SGML and EAD courses at Rare Book School (fwd)

[Roy Tennant]

I am forwarding this on behalf of John Buchtel at Book Arts Press
<fac-fbap at virginia.edu> .
Roy

* * * * * 

BOOKS AT VIRGINIA: RARE BOOK SCHOOL 1998 (RBS): Rare Book School is pleased
to announce its schedule of courses for the summer of 1998, 26 five-day
non-credit courses of bookish interest to be offered on the grounds of the
University of Virginia in Charlottesville, 13 July - 7 August. Tuition per
course for RBS 1998 Summer Session is $595.  Applications may be requested
via the contact information at the end of this message. The complete
brochure and Expanded Course Descriptions are available at our Web site:

		<http://poe.acc.virginia.edu/~oldbooks>

Subscribers to this list may find the courses listed below to be of
particular interest:

27 and 46. INTRODUCTION TO ELECTRONIC TEXTS AND IMAGES. This course will
provide a wide-ranging and practical exploration of electronic texts and
related technologies. It is aimed primarily (although not exclusively) at
scholars keen to develop, use, and publish electronic texts as part of
their own textual, research, and pedagogical work, and at librarians
planning to develop an etext operation. Drawing on the experience and
resources available at UVa's Electronic Text Center, the course will cover
the following areas: how to find existing etexts; how to create
archival-quality etexts, including digital image facsimiles; the necessity
of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) for etext development and
use; the implications of XML; text analysis software; and the management
and use of Web-based SGML text databases.  

As a focus for our study of etexts, the class will create an electronic
version of a printed text, mark its structure with SGML ("TEI") tagging,
construct digital images of sample pages and illustrations, produce a
hypertext version, design an EAD guide for the materials digitized, and
make the whole accessible on the Internet.

Applicants need to have some experience with the tagging of HTML documents.
In their personal statement, applicants should assess the extent of their
present knowledge of the electronic environment, and outline a project of
their own to which they hope to apply the skills learned in this course.

The course will be offered twice (in Weeks 2 and 4) in anticipation of its
usual large number of applications. In your personal statement, please
indicate if you can take the course in EITHER of the two time slots in
which it is offered (by doing so, you will materially increase your chances
of being admitted to the course). Instructor: David Seaman. Offered
previously in 94-97.

DAVID SEAMAN is the founding director of the nationally-known Electronic
Text Center <http:// etext.lib.virginia.edu> and on-line archive at the
University of Virginia. He lectures and writes frequently on SGML, the
Internet, and the creation and use of electronic texts in the humanities.
For further information, see <http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/staff/dms8f.html>.


16 and 37. IMPLEMENTING ENCODED ARCHIVAL DESCRIPTION. This course will
provide a practical introduction to the application of the emerging
standard Encoded Archival Description (EAD) to the encoding of archive and
manuscript library finding aids. 

The course is aimed primarily at archivists who process and describe
collections in finding aids, though it will also be useful to repository
administrators contemplating the implementation of EAD, and to
technologists working in repositories. The course will cover the following
areas: the history of EAD and its theoretical and technological
foundations; an introduction to Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML)
including discussions of authoring and network publishing tools; a detailed
exploration of the structure of EAD; use of software tools to create and
publish finding aids; discussion of conversion techniques and
methodologies, and templates for creation of new finding aids; and finally,
the integration and management of EAD in an archive or library.

The class will jointly encode and publish a finding aid that will
illustrate a wide variety of essential EAD and SGML concepts. 

Applicants must have a basic knowledge of archival descriptive practices as
well as experience using word-processing software with a graphical user
interface. Some experience with the World Wide Web and HTML will aid the
learning process.

The course will be offered twice. Session I (no. 16: July 13-17) is
directed at those who have had no previous formal encounter with EAD.
Session II (no. 37: 27-31 July) is directed at those who have already begun
working with EAD. In their personal statement, applicants should indicate
their relevant archival background, the extent of their previous experience
with computers in general, and graphical user interfaces and EAD in
particular, and describe their role (present or future) in the
implementation of EAD in their home institution. Instructor: Daniel Pitti.
Course offered previously in 97. (See the RBS web site for student
evaluations.)

DANIEL PITTI became Project Director at the University of Virginia's
Institute for Advanced Technology in 1997, before which he was Librarian
for Advanced Technologies at the University of California, Berkeley. He was
the Coordinator of the Encoded Archival Description initiative.

* * * * *
Posted by John Buchtel on behalf of Rare Book School and the Book Arts
Press.

Book Arts Press                      ph: 804/924-8851 
114 Alderman Library                fax: 804/924-8824
University of Virginia            email: biblio at virginia.edu
Charlottesville, VA  22903