With Walt Whitman in Camden: A Digital Edition
Encoding Guidelines
Traubel Tags
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Letters
Letters are encoded as written quotations, and will eventually be numbered througout the volumes. "Letter" will first prompt you for the letter writer, 5-digit letter number, 4-digit year, 2-digit month, and 2 digit date. Fill in zeros for the letter number, as these numbers will be determined and added later. Fill in the rest of the information as completely as possible. Sometimes the authors first name or last name may be unknown or ambiguous, or the date information may be incomplete. Fill in what is available and make a note. When you're finished, the structure will look like this:
<q who="John O'Reilly" type="written"><text id="anc.00000" type="letter">
<body>
<opener>
<address>
<addrLine>The Pilot Editorial Rooms, <date value="03-05-1885">March 5th, 1885.</date>
</addrLine>
</address>
<salute><hi rend="italic">Dear Mr. Whitman:</hi></salute>
</opener><p>I am delighted.....letter body....Love to you.</p>
<closer>
<signed>John Boyle O'Reilly.</signed>
</closer>
</body>
</text>
</q>
You can add/delete tags as necessary; for example, you can add another <addrLine>, another <salute>, or delete anything that isn't included (this letter did not include a salute). A letter that contains no closing salutation or signature (the letters from Whitman that Traubel includes often omit these) can simply be closed beginning with the </body> tag. You will have to add <p> tags as necessary to the body of the letter.
Figures
"Figure" will first prompt you for the three digit figure number and the volume number (you can key in 000 for the figure number since it is easier to back and number through the whole volume), and then display the following:
<pb n="figure 000"/>
<text type="ancillary">
<body>
<figure entity="med.00002.000">
<figDesc>A Page From A Burroughs Letter to Walt Whitman
</figDesc>
</figure>
</body>
</text>
The cursor will be placed between the <figDesc> tags; enter the caption of the figure, if there is one, or describe the contents of the figure (for example, "Whitman's will", "three photographs of the house", etc.). The figure tags should be immediately followed with a page break tags that indicate the next page.