Encoding an Underground Text in the Underground Author Nathan Phillips Data Manager Tye Landels Junior Programmer Joey Takeda Programmer Martin Holmes Associate Project Director Kim McLean-Fiander Project Director Janelle Jenstad The Map of Early Modern Londonhttp://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/includes.xmlVictoria, BC, Canada
Department of English P.O.Box 3070 STNC CSC University of Victoria Victoria, BC Canada V8W 3W1
2016University of Victoria978-1-55058-519-3 Janelle Jenstad london@uvic.ca

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Born digital.

Most MoEML documents, or significant fragments with xml:id attributes, can be addressed using the mol: prefix and accessed through the web application with their id + .xml.

The molagas prefix points to the shape representation of a location on MoEML’s OpenLayers3-based rendering of the Agas Map.

Links to page-images in the Chadwyck-Healey Early English Books Online (EEBO) repository. Note that this is a subscription service, and may not be accessible to those accessing it from locations outside member institutions.

Links to page-images in the English Broadside Ballad Archive (EBBA).

The mdt (MoEML Document Type) prefix used on catRef/target points to a central taxonomy in the includes file.

The mdtlist (MoEML Document Type listing) prefix used in linking attributes points to a listings page constructed from a category in the central MDT taxonomy in the includes file. There are two variants, one with the plain xml:id of the category, meaning all documents in the specified category, and one with the suffix _subcategories, meaning all subcategories of the category.

The molgls (MoEML gloss) prefix used on term/corresp points to a a glossary entry in the GLOSS1.xml file.

This molvariant prefix is used on ref/target attributes during automated generation of gazetteer index files. It points to an element in the generated variant spellings listing file which lists all documents which contain a particular spelling variant for a location.

This molajax prefix is used on ref/target attributes during the static build process, to specify links which point to MoEML resources which should not be loaded into the source page during standalone processing; instead, these should be turned into links to the XML source documents, and at HTML page load time, these should be turned into AJAX calls. This is to handle the scenario in which a page such as an A-Z index of the whole site would end up containing virtually the whole site inside itself.

The molstow prefix is used on facs attributes to link to the HCMC verison of the Stow facsimiles. Usually the first group is the year (1633) and then last is the image number (0001).

The molshows prefix is used on facs attributes to link to the copies of page-images from mayoral shows stored in the london account on the HCMC server. The first group is the year (1633), the second is the source repository, and then last is the image file name.

The sb prefix is used on ref/target attributes to link to Stow’s Books URLs at UToronto.

Our editorial and encoding practices are documented in detail in the Praxis section of our website.

 Standardized respStmts for JENS1, MCFI1, and HOLM3 and added TAKE1 as Junior Programmer. Added XInclude for listPrefixDef in the header. Added global publicationStmt through XInclude. Edited and standardized the encoding. Created the blog post. Encoding an Underground Text in the Underground 11 September, 2013

As John Stow’s Survey of London (in all its editions) is traditionally a text to reference, not to work on exclusively, I’ve enjoyed encoding this early modern cult classic in a basement computing lab—an underground text in the underground. The HCMC is not all dark and gloomy, of course, but a basement is a basement. Victoria itself is not the sunniest city either, so many of us in the lab have found unique ways to reinvigorate our often overcast day to day in the dark arts of early modern encoding.

While trivial, and almost embarrassing to write a blog post about, the running joke in the lab is who has the most outrageous colour scheme in Oxygen, the primary xml software we use in the lab. What began as a circulated white on black scheme to change up the default black on white quickly evolved into any number of colours depending on the resilience of each lab member’s eyesight. Some of these colour combinations are not for the faint of heart. Below you can see the Smurf blue, chartreuse, copper, yellow, and florescent pink I use while working on Stow. Because the tagging is so dense in Survey, the bright colours became a way to read Stow while blocking out the xml. Stow’s text is blue, and everything just melts away once you acclimate to the scheme. Admittedly, not everyone in the lab is a fan, and I have an appointment scheduled with an optician next month.

The Smurf colour scheme for Oxygen.

Additionally, we compile the best encoding music each week during our team meeting. What also began as a joke, my tendency to listen to John Denver while encoding, became a way for all team members to share what really keeps them in the zone encoding various early modern texts. Naturally, as a Montana boy I listen to John Denver, but my music preferences remain eclectic at best. While I can listen to classic rock (Styx usually) as I encode dates, I need less-distracting classical music to concentrate on encoding toponyms. Perhaps eclectic—or even eccentric—is the best way to describe the scene in the lab at times. Team members huddled in front of glowing neon texts, tapping their feet in otherwise complete silence.