LEMDO: Encode the Encoding Description in Your Metadata

Encode the Encoding Description in Your Metadata

Rationale

LEMDO uses the


                                          <encodingDesc>

element to describe the encoding and editorial standards and decisions used in the preparation of each file. In most cases, there is standard wording for each component of the encoding description. This documentation will guide you through the process of encoding and adding content to each part of the encoding description.

Contents of the Encoding Description

All encoding descriptions should contain two child elements:

One

<p>

element: Use the

<p>

element to specify the encoding practices that you follow in the file.

One


                                                <editorialDecl>

element: The


                                                <editorialDecl>

element must contain a child

<p>

element in which you describe the editorial guidelines that you follow and any significant additional editorial decisions that you made while preparing the file for publication.¹

In addition to the

<p>

and


                                          <editorialDecl>

elements, there are two elements that are part of the encoding description of certain types of files.

In your edition page: Add a


                                                <projectDesc>

element before the


                                                <editorialDecl>

element to describe the anthology that your edition is being published with and the editorial guidelines that you followed across your edition. See Practice: Encode the Project Description in Encode Your Edition Page.

In your semi-diplomatic transcription: You may add a


                                                <tagsDecl>

element to add file-wide style. See Encode File-Wide Style in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions.

Practice: Add a Narrative Statement for Your Encoding Practice

The child

<p>

element of


                                          <encodingDesc>

is a narrative statement that the file has been encoded according to LEMDO’s encoding guidelines. It is always as follows:

<encodingDesc>
Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines
</encodingDesc>

Note that there is no terminal punctuation.

Practice: Add Your Editorial Declaration

Your anthology will have specific wording for the child

<p>

element in your editorial declaration. In most cases, anthologies follow LEMDO’s recommended wording. For edition pages, modernized texts, and apparatus files, the recommended wording is:

<encodingDesc>
 <editorialDecl>
 Edited according to the <title level="m">DRE Editorial Guidelines</title> using Canadian English spelling
 </editorialDecl>
</encodingDesc>

For critical paratexts, the recommended wording is simply:

<encodingDesc>
 <editorialDecl>
 Canadian English spelling
 </editorialDecl>
</encodingDesc>

Special Case: Encode the Encoding Description in Your Semi-Diplomatic Transcription

LEMDO uses different wording for the encoding description of semi-diplomatic transcriptions so that all style and encoding decisions are captured in each published file. Providing a detailed encoding description for semi-diplomatic transcriptions allows us to apply style across all semi-diplomatic transcriptions while still aligning with the Endings Principles for Digital Longevity.

For information on the specific required wording for the encoding description and editorial declaration in semi-diplomatic transcriptions, see Introduction to Style in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions.

Examples

The following is the base template for the encoding description for modernized texts and apparatus files:

<encodingDesc>
 Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines
 <editorialDecl>
 Edited according to the <title level="m">DRE Editorial Guidelines</title> using Canadian English spelling
 </editorialDecl>
</encodingDesc>

The following is the base template for the encoding description for critical paratexts:

<encodingDesc>
 Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines
 <editorialDecl>
 Canadian English spelling
 </editorialDecl>
</encodingDesc>

The following is the base template for the encoding description for edition pages:

<encodingDesc>
 Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines
 <projectDesc>
 This edition was prepared by <persName ref="pers:PEEE1">Editor Name</persName> for the [[Anthology Name]] anthology on the LEMDO platform
 </projectDesc>
 <editorialDecl>
 This edition was edited according to the <title level="m">DRE Editorial Guidelines</title> using Canadian English spelling
 </editorialDecl>
</encodingDesc>

The following is the base template for the encoding description for semi-diplomatic transcriptions:

<encodingDesc>
 Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines. The encoding makes the following assumptions (rendered via the _semi-dip.scss file): text is aligned left and set in Roman type unless otherwise specified; titlepage components and running titles are centered; signatures are centered and letterspaced; running titles are centered and set in italic type; catchwords are aligned right; speech prefixes are indented and set in italic type; and stage directions are set in italic type and aligned left unless the stage element has a place attribute. Where this playbook differs generally from LEMDOʼs default assumptions, the TEI Header includes one or more tagsDecl elements describing this playbookʼs particular imposition and composition. Where this playbook contains local deviations from its own general patterns, the encoding includes element-level and inline CSS to describe the playbookʼs unique features.
 <editorialDecl>
 This semi-diplomatic text was originally prepared according to the <title level="m">ISE Editorial Guidelines</title>. It has been fully remediated and proofread by the LEMDO team to comply with the <title level="m">DRE Editorial Guidelines</title> and the <title level="m">LEMDO Encoding Guidelines</title>, with the following exceptions: long s and ligatures have been transcribed or encoded, in keeping with the <title level="m">ISE Editorial Guidelines</title>.
 
 </editorialDecl>
 <editorialDecl>
 This semi-diplomatic text has been prepared according to the <title level="m">DRE Editorial Guidelines</title> and the <title level="m">LEMDO Encoding Guidelines</title>.
 </editorialDecl>
 
 <tagsDecl>
 <rendition selector="label" scheme="css"> font-style: italic; </rendition>
 </tagsDecl>
</encodingDesc>

Other Resources

LEMDO YouTube video: Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions (Technical)

LEMDO YouTube video: Putting It All Together (Technical)

Notes

1.LEMDO Director Janelle Jenstad observes that this feature of the TEI metadata model is illogical. She has put in a feature request to the TEI asking that the


                                    <editorialDecl>

not be a child of


                                    <encodingDesc>

, on the grounds that encoding practice and editorial approach are distinct.↑

Prosopography

Illya

Illya has a BA in English and Sociocultural Anthropology and an MA in English. Prior to joining the HCMC, he was a PhD candidate in English and Book History at the University of Toronto and worked on Records of Early English Drama and on the Modernist Archives Publishing Project. His work at the HCMC focuses on creating web-based applications for research projects led by members of the faculty of Humanities at the University of Victoria. This involves creating schemas for new and existing datasets, writing XSLT and build files to transform datasets into structured TEI and HTML formats, implementing staticSearch, and ensuring that new projects are Endings Principles compliant.

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 Beatrice 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.

PLACEHOLDER PERSON

Samuel Seaberg

Samuel Seaberg, a University of Victoria English undergrad, enjoys riding his bike. During the summer of 2025, he began working with LEMDO as a recipient of the Valerie Kuehne Undergraduate Research Award (VKURA). Unfortunately, due to his summer being spent primarily in working to establish an edition of Thomas Heywood’s If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody, Part 2 and consequently working out how to represent multi-text works in a digital space, his bike has suffered severely of sheltered seclusion from the sun. Note: Samuel now works for LEMDO as the Assistant Project Manager, much to his bike’s chagrin.

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	Encode the Encoding Description in Your Metadata
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.