Historical Book Tag Set

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), a center of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), created the Historical Book Tag Set with the intent of providing a common format for the electronic reproduction of historical works. The Historical Book Tag Set uses all the same elements as the standard NLM Book Tag Set but has additional elements designed to meet the special requirements of electronic versions of historical works. These include elements to describe both the metadata of the digital and original versions, annotations, and page numbers.

NCBI will use the Document Type Definition (DTD) version of this Tag Set to define the content data for the NCBI Bookshelf.

Ancestry

The Tag Set was constructed using the modules of the Archiving and Interchange Tag Suite and has been modeled along the same philosophical lines as the Archiving and Interchange Tag Set, which is a schema for interchange and storage of journal material.

Documentation

Introduction	An introduction to the contents of this Tag Library, to the design philosophy and intended usage of the Book DTD.
Elements Section	Descriptions of the elements used in the Book DTD.
Attributes Section	Descriptions of the attributes in the DTD modules.
Parameter Entity Section	Names (with occasional descriptions) and contents of the Parameter Entities in the DTD modules.
Context Table	Listings of where each element may be used. All elements are given in a simple alphabetical list. There is a single table for the elements from all the Suite modules that are called from the DTD.
Document Hierarchy Diagrams	Tree-like graphical representations of the content of many elements. This can be a fast visual way to determine the structure of an article or of any element within an article.
Full Book Sample	An incomplete but illustrative sampel of a book that includes metadata for the book, a represetative chapter, and a portion of the book's back matter.
Index by Tag Name	Index of element descriptions, alphabetically by tag name (element-type name).
Index by Element Name	Index of element descriptions, alphabetically by element name (the longer, more descriptive name).
DTD Section	Copies of the Book DTD, its customization module, and the full Archiving and Interchange DTD Suite of XML DTD modules described in the Tag Library.

Getting the Files

Updates

Version

Version 2.3 was released on March 28, 2007. A detailed explaination of the changes from version 2.2 is available in the v2.3 Change Report.

W3C XML Schema Version

A W3C XML Schema has been generated from the DTD. The Schema version describes the same content model as the DTD. Information is available on the W3C XML Schema page.

Relax NG Version

A Relax NG Schema has been generated from the DTD. The Schema version describes the same content model as the DTD. Information is available on the Relax NG Schema page.

Working Group and Secretariat

Because this DTD has been created to define content for the NCBI Bookshelf, NCBI will manage all updates. These updates will be based on suggestions from the XML Interchange Structure Working Group. This group advises NLM on recommended changes in and/or additions to the tag set.

NLM has contracted with Mulberry Technologies, Inc. of Rockville, MD to act as Archiving and Interchange Tagset Secretariat. The Secretariat will collect the feedback to be discussed by the Working Group and will maintain the files and documentation.

Feedback

If you are creating content for the NCBI Bookshelf and have any questions or comments, please email them to books@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

If you are interested in making a new version of the DTD, please see the Archiving and Interchange DTD Suite site for information about creating a new DTD from the Suite of DTD modules.

Any suggestions for changes to the Tagset or documentation should be made through the NLM Tag Set Comment Form at the Mulberry Technolgies site.

Related DTDs

XML Information

Links to general information on XML, XSLT, Unicode™, and XLink are available on the XML Resources page.