The Electronic Library of Lutheranism:
            Project Wittenberg Documents in Hypertext
                   Part Two: Practical Matters
                            Draft Two
February 1, 1997


This part of the ELL standard describes the way in which Project
Wittenberg documents are converted to hypertext, based upon the
assumptions within part one. Volunteers who do hypertext
conversions for Project Wittenberg will be expected to update ELL
index pages as well as marking up the text in hand. While Project
Wittenberg will continue to place as much freedom of operation as
possible in the hands of the individual volunteers, it is assumed
that some decisions will need to be made by the coordinator or a
future editorial board to keep the collection integrated.

The following procedures are outlined to help reduce possible
sources of confusion to a minimum. Please check with the
coordinator before diverging from them.

1. All Project Wittenberg documents must be first placed in a
simple ASCII format and be loaded into the text archive prior to
work on an HTML format. The Project gives priority to adding new
documents to the ASCII collection over all other operations simply
because it is the only universally readable file format in an
international context. English translations and primary sources are
given priority over other languages simply because it is the most
widely understood tongue on the current international scene. Next
in priority are texts in their original languages.

2. When a volunteer is ready to convert a document to HTML, that
person should first check with the Project Wittenberg Coordinator
to assure that others have not already started to work with it. In
return, others will be asked not to convert the document being
marked up by that volunteer. The Coordinator or an editor will
assign a path for the new document and give it to the volunteer.

3. The volunteer should set up a template with the appropriate
navigational buttons, colors, graphical elements, title, meta tags,
etc. before beginning work. The title page should be the first
developed, allowing an anchor point for the rest of the work.

4. Next, the volunteer should analyze the document to locate all
citations of other works. The internet should be checked for
an addressable version of the cited work. If none exists, a quote
page will need to be created to link the piece to its place in
literature. 

If an addressable for of the document does exist, especially within
the ELL itself, the document should link to it. For verses from the
Scriptures, the ELL will create its own verse addressable version
of the KJV or alternative modern translations freely donated for
non-commercial purposes. Where a portion does not exist, the
volunteer will mark up the appropriate chapter from the KJV for
reference purposes. 

When links are made to existing texts on the internet, care should
be taken to avoid pointing to the sites of organizations offensive
to the general public or which work at cross-purposes to those of
the Christian faith. There are circumstances under which such
linking is appropriate, but such linking should be done only where
it is clearly justified.

Should a text to which an ELL text links be less than fully cited
or should the passage be deep within the document linked to, a
footnote style intermediary page should be prepared under the
guidelines in 5 below to identify the piece. A link outwards to the
passage should be placed on the footnote page to complete the link.

5. Where a work being marked up points to a document not as yet on
the internet in addressable form, quotation pages should be
prepared for them. These should be done prior to markup of the
original document. 

Care should be taken to honor the copyright of the sources quoted
on these pages. Internet sources which are not fully cited,
especially those without copyright information may not be used.
Preference should be given to public domain versions and to fully
cited, internetworked versions. 

Where public domain versions do not exist, a temporary, footnote
style page should be created pointing to the exact reference where
the quotation may be found in physical form.  Permission should be
sought, then, to extract the quote from the document and place it
on the net in this form. If permission is denied, the citation will
stand. The Project Coordinator will assist with this process. 

Where a quotation may be extracted, enough of the context of the
quote should be included to identify the point the original author
was making. Navigational buttons should be included on quote pages
to take a reader back to the place where the reference appears in
text being marked up and to the title page of the whole work. A
full citation should be included at the end of the file, including
copyright information as well as the source information. The source
citation should be as precise as possible.

6. After the quote pages are complete, then the volunteer will
identify places where subject links will be provided leading out
from the marked up documents. The volunteer should then check the
subject control pages at the ELL to see if appropriate subjects
exist there. If at all possible, previously used subjects should be
employed. 

If this is not possible, the volunteer should propose one. The
volunteer will list all the proposals for the document in an email
note to the Project Coordinator for approval. Where new subjects
are approved, the volunteer will then compose or modify the subject
pages effected and forward them to the Project Wittenberg
Coordinator, or an editor, for inclusion in the ELL
immediately. No links will be made to the document being marked up
itself until that document is included in the ELL.

7. The document should then be marked up according to the
guidelines in part one and forwarded to the Project Wittenberg
Coordinator, along with all quote pages, graphics files, etc. These
will be checked and then placed in the ELL.

8. The volunteer will then, as quickly as possible, modify the
Author, Title and Subject pages to reflect the presence of the
newly marked up piece. This should be done in close communication
with the Coordinator to prevent confusion resulting from two or
more volunteers attempting to update files at the same time.

9. Once the control pages have been updated, the Coordinator will
then "release" the document to the internet community.





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