THL Toolbox > Developers' Zone > THL Database Technologies and Models > TEI-based Dtds
TEI-based Dtds
Contributor(s): THL Staff
THL uses two DTDs (Document Type Definitions) for the mark-up of Tibetan texts. They are both TEI-based DTDs created through the on-line program, 
Pizza Chef, which allows users to create a customized version of TEI for their own purposes. The additions made to TEI were to deal with the peculiarities of marking up and cataloging Tibetan texts. One version of the DTD, xtib3, is used for all types of texts: monographs, essays, outlines, summaries, and so forth. The other version, xtibbibl2, is a slightly modified version of the former that allows for individual catalog records to stand-alone without requiring the TEI root element and the TEI header. Since catalogs of large Tibetan collections can often require thousands of records, the xtibbibl3 DTD allows us to avoid unnecessary reduplication of metadata. Other than that, the two DTDs contain the basic TEI elements with the addition of elements created by the THL with the help of Daniel Pitti and Worthy Martin from UVa’s Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH).
The DTDs were originally created for the project in 1999 as SGML DTDs. Over the course of the following years, they were migrated over to XML by Than Garson with the help of Daniel Pitti, during which time several minor changes were made. These are the DTDs presently used by the THL and its collaborators. No further changes are envisioned in the near future, though they will be revised as necessary.
XTIB3 DTD
The XTIB3 DTD is the general DTD used in the THL for all essays, outlines, monographs, and so forth, whether they be in English, Tibetan, or another foreign language. It is not used for cataloging records (see the XTIBBIBL3 DTD). XTIB3 is a TEI-based DTD and is compliant with TEI's specification. It thus requires a teiHeader element containing the documents metadata, such as languages used and so forth. The modifications that THL added allow the tibbibl element (Tibetan bibliographic element) to be included anywhere a regular bibl (bibliographic element, native to TEI) is valid. This is the DTD to use for all documents other than the Tibetan bibliographic catalog records.
XTIBBIBL3 DTD
The XTIBBIBL3 DTD is the DTD used for cataloging records. It is not used for all essays and monographs in the THL These other documents should be created using the XTIB3 DTD. Because of the structure of TEI, it was necessary to modify the XTIB3 DTD to allow for Tibetan cataloging records (contained in the tibbibl element) to stand on their own. This required a slight modification of redefining the language (lang) attribute of all the elements to a predefined list so that they did not have to refer to the teiHeader (or TEI document metadata). This allows the tibbibl element to stand on its own as a separate valid document. Other than that minor change, this DTD is identical to the XTIB3 DTD.
Downloads
The two DTDs we use in the THL are available for all to use. They are governed under the THL’s Open Community License. The first link below allows you to download the DTDs. The two DTDs included within this file are xtib3.dtd, which is used for most Tibetan Studies XML documents including monographs, essays, outlines, and so forth; and xtibbil3.dtd, which is used solely for cataloging or describing a Tibetan work. The second link is for downloading the files used in Pizza Chef to create the DTDs, namely tibet.ent (entities used in the creation of the DTDs) and tibet.dtd (definitions for the Tibetan-specific elements). At present, neither download includes documentation, which is forthcoming: