Tagging: what for? – when and why tagging makes sense

Tagging allows – in addition to content indexing by HTR – systematic indexing of the text by the later user. In contrast to an HTR model that does its work independently, tagging has to be done mostly by hand, which means that it requires a lot of effort. Therefore, a realistic effort analysis should be carried out before developing far-reaching plans regarding tagging.

Due to the amount of material processed in our project, we primarily use tagging where it helps us in the practical work on the text. This is the case with structure tagging, where the layout analysis is improved with the help of the tagging and the P2PaLA developed from it, and then of course also with the tagging of textstyles in case of deletions and blackening. This is where tagging is basically used “area-wide” by us. A fixed component of our transcription rules is also the use of the “unclear” tag for passages that cannot be read correctly by the transcriber. In this case, the tag is used more for internal team communication.

For the systematic preparation of texts for which an HTR has already been performed, we are experimenting with the “person” and “place” tags in order to offer systematic indexing, at least in this limited form.