Open Textbooks and Electronic Publishing Formats/Standards Arctic Virtual Learnng Tools

Challenges Challenges: No clear standard format for electronic publishing of scientific and educational materials (articles, dissertations, textbooks, etc) De facto output standards (PDF, Word, HTML) are not ideal for electronic archiving (digital libraries) or Documents often lack proper metadata descriptors, and there are many different standards for such metadata Lack of sustainability/”future-proof”: Once in a final output format (or formats), documents become difficult to revise or put in another format. Original source material often not archived or maintained.

Goals Goals: As simple solution as possible that allows for output to different formats and uses (online, printout, published) that provides sufficient metadata descriptors, and maintains original source content for future applications and revision Maintain source materials in a single format or standard that can be used for multiple output formats (online, printout, published) Separate content and layout so to facilitate later editing and revision Ensure documents at least contain proper metadata, to facilitate search and archiving systems

Output Formats Best solution is to maintain a single ‘source version’ of each document, and produce copies in different end-use formats for different purposes. Process of creating the final output copies could be automated (generated ‘on-the-fly’ from web server), or manually to create archive of needed output formats. For our purposes, likely outputs would be: standard web pages (HTML, normal screen resolution) PDF for download and local printing (compact size, medium quality resolution) PDF (or other) for publication (professional publishing services; high quality resolution) Other outputs might be desirable (mobile devices, speech files, etc), but increase complexity of the solution.

XML and DTD XML: eXtensible Markup Language A set of rules for encoding documents electronically. XML’s design goals emphasize simplicity, generality, and usability over the Internet. DTD: Document Type Definition The purpose of a DTD is to define the legal building blocks of an XML document. It defines the document structure with a list of legal elements. A DTD can be declared inline in your XML document, or as an external reference.

Emerging Electronic Publishing Standards and Technologies ETD Projects with XML-based Approach The following electronic theses and dissertation (ETD) projects have an XML- based approach already in place or are presently in a pilot phase: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) Libraries, SWEDEN, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, University Libraries, USA Sentiers, Université Lumiére, Lyon 2, (Cytbertheses.org project), FRANCE University of Montreal, CANADA Universidad de Chilé (Santiago de Chilé), CHILE Humboldt-University Berlin, "Dissertation Online", GERMANY University of Oslo, Center for Information Technology Services, NORWAY University of Iowa, Graduate College, USA University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Library, USA Helsinki University of Technology, Library, FINLAND

Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) is an international organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination and preservation of electronic analogues to the traditional paper-based theses and dissertations. Does not have a single DTD standard, but general recommendations for preparing theses and dissertations for electronic publication

Challenges of XML/DTD The main philosophy of SGML and XML is the strict separation of content, structure, and layout of documents Little development in XML electronic publication standards or tools since initial popularity around Even if we adopt a general XML approach, we still need to choose from among competing DTD ‘standards’ (no clear de facto standard) PDF has at least survived and is used as the de facto standard of electronic journals, etc., despite the drawbacks. Which should probably tell us something. XML/DTD is seen as a solution from an engineering point-of-view, but has limited value for end users, unless it can be made as cost-effective/easy to use as straightforward PDF creation from word processing software.

Options Options: 1.Simple: Publish in PDF (different output standards, as needed), but maintain well-organized archive of all source material (text, images, etc.) in original quality (ie, high resolution). 2.Complex: Adopt full XML/DTD standard, and provide publishing tools to content developers (from Word, etc) 3.Middle-Ground: Stick with PDF for final output, but use some of the hybrid tools to encode XML data in the document Issues to Consider: Which metadata standard(s)? (Connections to digital libraries, archive systems) Which DTD standard(s), if any? Manual conversions vs Automated output ‘on-the-fly’ Best practices for conservation of original source materials Future standards, formats and technologies Options for print-on-demand services

Hybrid Options Possible Options to Consider Local or server-based tools to do ‘quick-and-dirty’ conversions of Word (or other source documents) that incorporate XML metadata into a final PDF output. Lemon8-XML Documentation Public Knowledge Project Free web server based software system, to convert word processor documents to XML, which can be automatically rendered to XHTML and PDF Referencing assistance XML based on subset of National Library of Medicine Journal Publishing DTD AutoProof (commercial): The Latest Developments in XML Content Workflows The Session Blog — PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference Blog 2009

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