I've been researching Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). The links
below provide references to FAQs, definitions, tutorials, bibliographies and articles on
some of the big questions such as: how can SGML help academics and librarians.
- How can it be used by editors of literary or historical works? See TEI
links. (It has been used principally by literary editors, but historical
documentary editors have taken another look; see the Model Editions Partnership,
essentially an online brochure.)
- How can archivists benefit from SGML? See EAD
(Encoded Archival Description) links.
- How can librarians benefit from SGML? Most catalog records are
stored in the most wide-spread "Meta" language of all, MARC (Machine Readable
Cataloging). MARC is the encoding used by most libraries for online cataloging records. It
has even being adapted for museums description. (Most online catalogs on the Web convert
MARC records to HTML, but HTML is very dumb compared to SGML.)
- What about XML? Could it help Web programmers? Could it help
institutions wanting to provide SGML online without dumbing-down to HTML? What about
providing richer information?
- Most of my Meta Tags links are now here.
- Museums are also doing work on SGML and XML. See CIMI, Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum Information
An important article appeared in the April 2002 D-Lib magazine, entitled "Metadata Principles and Practicalities," by Erik Duval, Wayne Hodgins, Stuart Sutton, and Stuart L. Weibel. A longish tech article, it's worth skimming for major principles and issues of Meta Data.
Links maintained via Phil Greenspun's BooHoo server. Comments via his Loquacious server.
To see the old section on Meta Tags, go here.
