---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 13:47:54 -0400
From: csyed <ad6509@wayne.edu>
Subject: Platform independent text (Was Cost per title)

As I understand it, the issues, as first raised on this list were (1) that
digital archival material, and by extension, digital copies of journals, would
have to be refreshed every few years due to media deterioration, and (2), that
the software to read them changes rapidly.

I take it everyone agrees with the former, but nobody had done much
investigating into how to make backup copies, or even whether agreements with
publishers would allow the practice. Software publishers usually license buyers
to make one additional copy for preservation and backup. Future publishing
contracts could probably do this without jeopardizing the industry.

I proposed HTML or SGML (or XML) as platform independent text vehicles. The
Society of American Archivists would appear to agree. The Encoded Archival
Description Web site at http://lcweb.loc.gov/ead/tglib/ describes the Data Type
Definition proposed for archival description, for example. This is an evolution
of the SGML family of markup languages.

Markup is NOT new. It has been around for as long as there were proof readers.
Electronic markup languages are just sets of proofreaders' marks inserted into
texts, in the same way proof readers in the print world markup galleys.

The symbol pair <i></i> in an HTML document means "set this in italic", for
instance, just as "/ital." or "/it" might in the margin of a manuscript.

Markup requires no special technology or software - Netscape for example, works
on Unix and Linux boxes, Macs, and PCs. No special retrieval software is
required.

Other schemes, such as Rich Text Format (rtf) are also understood by
cross-platform software.

Type setting, once we shifted from letterpress and Linotype/Monotype to computer
typesetting, however DOES require special equipment. Aldus Pagemaker, Ventura,
and other "desktop composing" tools, are examples.That is why SGML was invented
to begin with.

Did the quality of book production increase when electronic typesetting set in?
Purists would argue it did not. A compositor, who can insert "hair" quads into
his text, can exert exact control over the layout of the book. Most electronic
typesetting software makes broad assumptions about kerning pairs, etc., much to
the horror of some bibliographers. But for hundreds of years in the letterpress
world, wrong font letters in texts, and other typographic oddities were hardly
unknown.

cbs

---
Chris Brown-Syed <ad6509@wayne.edu> <http://valinor.purdy.wayne.edu>
Ph: +1 313 577-0503.  Fax: +1 313 577-7563. Pager: +1 519 987-8409
Editor, Library & Archival Security. LIS Program, 106 Kresge Library,
Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA, 482023939