AAUP Web Seminar: XML Workflow Case Study

“ The first concern is not the backlist. The first concern is to have creation properties in place today that mean that you won’t be worried about 2010 books in 2013. So the first thing to do is go to a digital workflow.”
--Mike Shatzkin
quoted in Book Business March/April 2010

http://www.aaupnet.org/

XML at University of Michigan Press A case study 2008-2010 April 2010 Karen Hill Assistant Director and Digital Manager [email_address]

University of Michigan Press
Some digital history…
1990s: Press experiments with electronic publishing, including CD ROMs and the web-based Journal of Electronic Publishing
February 2006: UM Press and UM Library’s Scholarly Publishing Office agree to collaborate on digitalculturebooks, a joint imprint publishing works both online and in print and experimenting with new business models
October 2006: DCB titles launch with online text and print options
August 2008: UM Press hires Digital Manager, committing resources to develop digital versions of its backlist and to build a more digital-first front list
October 2008: Press launches investigation into XML as a way to support digital migration of content
April 2009: Press products enter into digital distribution and dissemination paths via third-party distribution
July 2009: UM Press officially joins with the library to focus energy on developing products and services that support digital as well as print scholarship.
October 2009: HathiTrust digital library creates free-viewing portal for UM Press scholarly content
October 2009: The Press becomes a part of MPublishing, a University of Michigan Library organization dedicated to disseminating scholarly works in all formats and to bring scholarly publishing communities at the library and across the university together in close collaboration and partnership. Library appoints Maria Bonn as Associate University Librarian for Publishing to oversee and guide MPublishing operations
November 2009: digitalculturebooks re-launches with a new web site that begins the first stage in developing web communities for Press and other scholarship
November 2009: Press web site allows for multi-format purchasing (audio, Kindle, PDF, etc.)
March 2010: Press launches site to allow online commentary (public or private) of key Press works

2008: Facing (and embracing) the Digital Future

Back to the Future (2010)
Publishers Lunch Survey
March 2010
http://www.aptaracorp.com/index.php?/eBook-survey1.html
46% of publishers responding do not produce ebook formats of their products

Perseus Distribution Survey
February 2010
Polled 70 publishers on ebook/digital format

Google Editions Survey
March 2010
Quick poll to determine file formatting options from its customer base

Now Back to 2008: What were we thinking?
UM Press defined the following needs to as part of its strategy to become a digital scholarship publisher:
Build cross-searchable collections and collaborations
Create reflowable text for e-readers
Link text to multimedia elements
Present text in various stages of production (e.g., online review)
Chunk text for reuse (iPhone apps)
Own its content’s future

October 2008: Where do we start?
Everyone, and no one, was an expert. Did we want to follow others, or figure out our own way?
Hired an independent xml expert to help us start
Pros:
Minimizes the follow-the-colleague solution that may not be best for you
Minimizes the potential for internal bias
Allows more open discussion and critique of options
Cons:
Expense
Getting expert up to speed on priorities, strategies, products
Being brutally honest about ourselves

2008: Assumptions
Authors cannot do xml tagging
CMS systems will not be purchased or built
UMP remains independent from vendors
No cut-over migration. Titles and products move to xml workflow over time

2008: Problem Statement
Given the strategy, assess current formats for suitability and scalability;
Define any upstream workflow processes affected
Determine if current digital states (PDFs and Google Search files) continue to be practical for growing digital revenue or reach

2008: Analysis Phase
Interview downstream recipients of current digital content (Scholarly Publishing Office)
Interview internal staff
Assess current university press environment
Assess current technology in use:
DocBook
TEI-lite
NLM
ePub (or OEB)
DITA
ACLS DTD (HEB)

2008: UMP Recommendations
Four options or flavors:
1. DocBook for xml-first
2. Continue with PDFs
3. Split production with DocBook xml and PDFs to manage transition
4. Adopt Adobe InDesign to xml format for ePub (or Epub, or EPub, or EPUB…)

2009: UMP Decision
Adopt two main workflows:
XML first workflow
XML Post-Production workflow
DocBook for xml-first titles – digitalculturebook series; some “enhanced” books; a few others
Use Adobe’s InDesign—to—XML process to create ePub or DocBook xml as appropriate
And of course, continue with PDFs as is currently acceptable by industry, and Adobe advancements may be of interest

2009: Changing the Workflow to Accommodate Digital
Where should we begin?
XML-first workflow impacts the handoff phases of work as manuscripts pass from copyediting to Production
xml editing tools
DocBook designs
Conversion testing
Altering print-focused steps
XML Post-Production is low-impact; affecting output at the end of the print production tasks – creating PDFs for the printer and ePub files for digital
Output ePub and DocBook Review

2009-2010: Projects to Help Define the New Workflows
XML-First: About 10 at most in current pipeline.
Pilot: The Accidental Teacher
online review and commentable blog
test for vendor xml conversion
XML Post-Production:
digitalculturebooks.org – DocBook
Kindle, etc. - ePub
Benetech – daisy xml

2010 and Beyond
Copyediting Tests: First-pass with DocBook tags?
Highly segmented data (i.e., chunks): Enhanced ebooks and databases
iPad and other mobile apps
XHTML5? http://thinkubator.ccsp.sfu.ca/wikis/xmlProduction/XMLProductionStartWithTheWeb
New ePub version
http://www.openebook.org/idpf_groups/IDPF-EPUB-WG-Charter-4-6-2010.html

“ The first concern is not the backlist. The first concern is to have creation properties in place today that mean that you won’t be worried about 2010 books in 2013. So the first thing to do is go to a digital workflow.”
--Mike Shatzkin
quoted in Book Business March/April 2010

Experience So Far
Define your own strategy that fits who you are
Experiments build experience
Talk with your colleagues – learn new things or just simply validate
Don’t let your content and its formats be “owned” by others

A Few Tips from UMP Colleagues
Remove display triggers from source materials
Simplify a list of press-specific tags
Work with vendors on scripts to eliminate conversion problems
Think about your artwork, footnotes, etc. in digital form
Standardize what you can (e.g., Copyright page)
Get xml savvy and use the free software to get familiar with it
Prioritize what you want to accomplish

Questions?
Karen Hill
[email_address]

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AAUP Web Seminar: XML Workflow Case Study

by Association of American University Presses on Apr 29, 2010

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