The Evolution of Dorland’sA Brief Study in Content Management

Presented by: Doug AndersonTitle: Chief LexicographerDate: May 11, 2005

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Dorland’s in a Nutshell

The name Dorland’s has stood for excellence in medical dictionaries for over a hundred years. The Dorland’s offerings have evolved from a pair of print works, one large and one pocket-sized, to an entire line of products, including dictionaries, a spell checker, a set of word books for medical transcriptionists, and related products, available in a variety of formats.

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The Problem

A large amount of data that had been accumulating for many years

A proprietary mainframe database No direct way to access the database No way to reuse data Venerable work methods Need to control costs

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Old Days—Old Ways

Database and Editorial System Separate Proprietary Tagging Lots of Data Entry Lots of Paper One Database, One Book

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The Old Way

Cards Cards Cards Cards

Typesetting

Lexicographers

Consultants

Typesetting

Consultant Galleys

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What’s Wrong With This Picture?

Time-consuming Labor-intensive Piles of paper Expensive Inflexible The main function of the database is to feed

the typesetting system

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Content Management I

Relational Database Everything in One Database—One

Database, Many Books Direct Access to Data Data Management Becomes Part of the

Editorial Process SGML Tremendous Savings in Time and Cost

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Content Management II

Content Reuse—Store Once, Use Many Times

Content Repurposing More Flexible Editorial System Enforcement of Consistent Content Ability to Publish in Multiple Formats

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Vasont

Content is Automatically Reused Across Products The Same Piece of Text Can Be Used in Multiple

Ways in Different Products Several Products Can Be Called Up

Simultaneously Editing Can Be Done in Edit Boxes or With an Editor

Cross-References Help Maintain Consistency We Can Publish In Multiple Formats, Print or

Electronic

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How We Got Here

Identification of New Needs

Enhancements to Meet Identified Needs

Identification of New Opportunities

The Virtuous Cycle of Expanding Opportunity

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Where Do We Go?

Considerations More Bang for the Buck The Requirements of the Marketplace

The Global Marketplace Customization

The Demand for More Formats—Print, CD-ROM, Web-Based, PDA, BlackBerry

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XML

We No Longer Think in Terms of Print Products Only

Products in Electronic Format Are Increasingly Important

Licensing Customers Prefer XML Even our Typesetting Vendors Like XML So…

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XML …of course

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Where Will It End?

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