Standard Generalized Markup Language Research Articles

The publishing process: the hyper-book approach

This paper presents a general overview of the publishing process, including both paper and electronic publishing. The main actors (e.g. authors, publishers and libraries) and the associated publications channels are discussed. One channel is discussed in more detail: this channel incorpo rates all the steps involved from the acquisition of a manu script in a generic mark-up language to the presentation of the final electronic publication to the user in the library. The use of a generic mark-up language (e.g. SGML - stan dard generalised mark-up language) is viewed as being an essential component for facilitating the exchange of elec tronic documents between different systems and applica tions. In addition, the use of a generic mark-up language allows several steps of the publishing process to be auto mated, from the production of electronic books, to the addi tion of the resulting books to a (electronic) library.

Electronic Libraries SGML Applications: background to project ELSA

Project ELSA is examining the use of documents encoded in SGML (Standard Generalised Markup Language) for the delivery of information to library end users and to librarians acting as information intermediaries. A partnership of industry providers and an end user working together within the Third Framework of the CEC Libraries programme, is constructing a delivery system using SGML encoded journal articles which will be used to investigate technical issues and to examine the potential for offering new and improved services. The development of document delivery is discussed briefly followed by some background on SGML and comment on progress within the ELSA project. Some possible applications of such a system are discussed.

Making a digital library

The CORE project is an electronic library of primary journal articles in chemistry, containing about five years of twenty primary journals published by the American Chemical Society (about 425,000 pages). Unlike many digital library projects, CORE includes both a scanned image and a marked-up ASCII version (represented in Standard Generalized Markup Language, or SGML) for each page of the publisher's database. Each page was scanned and segmented, with graphical units isolated and linked to figure references in the articles. The original machine-readable typography was converted to SGML format and the results were used to build databases with indexes for full-text Boolean searching; a single search engine served data for each of three X-Window interfaces.

Hypertext marcup: A conceptualization for encoding, de‐constructing, searching, retrieving, and using traditional knowledge tools

During 1994, Pierian Press began experimenting with the integration of the concepts and respective strengths of both Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) and MARC. These experiments were driven by pragmatism and self‐interest. Pierian Press publishes classified, analytical bibliographies—classical knowledge constructs—which the press and its authors would like to make available for loading on local library systems so that they can function as “maps” unto that subset of literature the respective bibliographies encompass.

Tools for a New Age

How will the serials cataloger of the future meet the need to catalog an ever-increasing volume of materials in an everevolving number of formats? The author provides a tour of the potential tools on the technological horizon, including: expert systems, Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), imaging technology, relational database techniques, and hypertext-like links between and among local and remote files.

SGML in publishing — why use the standard?

As database techniques are becoming more widely used in publishing and as publishers seek to utilise the growing possibilities of multimedia, there is a growing awareness of the possibilities offered by Standard Generalised Markup language (SGML) as a neutral format for safeguarding content independent of proprietary hardware and software. Pindar is a service company with over ten years' experience in working with different IT projects utilising the standard and its associated tools. Three current case studies, involving technical documentation and reference publishing, demonstrate how and why SGML is becoming useful for document management outside the traditional areas of the aerospace and defence industries, where it was first developed.

Multimedia interchange using SGML/HyTime. I. Structures

HyTime is a standard neutral markup language for representing hypertext, multimedia, hypermedia and time-based documents in terms of their logical structure. Documents represented in HyTime conform fully to the ISO Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). In effect, HyTime extends SGML by adding certain syntactic conventions called SGML architectural forms, with which it represents certain semantic constructs. HyTime cannot be understood or evaluated without understanding, at least to some extent, the significance and usefulness of the SGML standard on which it is based. This article examines the structure of the two standards. HyTime places unprecedented demands on document processing systems-demands which they have yet to meet. For example, a full implementation of HyTime would allow one to create a hyperlink to whatever happens to be going on at a particular time and/or place in a finite coordinate space (FCS), even if the event, location and time are not yet known, because of binding-time issues. HyTime allows a document to specify where and/or when the results of traversing a hyperlink will be rendered. HyTime provides constructs for specifying how events scheduled in one FCS are to be projected onto another, e.g. from a 3D FCS to a 2D FCS, or from a virtual measurement domain to a real one. >

The CORE project: Technical shakedown phase and preliminary user studies

The CORE project is an electronic library prototype that provides networked access to the full text and graphics content of American Chemical Society journals and associated Chemical Abstracts Service indexing since 1980 (some 250 journal years of data). The database is coded in Standard Generalized Markup Language (translated from original typography codes) which captures the structural richness of the original document and provides flexibility for indexing, searching, and display. The prototype provides a full‐scale laboratory environment in which to explore issues of database structure, user interface capabilities, and information retrieval questions on a large, real‐world scholarly electronic journal database. The complete database, representing more than 600,000 pages of full text and graphics, will be the largest electronic corpus of its kind. Scheduled for availability at Cornell in late 1993, this database will be available for use by the Cornell Chemistry Department faculty and students on a local area network (although the architecture of the CORE system is extensible to wide area networks as well)

Secure SGML: A Proposal to the Information Community

An inherent characteristic of electronic documents is the ease with which they can be transmitted, reproduced, and modified. The pervasive 'openness' of the digital revolution has raised serious concerns among authors and publishers, whose livelihood depends on controlled access to their works, as well as among librarians, who are responsible to their patrons for ensuring that works accessed through their systems can reliably be traced to their sources. New developments in cryptography combined with the features of Standard Generalized Markup Language may provide a solution that protects copyright without impeding access to information.

