Library as virtual abbey

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the current state of the text encoding initiative (TEI) community and suggests directions in which that community should strive based on recommendations from experts in the field.

Design/methodology/approach

Looks at the history of, the present state of and future of TEI.

Findings

This column is simply exploratory, and examines issues regarding the TEI and the TEI consortium.

Practical implications

TEI is a very robust and expressive markup language used in the analysis of literature in the humanities fields. The community is encouraged to take proactive steps to ensure TEI as a viable markup language for the next 20 years, at least.

Originality/value

This column examines the enormous contribution that TEI has made to the humanities fields and explores ways in which the usage of TEI, even by non‐experts, can be expanded in order to enrich scholarship.

Citation

Fox, R. (2008), "Library as virtual abbey", OCLC Systems & Services: International digital library perspectives, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 80-86. https://doi.org/10.1108/10650750810875421