Reading #3

Caplan, P. (2003).  The TEI Header.  In Metadata fundamentals for all librarians (pp. 66-75).  Chicago, ALA Editions. 

The importance of the TEI Header is evaluated by reviewing the history of the Text Encoding Initiative, examining the comprehensive nature of the TEI Guidelines, assessing the goal of the TEI Header as the basis for library cataloging and contemplating the header’s intended flexibility.  An examination of the four sections of the TEI Header reveals the descriptive, subject, non-bibliographic and administrative strengths of the header.  The conclusion is that the header is a widely used metadata scheme that can be easily adapted for use with a wide range of XML documents.  The usefulness of the header in documenting non-bibliographic aspects ensures the TEI Header’s dominance as a standard for describing electronic texts.