ACLS Humanities E-Book: Guidelines for Production Review of E-Books

Please note: As of January 1, 2007, the ACLS History E-Book Project is now ACLS Humanities E-Book.
To view the current version of this page, click here.

Guidelines for Production Review of E-Books for
ACLS Humanities E-Book

HEB recommends that publishers complete their review of XML-encoded e-books within 30 days, to expedite production and allow us to launch their books to Project subscribers in a timely fashion. (Please note that uploads of new titles generally occur on a monthly basis, on the 15th of each month or the following business day.) We hope the following guidelines will help you navigate through the e-book smoothly, checking that all content appears correctly and in the appropriate place and that all the functions are working properly. Publishers are responsible for proofreading, review, and any final content-related corrections, submitting a revised version of the XML and related files to HEB, if applicable. Once the book is live to the public and we receive your final approval, we can release the balance of the deliverables fee, as specified on the Schedule A.

Proofreading and Quality Control:

In order to ensure the quality of your vendor's tagging conversion and review the design styling on our site, it is critical to proofread the entire e-book. Proofreaders should take care to check special characters as well as such elements as epigraphs, quotation extracts, lists, tables, all heads, figures, etc., against the print book. (Other materials included in the e-edition only—such as added links, audio or video files—may require special attention.) A checklist is provided below.

The XML-Encoded E-Book

HTML Formatting:

The XML-tagged file you provided is converted dynamically on our site to browser-readable HTML. PLEASE NOTE: HTML coding for browsers has limited styling options, especially when compared with print page-layout software. Also, certain types of styling in print do not work as well on screen and thus are modified (e.g., superscripted note numbering can affect line spacing, and thus note numbers are put in brackets rather than superscript). Also, for efficiency across the site, basic style templates are used for all books.

Title Record Page:

This page includes basic title and copyright information about the book, an enlargeable "cover" or title image, a table of contents, links to reviews, and a full library catalog record in MARC format. NOTE: Title information and MARC records are NOT completed until second-round revisions. There is now only dummy data in the title information and detailed catalog record.

Table of Contents:

The table of contents is generated automatically from the title heads tagged in the book. Each link pulls up a specific chunk of text (section or chapter or publisher-specified text chunk).

Text Chunk:

Chunking serves the important function of allowing us to deliver only portions of each book at a time to users, thus enabling us to track hits for usage and royalty purposes. A publisher can decide on the size of the text chunks that are delivered. Most books with sections are delivered chunked by section. For books without sections, publishers can decide to deliver text by entire chapters or by another means of chunking text (e.g., every 10 paragraphs).

Heads:

Heads that appear in the TOC and at the top of each text chunk (i.e., HTML page) are taken from heads tagged in the text. (NOTE: main book title "running heads" appearing at the very top of each chunk adhere to MARC record rules, requiring among other things that heads follow sentence-style capitalization.)

Not all sections have actual heads in the print version. In the online version, for those sections without heads, an appropriate head was added according to the publisher's specifications (e.g., [Intro] or [Dedication]). For books with heads that are in all-caps, we suggest that the publisher adjust the heads to title casing. Note that small caps are not used in our stylesheet.

Paragraph Numbering:

Paragraphs are numbered sequentially from beginning to end of text. The paragraph-number ranges for each (individually accessible) text chunk appear in brackets after each link on the TOC. In the e-book, the paragraph numbers appear in gray to the left of each paragraph. These paragraph numbers will take the place of page numbers in born-digital books and can be used for scholarly citation.

Notes:

Endnotes/footnotes appear in pop-up boxes when you click on a note number within the text. The entire notes section can also be accessed through the TOC or from a link in the note pop-up box.

Index:

Page numbers in the index are linked to print-page numbers appearing throughout the text. (As we bring born-digital books online the index can be replaced by the existing—and robust—search engine.)

Illustrations:

Illustrations appear in-line within the paragraph text or in separate sections. Clicking on an image will bring up an enlarged image in a pop-up box.

Audio and Video:

Audio and video clips appear in a separate pop-up window when the appropriate text-link is clicked.

Search:

Click on "search" in the red bar to search across the collection using basic key-word, Boolean, proximity, or bibliographic searching. Click on "search this book" to search for a key word or phrase within a specific book.

Search results are returned with key words highlighted in context with surrounding text.

Save Citation:

Users can click on "save citation" and "view my citations" to save and e-mail the citation of the library catalog record and URL link for each book.

Proofreading E-Books

Please refer to the following Styling Notes and Proofing Checklist when reviewing your e-book.

Styling Notes

Item	Notes
ellipses	… will display as: [ . . . ], i.e., [space.space.space.space]
end-of-line hyphenation and line break	In titles converted from the print version, hyphens inserted to break a word at the end of a line as well as forced end-of-line breaks have been removed. For example, if "demo-" is on one line and "cracy" on the next, the hyphen is removed so the word reads "democracy" with no hyphen.
extracts	Extracts, such as epigraphs and quotations, are indented and have tighter line spacing. The epigraph and quotation source line will appear flush left to left margin of extract text.
"Ibid."	Since end notes will appear as pop-up windows, for notes that include the word "Ibid." users will not see the referenced note in the pop-up window. For most books, the word "Ibid." was replaced with the referenced text. Note that sometimes it's not a clear-cut copy and paste replacement, because the referenced note can include lengthy text or multiple books, so the publisher has chosen to keep those "Ibid."s in place. (The publisher should have made a decision on handling of "Ibid."s during the encoding stage.)
n-dash	N-dashes will appear as a simple hyphen (-). This facilitates searching.
note-reference numbers	Foot- and end-note-reference numbers are displayed between brackets and are linked to a pop-up browser window containing the note. The note-reference number is not styled as superscript.
paragraph breaks / indents	Paragraph breaks are rendered with a skipped line space and without indents. Section (milestone) breaks are displayed as an additional line space between paragraphs or as a series of 3 asterisks.
paragraph numbers	Paragraph numbers are rendered in dark gray Arial font to the left of each paragraph. Since HTML formatting is limited, sometimes the vertical alignment may be off by a few pixels.
paragraphs without numbers	Paragraphs within extracts (e.g., quotes, epigraphs) are NOT numbered. Also, paragraphs used for formatting only (e.g., paragraphs that are not part of main text) are not numbered.
quotes and apostrophes	Single and double quotes and apostrophes will appear straight (" and '), not curly. This facilitates searching.
small caps	In titles converted from the print version, text in small caps has been converted to all caps or title case.
spacing and tracking	HTML has no ability to adjust kerning or tracking (space between characters and between words), so some lines may render with slightly loose spacing.

