LEMDO: Introduction to Linking Mechanisms

Introduction to Linking Mechanisms

Prior Reading

Introduction to Making Links

Principles, Practices, and Caveats of Linking

Disambiguation

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

Rationale

LEMDO uses two mechanisms to create most links in editions: the pointer mechanism and the reference mechanism. Using these two mechanisms will allow you to create links to your own edition, to other entities within the LEMDO project, to anchors placed within LEMDO files, to internal and external databases (e.g., BIBL1 and DEEP), and to other Web sites and pages. This documentation will outline the differences between these two mechanisms.

This page will not explain in detail how to determine which linking mechanism to use. See Choose Linking Mechanisms for information on determining which to use.

Overview

The primary difference between the pointer mechanism and the reference mechanism lies in the way that they are processed. The pointer mechanism is encoded with the self-closing


                                          <ptr>

element, meaning that there is no text node for you to type in. Instead, our processing supplies the text that will appear in your citation. The reference mechanism is encoded with the


                                          <ref>

element. The


                                          <ref>

element has a text node, meaning that you can supply the text that you want to appear in your citation.

From an encoding standpoint, using the


                                          <ptr>

element is beneficial in that processing will provide precise and accurate references based on what you are linking to. You are not required to type that information into your encoded file, nor do you need to worry about updating citations if you make updates to the text that you are linking to. Conversely, the


                                          <ref>

element allows you greater control over what text renders as citations in the final output of your edition.

While you may choose to use


                                          <ref>

to link to any entity (internal or external to the LEMDO project), there are restrictions to the scenarios in which you may use the


                                          <ptr>

element. Additionally, there are scenarios in which LEMDO recommends that you use the


                                          <ptr>

element. See Choose Linking Mechanisms for more information.

The Pointer Mechanism

The pointer mechanism is useful when you are linking within a single edition. It has three primary uses: 1) linking to your modernized text, 2) linking to a


                                          <div>

with a heading (encoded as a child


                                          <head>

element) in your critical paratexts, and 3) linking to files in your edition. We do not use the


                                          <ptr>

element to link outside of a single edition—do not use the


                                          <ptr>

element to link to other LEMDO editions or to external entities.

Because the


                                          <ptr>

element is self-closing (i.e., it has no text node), the human-readable text that will render in the final digital and print output of your file is supplied by our processing. When you link to your modernized text, it will supply a correctly-formatted canonical reference to the act, scene, or speech that you are linking to or, if you are pointing to a specific point, the scene or speech that contains that point. When you link to a


                                          <div>

element with a heading, processing will supply the text of that heading as your citation. When you link to an entire file, processing will supply the title of that file as your citation.

In your digital edition, the text supplied as the citation will be hyperlinked. In your print edition, it will simply appear as text.

The Reference Mechanism

The reference mechanism is available to use when linking to any entity internal or external to the LEMDO project. You may use it when linking within your own edition, linking to other LEMDO editions, linking to project-wide databases, linking to external databases, or linking to external Web sites and pages.

When LEMDO builds your edition, it retains the text node of your


                                          <ref>

element exactly as you typed it.

In your digital edition, the text node of the


                                          <ref>

element will be hyperlinked. There is no processing of


                                          <ref>

elements in the print edition, we simply reproduce whatever you have in the text node of


                                          <ref>

Prosopography

Chloe Mee

Chloe Mee (she/her) worked as a research assistant with the LEMDO team over several periods from 2022 to 2025. She graduated from the University of Victoria in 2025 with a BA (Hons with distinction) in English. She will be studying at the University of British Columbia to complete her MA in English. Chloe collaborated with the LEMDO team on a VKURA internship in summer 2022, mainly focusing on Hamlet quartos. Following her internship, she also worked as a research assistant in 2022–23 and 2025.

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.

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.

Metadata

Authority title	Introduction to Linking Mechanisms
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.