The Electronic Library. Bielefeld Conference, 1994

After studying the origins of the electronic library, from new technologies to research methods for library practices, the author reviews here the various uses of electronic publications in a library, their advantages and their difficulties. There are two aspects concerning these documents: one is the electronic document management and processing within the library, whatever the origin of that document may be (document integrity, bibliographic control, scholarly communications issue), the other is the subscriptions to periodicals on electronic media (storing, indexing, archiving, copying, browsing, etc.). The author also tries to give a few predictions about what she feels will happen in the immediate future in the libraries regarding electronic documents and what is now called «the electronic library». Special attention is being paid to the structure of the electronic documents, specially as most electronic publications are being currently structured with the Standard Generalized Mark-up Language (SGML). This may open new uses for cataloguing purposes and may lead to question the future of the various MARC formats used currently in libraries for automated cataloguing. The virtual library centainly opens new trends of thought and new possibilities for the librarian of the next century

Computerized transcripts of social interactions

The advantages of a standardized format for transcribing social interactions to computerized media are discussed. The chief advantage of this scheme is that transcripts can be easily exchanged among research groups and across text processing programs. An important element of a transcript is the set of conventions, calledmarkup, that identify the metalinguistic features of texts. Conventions should employ symbols that (1) cannot be mistaken for ordinary text, (2) explicitly describe their linguistic function, and (3) obey a grammar. Social scientists who transcribe social interactions should participate in the development of a standardized scheme of descriptive markup for the encoding of machine-readable transcripts, based on the Standard Generalized Markup Language.

Standards for text and hypermedia processing

Working Group 8 of ISO/lEC Joint Technical Committee 1 Subcommittee 18 (JTC1/SCI8/WG8) is tasked with developing Information Technology (IT) standards for use in Text and Office Systems. The Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) introduced by W

The birth of a standard

The Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) was adopted as an international standard for data description, data modeling, and interchange in October 1986. This article explores the evolution of this standard following its technical completion and leading to widespread market acceptance. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

SGML concepts

The abbreviation SGML stands for Standard Generalized Markup Language. Markup refers to adding style and formatting information to text prior to publication. It is a Standard because SGML has been accepted and published by the ISO, and is not owned by any manufacturer or software vendor. It is Generalized because SGML is powerful and flexible, allowing it to be used in many applications. And it is a Language that embodies a specification for creation of a set of rules to define the structure of a document. SGML has been designed to easily cross incompatible computer platforms, and its “open” nature allows for relatively simple access and manipulation of an SGML conforming document by both people and computers. Above all, SGML proposes a new way of thinking about document creation and presentation, by shifting document style considerations to the publication process rather than the creation process. This is done by dividing the document into named, logical elements, to which any style can be later applied. A by‐product of this approach is the effective creation of a flexible database, providing further access to the data for information retrieval or for re‐publication.

The Progress of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language): Extracts from a Comprehensive Bibliography

The Progress of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language): Extracts from a Comprehensive Bibliography

ODA and SGML: An assessment of co-existence possibilities

Given the existence of two standards for text processing systems that accomplish similar goals, with similar means, but dissimilar results, the authors seek to reconcile the two. Office Document Architecture (ODA) and Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) are found to have no fundamental incompatibilities, opening the way to either formally melding them into a single internationally recognized standard or through practical implementations forming a de facto standard that encompasses both. The conclusion is that the latter is most likely to occur, but in any case either is preferable to the current situation.

CALS in Europe: An Integrated Information Base

Computer‐aided acquisition and logistic support (CALS), dealing with the automation and integration of all functions and processes that make up the many aspects of acquisition and logistic support of weapons systems, is explored with particular reference to the area of standard generalised mark‐up language (SGML).

Standard generalized markup language: Why reference librarians should care

All of us in the library community are familiar with the impact of the MARC (machine‐readable cataloging) record on library operations. Whether we specialize in administrative, systems, public, or technical services, we recognize the MARC record as a standard data storage format that has made it easier to produce, store, and retrieve data. Few disagree that widespread adoption of the MARC record has enabled libraries to realize the full benefits of automation.

ONLINE SEARCHING AIDS: A REVIEW OF FRONT ENDS, GATEWAYS AND OTHER INTERFACES

This review reports on the current state and the potential of tools and systems designed to aid online searching, referred to here as online searching aids. Intermediary mechanisms are examined in terms of the two stage model, i.e. end‐user, intermediary, ‘raw database’, and different forms of user — system interaction are discussed. The evolution of the terminology of online searching aids is presented with special emphasis on the expert/non‐expert division. Terms defined include gateways, front‐end systems, intermediary systems and post‐processing. The alternative configurations that such systems can have and the approaches to the design of the user interface are discussed. The review then analyses the functions of online searching aids, i.e. logon procedures, access to hosts, help features, search formulation, query reformulation, database selection, uploading, downloading and post‐processing. Costs are then briefly examined. The review concludes by looking at future trends following recent developments in computer science and elsewhere. Distributed expert based information systems (debis), the standard generalised mark‐up language (SGML), the client‐server model, object‐orientation and parallel processing are expected to influence, if they have not done so already, the design and implementation of future online searching aids.

Disk caches

I had planned to write about the new international document standards ODA (Office Document Architecture) and SGML (Standard Generalised Markup Language) since I have been rather involved with these standards recently in terms of which standards meet our particular needs, and which applications actually support these standards. Since this work is ongoing, I finally decided that an article now would be premature. I was then rather at a loss as to the theme for this month's column. Fortunately a couple of loosely related questions arrived on the subject of disks at the same time as several people decided to corrupt a few floppy disks. So the theme for this column is a slightly technical look at disks and some ways to improve the use and avoid misuse of them.