Glossary

Key Points

Introduction to TEI	TEI is a markup language with a set of guidelines for describing and structuring information. It is used for describing the content and structure of objects in a machine-readable and human-readable way. It is used for metadata, transcription, detailed descriptions and linking.
Elements and Attributes	You can mark up a manuscript using fewer than 20 different elements. FIXME Use a combination of elements and attributes to effectively mark up a manuscript. FIXME
Descriptions and Cataloguing	A locus marks information of interest on a particular page. Manifests can help automate the markup process but may need curatorial advice. There are a choice of authorities that can be used to further identify entities.

TEI – Text Encoding Initiative
XML – extensible markup language
Template – most TEI records are based on a template which can be enhanced to form a…
Boilerplate – a template which also contains the standard information for cataloguing a collection (eg. the owner, the cataloguer and the name of the catalogue)
Elements – provide structure to the human readable content, for example defining paragraph, name or subject
Tags – denote elements in a machine readable format and are usually enclosed in angle brackets, for example <p></p> for ‘paragraph’. Tags almost always appear in pairs (opening and closing around the human readable content)
Attributes - include additional information to enrich the element, such as defining the number of columns on a page
Nesting – this describes how the elements are structured to define the content with multiple tags ‘inside’ one another. In the same way as Russian Dolls ‘nest’ inside eachother, elements can be brought together to provide increasingly specific information.