When comparing the METS schema with the MOA2.DTD recently, I realized that while the MOA2 DTD provides for a TYPE attribute in <div> elements, there is currently no corresponding attribute for "divType" elements in METS. I would like to request that an optional "TYPE" attribute be added to the attribute list for "divType" elements. The TYPE attribute would provide a means for specifying the category to which to which a division of an object belongs and of clarifying its role within the hierarchy of an object as a whole. For example, in the case of a book the root div would be of TYPE "book"; under this there might be <div>s of TYPE "chapter" and under these, <div>s of TYPE "page". In the case of a photoalbum, the sequence of div TYPEs might be: photoalbum, page, photo, photodetail. I think that the div TYPE could be an important basis for providing for certain type of functionality in tools that work either directly or indirectly off of METS objects. Granted, my MOA2 object navigation tools currently make fairly minor uses of the div TYPE attribute. For example, the div TYPE is the basis for selecting a style sheet for the presentation of the descriptive metadata associated with a div. And the TYPE attribute provides a fallback to the LABEL attribute for labeling a div in the document "table of contents" when no LABEL is present. But more importantly, more sophisticated tools in the future could conceivably put the TYPE attribute to much more sophisticated uses. For example, a viewer tool might want to make certain image manipulation functions available for divs of TYPE "photo" in a photoalbum; or it might want to provide indexed access to the divs of TYPE "entry" in a diary. Of course, the usefulness of a div TYPE attribute will hinge on there being some vocabulary control. While this may be difficult to implement across institutional boundaries, at least within an institution enough control to make a div TYPE attribute functionally useful should be possible. Rick Beaubien ----------------------------------------------------- Rick Beaubien Software Engineer: Research and Development Library Systems Office Rm 386 Doe Library University of California Berkeley, CA 94720-6000 510-643-9776