SGML for Web Pages

[MacKenzie Smith]

> ...  And SGML, though a slightly older "standard" than HTML is not 
> going to make much difference...
> The media come, the media go...putting information into them is a committment
> to migrating the information from one media to the next until the information
> is no longer of value.   After all, we use to use scrolls...

I think this is the wrong way to think about it.  Using SGML for non-
bibliographic information is exactly equivalent to using the MARC format
for bibliographic data.  We occasionally have to update our MARC records,
as Mr. Oldfield points out, and we will have to do the same for SGML
documents.  _BUT_ having the MARC standard for bibliographic information
has allowed libraries to move their data from one type of system to the
next (and one medium to the next) at dizzying speeds _without_ changing it
much, and SGML for our other kinds of information would allow much the
same flexibility and quick reaction time to technical innovations! 

I can't stress enough that SGML is the way to go if you plan to have the
information that's up on your web sites around for awhile... As Michael
Sperberg-McQueen of TEI fame likes to say: don't put your information into
HTML unless it's killed, cooked and frozen!  And, by the way, HTML _is_ an
example of SGML, just not a particularly nice one.  Lots of people are
starting to put "real" SGML on the web, and it's a perfectly sensible
thing to do if you plan to invest any time in creating the information.


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MacKenzie Smith                                   mackenzie_smith at harvard.edu
Harvard University Library                        %\%\%\%\%\%\%\%\%\%\%\%\%\%
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