Seminar on Biblical Language Texts

From owner-humanist@lists.Princeton.EDU Mon Jan 19 14:19:33 1998

Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 18:37:59 +0000 (GMT)
From: Humanist Discussion Group <humanist@kcl.ac.uk>
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 10:12:34 -0500
From: Patrick Durusau <pdurusau@emory.edu>
Subject: Seminar on Biblical Language Texts

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Announcing the Biblical Language Standards mailing list!

The Biblical Language Standards mailing list is a forum for discussion
of and announcements concerning the ongoing work of the SBL Seminar on
Electronic Standards for Biblical Language Texts. Biblical scholars,
publishers, librarians, archivists, researchers and software designers
need good computer tools for working with biblical langauges and texts.
This seminar is dedicated to solving problems such as interchange and
publication of materials containing biblical languages, creation of
electronic texts for analysis and archiving, and other problems
routinely faced by those working with biblical materials. The goals of
the seminar are to:

(1)  Create standards for electronic representation and interchange of
all types of documents in biblical and related studies. These standards
will include naming, description, and analysis.

(2)  Encourage the development of software implementing these standards.

(3)  Produce a set of sample documents and software developed as models
which are consistent with these standards.

(4)  Build a consensus for adoption of these standards.

(5)  Provide training in their use.

The Seminar is using the TEI Guidelines as the starting point for its
discussion of encoding biblical language texts with a view of modifying
or extending those guidelines as necessary.

Current Working Groups of the Seminar and their members include:

Critical apparatus: Jimmy Adair, jadair@emory.edu (chair), Winfried
Bader, bader@dbg.de, Lewis Barth, lbarth@mizar.usc.edu, Michael Bakker,
mbakker@let.uva.nl, Bruce Morrill, bruce@math.ksu.edu, Bernard Taylor,
taylorb@earthlink.net.

Dictionaries: Stephen Kaufman, skaufman@cn.huc.edu (Chair), Erik
Eynikel, e.eynikel@theo.kun.nl, Peter Burton,
burto009@maroon.tc.umn.edu, Dale Wheeler, dalemw@teleport.com, Richard
Whitaker, Richard.Whitaker@ptsem.edu.

Entity Sets and Writing System Declarations: Patrick Durusau,
pdurusau@emory.edu, Kirk Lowery, KirkLowery@xc.org.

Hebrew Syntax: Kirk Lowery, KirkLowery@xc.org, Dale Wheeler,
dalemw@teleport.com.

Imaging: Robert Kraft, kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu.

Practical Applications: Proposed group for short-term projects and
testing of proposed solutions from other working groups.

Participation in the work of the Seminar and its groups is open to
biblical scholars of all viewpoints, publishers and software developers.
New working groups will be formed to address additional issues as the
work of the Seminar
progresses. Please contact either Patrick Durusau, pdurusau@emory.edu,
or Susan Hockey, Susan.Hockey@UAlberta.ca, the co-chairs of the Seminar
if you would like to formally participate in the work of the Seminar.

Subscription to the list is open to any interested party but the list is
moderated. To subscribe send the following command to
majordomo@shemesh.scholar.emory.edu:

subscribe bls

The Seminar hopes to result in standards that will assist scholars,
publishers, librarians and archivists, software developers and anyone
else involved in biblical studies. Your support is appreciated.

Patrick

Patrick Durusau
Information Technology
Scholars Press
pdurusau@emory.edu
Co-Chair, SBL Seminar on Electronic Standards for Biblical Language
Texts