Enhancing literary electronic books with logical structure: electronic work

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to present the concept of electronic work, such as an e‐book integrator of concerns (logical structure, appearance and functionality), for representing literary texts available in electronic heterogeneous environments.Design/methodology/approachFrom the generic description of an e‐book and the descriptive requirements of the BiDiLiC project, the concept of electronic work is presented. These requirements involve a descriptive markup policy (based on TEI‐Lite) which defines the text's logical structure and is used for integrating the other concerns associated with the text: functionality and appearance. Finally, the article presents an example showing the integration of the previous concepts to achieve a functional implementation of the electronic work.FindingsThe electronic work covers the requirements of classic literary texts, while still allowing other types of texts to be represented easily. For this purpose, a robust logical structure based on TEI is defined, which offers an interchange norm for information stored in an electronic form. This representation, developed in XML, allows the logical structure of the text to be described generically, facilitating the integration (around it) of the service's functionality, as well as adapting its appearance for use in heterogeneous environments, such as the internet.Originality/valueThis paper proposes a new approach for interacting with electronic content. This approach is presented from conceptual basis to functional representation by way of theoretical reasoning and innovative technology.