Contents
Domain
This work group is charged with developing guidelines for encoding information about the physical structure of printed books: specifically, information about how individual pages are located and identified within the larger structures of signatures and gatherings. The audience being served is fairly narrowly construed as the community of descriptive and analytical bibliographers for whom this information is essential as a way of documenting the construction of the physical book and as the basis for further analysis of printing practices and the history of particular editions.
While this work group is not expected to cover issues specific to manuscript documents, its recommendations should not unnecessarily preclude their use to encode similar information about manuscript documents, and to this end this work group is expected to maintain communication with the Manuscript Description work group and to review the materials they have already produced in this area.
Objectives
- Review notes and documents prepared by Manuscript Description work group concerning collation.
- Review the needs and practices of those parts of the TEI community (and relevant parts of the potential TEI community: i.e. those who would use the TEI if it included provision for this kind of encoding) likely to use facilities for encoding collation and physical document structure.
-
Propose a detailed work plan to improve and extend
upon the recommendations currently provided by TEI P4 in
these areas. The work plan will be determined by agreement
of the working group but is expected to address at least
the following:
- provision for encoding basic structural information about each page in the document (i.e. its identification with respect to the collation of the entire document), this information being associated directly with the individual page;
- provision for encoding a summary of structural information about the document as a whole (i.e. an equivalent of a collational formula, encoded in the TEI header);
- provision for several types of commentary on the physical document structure (e.g. information, both structured and unstructured, such as measurements, identification, and description of features of paper or typography; summaries of printing history; identification of cancels, etc.);
- provision for several types of derived analytical perspectives on the physical document structure (e.g. reconstructions of individual formes, bifolia, other higher-order structures) using stand-off markup (e.g. <join> ), and provision for where this information should be located within the encoded document;
- in concert with the Manuscript Description workgroup, harmonization of treatment of collation and physical document structure for printed books and manuscripts, at least to ensure that no redundant or incompatible recommendations are made in either section of the Guidelines.
- Respond to comments on relevant other work that may be routed to this work group by the editors.
Administrative
The chair of the work group is Terry Catapano. The TEI Editors are ex officio members of all TEI Work Groups. Other constraints and procedures applicable to all TEI work groups are described in document TEI EDW54. The group has a budget of USD 250 for the year ending 2004, during which no meetings are authorized, but conference calls are expected to take place.
The work group is required to provide progress reports on its work regularly to the TEI Technical Council, which has authority for approving all technical output from the work group.
The work group will meet regularly by conference call, and will communicate by mailing list.
Deadlines
Suggested work plan to be discussed by Council in May 2004.