Encode the Source Description in Your Metadata

Rationale

LEMDO uses the <sourceDesc> element to describe the origin of our files. This documentation will guide you through adding the source description to your files.

Contents of the Source Description

All <sourceDesc> elements must have at least one child <p> element to provide a narrative description of the origin of the file. All semi-diplomatic transcriptions should have additional <p> elements providing information about the source facsimile(s) used.
The <sourceDesc> of semi-diplomatic transcriptions of manuscript plays only should also have a child <msDesc> element to capture information about the location of the manuscript. For information on encoding the manuscript description, see Describe Source Manuscripts.

Practice

To encode your source description, add the <sourceDesc> element as a child of the <fileDesc> element. It should be placed after the <seriesStmt> or, in files that have a <notesStmt> element, after the <notesStmt> .
Add a child <p> element to the <sourceDesc> . Write the source description in the <p> element following the standard format provided by your anthology. In most cases, anthologies follow LEMDO’s suggested wording for this narrative description. The basic wording is:
Born-digital, peer-reviewed prepared by and encoded by the LEMDO Team for publication in the [[Anth]] 1.0 anthology on the LEMDO platform.
Note that there may be minor variations depending on the history of the file, the component of the edition that you are adding the source description to, and the anthology that you are working with.

Special Case: Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions

Semi-diplomatic transcriptions are unique in that they must credit the source of the copytext in addition to recording the history of the XML file. For semi-diplomatic transcriptions, you must add at least four <p> elements as children of the <sourceDesc> :
In the first paragraph, note which edition the transcription is for (e.g., “Quarto 1”, “Folio 1”) and the publication year.
In the second paragraph, type “Source URI:” followed by the URI for the facsimile source wrapped in an <idno> element with a @type value of "URI".
In the third paragraph, type “Facsimile from the” followed by the source library name.
In the final paragraph, provide the source description for the file following your anthology’s recommended wording.
Note that you will add paragraphs containing the source URI and source library name for each additional facsimile that you use in your transcription before the final paragraph.

Examples

The following is a template source description for a modernized text:
<sourceDesc>
  <p>Born-digital, peer-reviewed modern text prepared by <!-- <persName ref="pers:PEEE1">Editor Name</persName> --> and encoded by the <orgName ref="org:LEMD1">LEMDO Team</orgName> for publication in the [[Anth]] 1.0 anthology on the LEMDO platform.</p>
</sourceDesc>
The following is a template source description for a semi-diplomatic transcription:
<sourceDesc>
  <p>Quarto 1, 1600</p>
  <p>Source URI: <idno type="URI">URL to facsimile source goes here</idno>
  </p>
  <p>Facsimile from the <!-- Source library name goes here --></p>
  <p>Transcription prepared by <persName ref="pers:PEEE1">Name Here</persName>. First published in the DRE 1.0 anthology on the ISE platform. Converted to TEI-XML and remediated by the <orgName ref="org:LEMD1">LEMDO Team</orgName> for republication in the DRE 2.0 anthology on the LEMDO platform.</p>
</sourceDesc>

Other Resources

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