[osis-core] header info format again

Mon, 1 Jul 2002 08:45:48 -0400

> Is the problem the lack of structure in the creator element?
>
> I would (from a TEI background) assume the following encoding:
>
> <creator type="Author"><name type="given">Alexander</name><name
> type="family">Whyte</name></creator>

I don't believe this would be a practical solution for me (or for OSIS
1.1).  First, there's a whole lot of complexity in a name.  What are
the given/family names in the following examples:

St. Bernard of Clairvaux
St. Thomas Aquinas
The Apostle Paul
St. Francis de Sales (or Desales)
Prince

It would be hard to come up with a suitable set of 'type' attributes and
rules that would allow you to derive different forms of names, one
canonical, sort-order and another in the form commonly given.

Second, a canonical and short-form of a name are exactly what I need
(and what I already have). It would be too much work to parse 100s of
names in that way when I don't really need to.  Whereas the canonical
form can be looked up in a library's catalog; the Library of Congress
has canonical forms for all authors.

There are similar issues with other OSIS head elements.  For example,
keywords. I may have two different lists of keywords, under two
different controlled vocabularies. So I use

<subject type="keyword">Christian Life, Sanctification</subject>
<subject type="keyword">Practical Theology</subject>

I have to be able to say what vocabulary those keywords come from.

<subject type="keyword" format="ccel-subjects">Christian Life;
    Sanctification</subject>
<subject type="keyword" format="LCSH">Practical Theology</subject>

These are examples that have lead me to ask for an optional 'format'
attribute on OSIS head elements. (Actually, that's not quite true--
I discovered long ago though years of experience that you need both
"type" and "format" attributes in <head> data. )

Anyway, adding a "format" attribute seems to me to be a good
compromise between meeting the needs of bible study and digital
library software for formatted data and minimizing added
complexity in the <head> element.

If there is no format attribute, I'll have to encode additional
information into the type attribute, e.g.

<creator type="firstAuthor-shortform">Alexander Whyte</creator>
<creator type="firstAuthor-authorID">whyte</creator>
<creator type="firstAuthor-canonical">Whyte, Alexander (1836-1921)</creator>
<date type="firstPublished-ISO1234">
<subject type="keyword-LCSH">

I suppose that wouldn't be OK, except that other software wouldn't be
able to understand the header data without manually revising the
document for someone else's standards.

-Harry