The SGML work done so far raises a few issues. Museums (like the rest of the not-for-profit world) are not awash with disposable cash, and the high cost of good-quality SGML-aware software is a real problem. This is particularly true when museums move towards needing a database/repository. For smaller museums (i.e., 95% of them) considering the adoption of SGML, the cost factor alone is a killer blow at present.
To compound this problem, museums will probably not be satisfied with standard "off the shelf" SGML software. The particular nature of museum information may require specially-tailored software, for example to support data validation or the creation of links to external authorities.
A wide range of curators and volunteers has now tried adding SGML markup to full-text sources. They commonly report intellectual difficulties in adding topic indicators to the text. The good news is that they typically found no problems in marking up the basic document structure.
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Contact Robin Cover with corrections and updates, or to submit contributions to the ISUG online document database.
