LEMDO: Introduction to Making Links

Introduction to Making Links

Disambiguation

This chapter does not address the specialized kind of linking that LEMDO uses to link annotations and collations to the modernized text. See Chapter 13. Collation and Chapter 15. Annotations for information on linking from collation and annotation files.

Overview

The LEMDO platform is designed for linking; thus its name, Linked Early Modern Drama Online.

We know that pointing between electronic texts that are in constant development—and are also changeable depending on reading environment—is inherently fragile. We also know that some critical texts require an ability to create a canonically formatted reference—known as a canonical reference—to a specific point in the text being discussed.

To resolve the tension between what is stable and what is desirable, LEMDO has:

Developed a stable canonical referencing system.

Developed encoding protocols that allow you to cite with more precision than the canonical referencing system allows.

Written processing that allows us to calculate canonical references for the digital and print editions from the same underlying encoding.

Generally, linking within an edition (i.e., between files that live in the same directory in the repository) allows for the greatest stability. All of the files in an edition will be built and published at the same time, and therefore the links created between them will be consistent across the build. Linking to canonical references in your own edition is the simplest and most stable type of link.

Each of our canonical reference units are countable and have unique xml:ids, so we can point to them within the LEMDO project and generate discrete, stable, and predictable URLs for them. See Canonical References in Modernized Texts as Stable Entities and Canonical References in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions as Stable Entities for more information about canonical references in modern and semi-diplomatic transcriptions.

Principles, Practices, and Caveats of Linking: See this page to learn about the key principles that we follow when encoding links.

Stable Entities: LEMDO allows you to link to any stable entity with a URL inside or outside the project. See this documentation to learn about stable entities and how we link to them.

Introduction to Linking Mechanisms: We have a variety of linking mechanisms for different purposes and contexts. Read this documentation to determine which linking mechanism to use.

Choose Linking Mechanisms: Guides you through the decision making process that you will follow when encoding links.

Hash Character: Learn about the hash character (#) and how to use it in your links.

Create Anchors: If you want to link to something that is not a canonical reference (such as a string of text), you can add an anchor with an xml:id to create a stable entity that you can point to. Learn how to do so on this page.

Encode Pointer Links: Encode links using the


                                                <ptr>

element.

Integrate Pointers into Your Prose: Integrate the


                                                <ptr>

element into your prose.

Encode Reference Links: Encode links using the


                                                <ref>

element.

Encoding Links Between Parts of Your Edition: Encode links within your edition.

Stable Entities: Learn how LEMDO creates and links to stable entities.

Encode Entities: Encode links to databases.

Prosopography

Isabella Seales

Isabella Seales is a fourth year undergraduate completing her Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Victoria. She has a special interest in Renaissance and Metaphysical Literature. She is assisting Dr. Jenstad with the MoEML Mayoral Shows anthology as part of the Undergraduate Student Research Award program.

Janelle Jenstad

Janelle Jenstad is a Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of The Map of Early Modern London, and Director of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media: Old Words, New Tools (Routledge). She has edited John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Elizabethan Theatre, Early Modern Literary Studies, Shakespeare Bulletin, Renaissance and Reformation, and The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. She contributed chapters to Approaches to Teaching Othello (MLA); Teaching Early Modern Literature from the Archives (MLA); Institutional Culture in Early Modern England (Brill); Shakespeare, Language, and the Stage (Arden); Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate); New Directions in the Geohumanities (Routledge); Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter); Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana); Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota); Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge); and Civic Performance: Pageantry and Entertainments in Early Modern London (Routledge). For more details, see janellejenstad.com.

Joey Takeda

Joey Takeda is LEMDO’s Consulting Programmer and Designer, a role he assumed in 2020 after three years as the Lead Developer on LEMDO.

Mahayla Galliford

Project manager, 2025-present; research assistant, 2021-present. Mahayla Galliford (she/her) graduated with a BA (Hons with distinction) from the University of Victoria in 2024. Mahayla’s undergraduate research explored early modern stage directions and civic water pageantry. Mahayla continues her studies through UVic’s English MA program and her SSHRC-funded thesis project focuses on editing and encoding girls’ manuscripts, specifically Lady Rachel Fane’s dramatic entertainments, in collaboration with LEMDO.

Martin Holmes

Martin Holmes has worked as a developer in the UVic’s Humanities Computing and Media Centre for over two decades, and has been involved with dozens of Digital Humanities projects. He has served on the TEI Technical Council and as Managing Editor of the Journal of the TEI. He took over from Joey Takeda as lead developer on LEMDO in 2020. He is a collaborator on the SSHRC Partnership Grant led by Janelle Jenstad.

Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

Nicole Vatcher

Technical Documentation Writer, 2020–2022. Nicole Vatcher completed her BA (Hons.) in English at the University of Victoria in 2021. Her primary research focus was women’s writing in the modernist period.

Rylyn Christensen

Rylyn Christensen is an English major at the University of Victoria.

Tracey El Hajj

Junior Programmer 2019–2020. Research Associate 2020–2021. Tracey received her PhD from the Department of English at the University of Victoria in the field of Science and Technology Studies. Her research focuses on the algorhythmics of networked communications. She was a 2019–2020 President’s Fellow in Research-Enriched Teaching at UVic, where she taught an advanced course on Artificial Intelligence and Everyday Life. Tracey was also a member of the Map of Early Modern London team, between 2018 and 2021. Between 2020 and 2021, she was a fellow in residence at the Praxis Studio for Comparative Media Studies, where she investigated the relationships between artificial intelligence, creativity, health, and justice. As of July 2021, Tracey has moved into the alt-ac world for a term position, while also teaching in the English Department at the University of Victoria.

Orgography

LEMDO Team (LEMD1)

The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors.

Glossary

canonical reference

“A number for a stable entity like a verse line, speech, act, scene, or paragraph. These numbers can be used for citation purposes. In the LEMDO system, the canonical reference is part of a precise URL.”

Metadata

Authority title	Introduction to Making Links
Type of text	Documentation
Publisher	University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform
Series	Linked Early Modern Drama Online
Source	TEI Customization created by Martin Holmes, Joey Takeda, and Janelle Jenstad; documentation written by members of the LEMDO Team
Editorial declaration	n/a
Edition	Released with Linked Early Modern Drama Online 1.0
Encoding description	Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines
Document status	prgGenerated
Funder(s)	Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
License/availability	This file is licensed under a CC BY-NC_ND 4.0 license, which means that it is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions: (1) credit must be given to the author and LEMDO in any subsequent use of the files and/or data; (2) the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except in quotations for the purposes of academic review and citation); and (3) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of the editor and LEMDO. This license allows for pedagogical use of the documentation in the classroom.