Proofreading Checklist

Check Item	Description
audio clips	If the title includes these, click on the link pointing to each item to make sure it opens and plays in the pop-up box.
audio clips: List of Audio Clips	If there are audio clips, a List of Clips should appear as a separate section in the front matter, accessible through the TOC, including numbers and captions for each item, as well as a link to the paragraph (or other container element) in which it is referenced. Check the list and the links.
bad formatting	Flag any elements that are not formatted well, like tables or lists, or anything else that doesn't seem to be rendering well on screen.
Copyright and Permissions Page	Check copyright and permissions information. Make sure ISBN for this e-book and HEB Number are filled out. CIP should NOT be included; some additional info pertaining to the electronic version may be added.
extracts, epigraphs, and quotations	Make sure epigraphs and block quotations are indented correctly. If there is paragraph text after the extract, make sure margin is moved back out/flush left (i.e., no indent). Epigraph source line should be flush left to left margin of extract according to our stylesheet.
figures	If there are figures in the book, make sure the images, figure numbers, and captions are appearing correctly. Click on each image to make sure they open larger version in pop-up window. Some images will be shown grouped together (like an insert of plates) while others will be interspersed throughout text.
figures: List of Illustrations	If there are figures in the book, a List of Illustrations should appear as a separate section, accessible through the TOC. If the figures are interspersed throughout the text, the list should include figure numbers and captions with a link to the figure. Check the list and the links.
forced hyphenation and line breaks	Make sure all hyphens inserted to break a word at the end of a line as well as forced end-of-line breaks are removed. For example, if "demo-" is on one line and "cracy" on the next, in the e-book the hyphen should be removed so the word reads "democracy" with no hyphen.
heads	For new e-books in development, the publisher must make sure that all divisions have heads. In print-version books, some sections do not have heads (e.g., first section at the beginning of a chapter, dedication page, etc.). The tagging vendor should have added heads, such as Dedication, Intro, or [No head in print version]. Query publishers to confirm these added heads. For heads including paragraph ranges or bylines, make sure these are accurate. (See also "paragraph numbers" and "Title Record Page—TOC and byline or paragraph range" below.)
Index	Check formatting and spot check some links.
note references	Foot- / end-note-reference numbers are displayed between brackets and are linked to a pop-up browser window containing the note. Make sure numbers are correct. Do a spot check of a few links.
page breaks	If there is a corresponding print version of this e-book, page breaks should have been added. Check page numbers against print book. Make sure spacing is correct (e.g., text [Page 1] more text...), with spaces around brackets. (Note that page numbers for blank pages may have been omitted.)
paragraph numbers	Check that paragraph numbers in the margin to the left of each paragraph in the text are sequential and unique throughout text. Extracts (epigraphs/quotes) and paragraphs not part of the main text (such as those used for formatting purposes only, e.g., source information below a table) should NOT be numbered.
small caps	Check that small-cap text has been converted to title case or all caps. If converted to title case, make sure proper title-casing rules are followed (e.g., prepositions in lower-case, etc.).
special characters	Watch for special characters and symbols [e.g., é, ¥, ©], noting if they are rendered correctly.
styles	Take care to check text styled in italics, bold, etc. (Note, however, that some more elaborate print styling options may not be available in html.)
Title Record Page— title information	Title information and detailed library cataloging records will not be available on first upload. Dummy data will be in place. On the Title Record Page, proofreaders should only check cover image and TOC.
Title Record Page— cover image	Flag if there is no cover image. Click on small cover to make sure large cover appears in pop-up.
Title Record Page— TOC	The Table of Contents on the Title Record Page is generated from the heads tagged in the text. Check TOC heads and make sure they all appear and are indented correctly. Check upper/title casing, especially if heads were converted from upper case to title casing.
Title Record Page— TOC and text chunks	The publisher should have chosen and encoded the size of each text chunk to be delivered—by chapter, section, or other division level. So, for example, if the main text is broken down into text chunks by section level, in the TOC, the section head should be highlighted and linked to the section text and the chapter head should remain unlinked.
Title Record Page— TOC and byline or paragraph range	For sections with bylines, these should appear with heads in TOC (e.g., "Foreword, by Pat Smith"). Paragraph number ranges [e.g., para 1-29] should appear after each linked head. Check that the paragraph ranges are sequential and not missing any numbers. (Note that some divisions that are not part of the main text, such as copyright, dedication, notes, etc., do not have paragraph numbers.)
video clips	If the title includes these, click on the link pointing to each item to make sure it opens and plays in the pop-up box.
video clips: List of Video Clips	If there are video clips, a List of Clips should appear as a separate section in the front matter, accessible through the TOC, including numbers and captions for each item, as well as a link to the paragraph (or other container element) in which it is referenced. Check the list and the links.

HEB06.04
revised 3-14-07



	ACLS Humanities E-Book For more information, please contact info@hebook.org