uk/
Funded by:
© AHDS
The OTA in the future
• New webpage– More information– New ways of accessing resources
• Workshops and training events– Digitisation workshop– For new projects– Specialised workshops
• New resources
Funded by:
© AHDS
Oxford Text Archiveand good practice in the creation
of electronic resources
http://ota.ahds.ac.uk
Martin Wynne
with a lot of help from Ylva Berglund