Greetings,

The Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines for Electronic Text Encoding  
and Interchange (TEI), first published in 1994, quickly became the  
standard for encoding literary texts. The TEI was widely adopted by  
libraries for its promise of discoverability, interoperability, and  
preservation of electronic texts, but the TEI's complexity and  
flexibility, oriented towards the needs of scholars, inspired the  
codification of library-specific practice. Since 1999, libraries have  
relied on the "TEI Text Encoding in Libraries: Guidelines for Best  
Encoding Practices" (currently in version 2.1) to steer their work  
with encoded texts. In April 2008, the TEI special interest group  
(SIG) on Libraries and the DLF-sponsored TEI Task Force partnered to  
update this document. The revision was prompted by the release of P5,  
the latest version of the TEI, and the desire to create a true library- 
centric customization not constrained by the TEI Lite schema, as was  
the case with version 2.1.

The revised "TEI Text Encoding in Libraries: Guidelines for Best  
Encoding Practices," currently in draft form, contain updated versions  
of the widely adopted encoding 'levels' - from fully automated  
conversion to content analysis and scholarly encoding. They also  
contain a substantially revised section on the TEI Header, designed to  
support interoperability between text collections and the use of  
complementary metadata schemas such as MARC and METS. The new  
Guidelines also reflect an organizational shift. Originally authored  
by the DLF-sponsored TEI Task Force, the current revision work is a  
partnership between members of the Task Force and the TEI Libraries  
SIG. As a result of this partnership, responsibility for the  
Guidelines will migrate to the SIG, allowing closer work with the TEI  
Consortium as a whole and a stronger basis for advocating for the  
needs of libraries in future TEI releases.

The draft of the revised Guidelines for Best Encoding Practices  
(version 3.0) are open for public comment from April 22, 2009 to May  
6, 2009:  <http://www-personal.umich.edu/~kshawkin/teiinlibraries/>.

Comments can be collected several ways:

--Online feedback form:
<http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=qP93Rcz5TK5vho8A_2fM4VrA_3d_3d>

--Posting your comments to the TEILIB-L list:
<http://www.tei-c.org/Activities/SIG/Libraries/index.xml>

-- Emailing the SIG conveners directly: Kevin Hawkins ([log in to unmask] 
) and Michelle Dalmau ([log in to unmask])

--Participating in the birds of a feather feedback session at the  
Digital Library Federation Spring Forum 2009 in Raleigh, N.C. on
May 5, 2009

We are accepting comments for another week.  We hope to hear from you!

Michelle Dalmau and Kevin Hawkins
Conveners of the TEI Special Interest Group on Libraries