Getting Started with XML

Instructor: Eric Lease Morgan

Getting Started with XML

If you have looked at the title of this workshop and thought:

• What is XML and why should I care?

Or if you are wondering:

• What's the difference between HTML, XHTML and XML?
• How do I make sense of the XML alphabet soup when I have to deal with things like CSS, TEI, EAD, and XSLT?
• How can XML help me in my day-to-day work?
• What's it mean to "render" XML documents?

Then this workshop is for you!

Workshop Description: Designed for librarians and library staff, this workshop introduces participants to the extensible markup language (XML) through numerous library examples, demonstrations, and structured hands-on exercises. Through this process participants will be able to evaluate the uses of XML for making their libraries' data and information more accessible to people as well as computers. Examples include adding value to electronic texts, creating archival finding aids, and implementing standards compliant Web pages. By the end of the workshop participants will have acquired a thorough introduction to XML and be able to: 1) list the five rules governing the syntax of XML documents, 2) create their very own XML markup language, 3) write XML documents using a plain text editor and validate them using a Web browser, 4) apply page layout and typographical techniques to XML documents using cascading style sheets, 5) create XML documents using a number of standard XML vocabularies important to libraries such as XHTML, TEI, and EAD, and finally, 6) articulate why XML is important for libraries.

Topics To Be Covered:

• Demonstrating the use of XML in libraries to create, store, and disseminate electronic texts, archival finding aids, Web pages, and bibliographic data
• Teaching the five simple rules for creating valid XML documents
• Practicing with the combined use of cascading style sheets and XML documents to display data and information in a Web browser
• Practicing with the use of XHTML and learning how it can make your website more accessible to all types of people as well as Internet robots and spiders
• Demonstrating how Web pages can be programmatically created using XSLT allowing libraries to transform XML documents into other types of documents
• Enhancing electronic texts with the use of the TEI markup allowing libraries to add value to digitized documents
• Writing archival finding aids using EAD thus enabling libraries to unambiguously share special collection information with people and other institutions

Who Should Attend: This workshop is designed for librarians and library staff who are responsible for creating all types of digital content for their institutions.

Prerequisites: This is not intended to be beginner's level workshop; participants are expected to have a working knowledge of a markup language such as HTML, and they are expected to know how to proficiently create plain text HTML files with something like NotePad.

Please Note: There is a $75.00 fee for this workshop. Infopeople does not provide parking passes, lunch or refreshments.

Check-in: 8:30 to 9 AM Instruction: 9 AM to 4:30 PM