SGML: (MLA) Draft guidelines for Electronic Scholarly Editions

MLA Draft guidelines for Electronic Scholarly Editions

From ese@msstate.edu Mon Aug 11 18:12:40 1997
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 18:09:19 -0500 (CDT)
From: Charles Faulhaber <cfaulhab@library.berkeley.edu>
Subject: MLA Draft Guidelines for Electronic Scholarly Editions

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At long last I am pleased to report that draft guidelines for Electronic Scholarly Editions, under development by the Modern Language Association's Committee on Scholarly Editions for several years, are available for general comment.

They are posted on the Sunsite Digital Library server at the University of California, Berkeley:
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/MLA/intro.html [http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/MLA/guidelines.html]

INTRODUCTION

These draft Guidelines were vetted and tentatively approved in September of 1996 by the MLA's Committee on Scholarly Editions. They follow the Committee's guidelines for printed scholarly editions as closely as possible. In fact much of the text is drawn word-for-word from the latter; with additions as necessary to accommodate the capabilities of the new media.

They are designed to complement Peter Shillingsburg's "General Principles for Electronic Scholarly Editions," a copy of which is also included on the web site.

The Guidelines have already been distributed to a small group of experienced scholars and modified on the basis of their comments. I should be very grateful if you could send any comments by 15 September 1997 to the Electronic Scholarly Editions listserv (ese@ra.msstate.edu) for full discussion. Please feel free to notify other scholars of their existence either privately or by posting this notice on appropriate mailing lists. Substantive reactions will be incorporated into a final draft version for discussion by the CSE at its September meeting.

The goal is to have a document that enjoys broad support in the scholarly community for adoption by the Committee on Scholarly Editions and ratification by that Committee as an official MLA statement comparable to the current guidelines for printed editions.

Many thanks for your help

Charles B. Faulhaber

U. of California, Berkeley