Practices of printers in relation to electronic archiving
| Pages | 239-243 |
| Published date | 01 April 1990 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb044988 |
| Date | 01 April 1990 |
| Author | Monica Blake |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Article
Practices of printers in
relation to electronic
archiving
Monica Blake
67
Clapton
Common,
London E5
9AA,
UK
Abstract:
Using a questionnaire and interviews, a survey
was undertaken of the practices of printers in relation to
electronic
archiving.
Printers were found
to
be flexible with
regard
to
coding systems, and many used the ISO standard
SGML. Material was retained
in
electronic form after
publication—often in the form of magnetic
tape.
Sensible
precautions were taken when storing
this
material.
Printers
had a high level of awareness of electronic archiving and
several had
a
policy on the topic.
1.
Introduction
With the increasing application of computer technology to
printing and publishing, there has been a growing interest in
electronic archiving (Hills 1985, Muller & Wilson 1984,
Blake 1986, Sturges, 1987). Williamson's Knowledge Ware-
house project (Williamson 1987, 1988a, 1988b, 1988c, Wil-
liams
1988,
Buckingham 1988,Martyn 1989,Burnard 1988)
provided a practical exploration of this field.
My previous work has indicated that few UK publishers
have a comprehensive policy on electronic archiving or in-
deed are interested in the subject (Blake 1989); many publish-
ers rely on typesetters to store electronic forms of their publi-
cations or to work out mark-up procedures. This project is a
follow-up to that work. It looks at current practices of printers
in relation to electronic archiving. In particular, it focuses on
coding, storage media and conditions, and electronic archi-
ving policy.
2.
Methodology
Following a brief literature survey, interviews were con-
ducted with people in the printing industry.
A questionnaire was sent to printers listed in the Book Pro-
duction section of the directory of the British Printing Indus-
tries Federation. Periodical printers were not included
as
early
interviews suggested that journal material was held in elec-
tronic form only for the duration of the production process;
once the journal had appeared, the material was deleted so
that discs could be re-used.
3.
Results and discussion
Twenty-two replies were received from a questionnaire (Ap-
pendix A) sent
to 41
printers (a response of
53.66%).
Seven of
these printers did not use electronic production methods, so
analysis is based on
15
completed questionnaires.
Electronic production methods were used by most of the
respondents (13) for
books;
in addition they were used by 11
for journals, seven for directories, four for bibliographies, and
three each for dictionaries and encyclopaedias. Other uses
were for publishers'
catalogues,
guides and commercial print-
ing.
3.1.
Coding
The rapid take-up of technology in printing and publishing is
contributing to the importance of generic coding (Holloway
1987).
Generic coding is a way of dealing with computer-
stored text
so
that output may be achieved in
a
variety of
ways.
Individual elements of
a
document are tagged in such a way as
to indicate their role within the work and not their style of
presentation. Standard Generalised Mark-up Language
(SGML) is an attempt to standardise the many different
generic coding systems in use.
Accounts of SGML have been given by Holloway (1987),
Smith (1986) and Wu (1989). Stutely reports that HMSO's
experience in using generic coding over
the
last
15 to 20
years
has led fairly naturally into the use of SGML (Stutely 1987).
Arnold describes how the New Zealand Government Printing
Office uses SGML codes in a text database of Bills to allow
typesetting from the database and to provide the information
necessary to drive a video terminal for online access (Arnold
1988).
Williamson (1988a) states that good generic coding en-
hances the value of archived material and ensures that once
extracted from an archive
the
material
will be
in a usable state.
He suggests that the key criteria for good coding practice are
that the coding system should be complete, unambiguous and
neutral.
SGML (ISO 8879) is a "formidable technical work". Wil-
liamson maintains that a sensible approach is to use full
SGML as the basis for selecting a subset of tags or codes
which will be sufficient to define the structure of the type of
work dealt with by an author or publisher. One of the printers
interviewed complained about the number of keystrokes
needed to code for complicated mathematical work.
Nine respondents to the questionnaire used SGML. Eight
used ASPIC (Authors Standard Pre-Press Interfacing Codes),
which is a mnemonic coding system designed specifically for
phototypeset output. Other coding systems used were TEX
(two),
Troff (one) and Bestinfo (one), as well as one each for
Microsoft Word RTF and Ventura Tags. Several printers had
their own systems; one used "coding systems designed by
customers or ourselves plus any data on
WP
packages".
Some
printers said that they were prepared to work with any kind of
The Electronic Library, Vol. 8, No. 4, August 1990 239
To continue reading
Request your trial