1. Describing Images for the Digital Environment
Translating collective description skills to the item level
Amanda Focke, CA

2. Description skills for collections & groups
As archivists we are trained to describe the collective level, and have not been called upon as often to describe individual objects. However, we all know about:
Components of finding aids (data content)
Containers for that description (data structure)
Sharing description (data exchange)
As archivists we are trained to described the collective, and have not been called upon as often to describe individual objects.
We can follow DACS for guidance on describing any object or group, but for the digital environment, we need to capture additional special information.
We are familiar with the components of a collection level finding aid and how to write them: bio note, scope and content, arrangement, index terms, box and folder level inventory, etc. (Data Content)
We are familiar with ways to share this information – Word documents or databases, EAD encoded finding aids, picking out pieces of the finding aid and turning it into MARC records (Data Structure).
We are familiar with how to exchange this information, share it (posting Word or html or XML files on-line, local web catalogs and OCLC, etc) (Data Exchange)

3. How do I use my descriptive skills at the item level?
If you can assign a title to a collection and write a bio note, scope note, and the rest of the finding aid parts, you can describe single items, too!
How do I get started?
What are correlating standards and practices for describing and sharing items in a digital environment?

4. Parallel standards Material Culture Bibliographic Archival
Data Structure
CDWA
MARC
EAD for finding aids,
Dublin Core for describing objects,
MODS / METS for digital objects
TEI for encoding full text
Data content
CCO
AACR2 (RDA)
DACS
Data Value Standards (Controlled vocabularies)
LCSH, LCNAF, and others
AAT, TGN, LCSH, LCNAF, and others
Data Format
XML
XML/ISO2 709
Data Exchange
OAI
Z39.50
SRU/SRW
“Google-ability”
Table based on “Metadata for All: Descriptive Standards and Metadata Sharing across Libraries, Archives and Museums” by Mary W. Elings and Günter Waibel, First Monday, volume 12, number 3 (March 2007), URL:
All archival acronyms noted and described in Resources slide.

5. As you can see from the previous table, there are a number of data structures used for archival materials, but particularly Dublin Core and MODS/METS. All of these have their own guidelines for how best to use them.
Dublin Core is the more common standard used currently. It has pros and cons. It’s easy to use and can be qualified (put example here) but still doesn’t allow much granularity of information.
MODS / METS are more complex to use but more specific in the data they work together to hold, they allow a lot of granularity (continue same example here).
The difference might be like a simple database table (DC) and a relational database (MODS/METS).

6. Main tools currently used in digital archives projects
Dublin Core metadata standard
Fields used to structure information – use a current “best practices” guide for assistance
Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS), by SAA
Guidelines for the content of those fields
AAT, LCSH, LCNAF, and many others
Controlled vocabularies for terms to be used as Index Terms (people, places, things, subjects, formats)

7. To describe an item, I need…
The original item and digital version
The relevant standards & guidelines
Enough subject knowledge to write a description (metadata)
This is the same approach as for
a collection or record group.
At Rice we have an institutional repository running on the open source software dSpace. It accepts many, many file types for digital objects (jpgs, tiffs, pdf’s, xml, many, many more) and uses Dublin Core as the metadata structure standard.
So to put an item up online, I need the digital object itself and I need enough information to write some kind of metadata describing the item.

8. For example: finding aid parts mapped to single item metadata parts
(using DACS)
Single item metadata parts (using Dublin Core guidelines and DACS)
Title
Scope and contents
Description
Bio note / Historical sketch
Description.Abstract
Use restrictions
Rights

9. Example of a portrait with known creator and subject
Here’s an image for us to describe. (Prasilova Scott portrait)
I am using Dublin Core as the structure – so I have a list of fields to fill in
I am using DACS as the content standard.
Filling in creator's names, dates, etc are straightforward in this case But how to create a title for an untitled object?
Use DACS and DC guidelines to fill in the less obvious fields
Creator: Scott, Vera Prasilova
Title: Caroline Wiess Law portrait
Date.original: 1934
Date.digital: 2007
Description: ????
Description.Abstract: ????

10. Example of a portrait with known creator and subject, cont.
Description (Similar to scope note)
This photograph of Caroline Wiess Law is part of the Vera Prasilova Scott portraiture collection. Scott was a studio photographer and the wife of a Rice faculty member. She took portraits of many prominent Houstonians in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Description.abstract (Similar to bio note)
Caroline Wiess Law was an oil heiress and art collector, and a major philanthropist in Houston. She is perhaps best known for her endowment bequests to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. In 1998 the Museum honoured her 40-year commitment as a passionate and dedicated supporter by renaming the main building in her honour. Wiess also supported programs at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, and University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, also in Houston. University.

11. Example of a snapshot with unknown creator and semi-known subject
Creator: Unknown photographer
Title: ????
Date.original: 1957
Date.digital: 2007
Description: ??????
Description.Abstract: ??????

12. Example of a snapshot with unknown creator and semi-known subject –cont.
Title:
Gus and Lyndall Wortham, at formal social event
Description (Similar to scope note)
Snapshot photograph of Gus S. Wortham and Lyndall Finley Wortham, from the Gus S. Wortham family and business records.
Description.abstract (Similar to bio note)
Gus Sessions Wortham ( ), businessman, civic leader, cattle rancher and philanthropist, served as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of American General for almost five decades. He and his wife, Lyndall Finley Wortham ( ), are also remembered for establishing the Wortham Foundation for support of cultural organizations and parks in Houston.
Used DACS guidelines to assign title – read some
Description field according to DC guidelines

13. That was the hard part?
Yes, title and description fields are typically the most labor intensive because each item is unique.
Each repository and each project will have to decide how complete and detailed their metadata will be based on their available staff and other resources.
There are more descriptive fields, administrative fields, and technical fields.
As with any archival description, the more time you spend on one thing means the less time you can spend on another.
Test how long you’re taking per metadata record and see if your time scales up appropriately and fits your overall digitization goals.
The other fields are important to include but are slightly more straightforward in terms of implementation.

14. Examples of other fields
Source: Forms part of the Sam Houston papers ( Box 1, folder 3, item 1, at the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University ( ).
Publisher: Digital version published by Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University.
Rights: This item is licensed under Creative Commons License 3.0, retaining the owner’s copyright but freely allowing use and modifications with proper attribution.
Source shows the context of the item in relation to its collection
Publisher relates to the publisher of the digital item

15. In closing
The same skills used in collective description can be used in single-item description.
You just need the appropriate standards and guidelines… and a lot of patience!

16. Resources Data Structures Data Content
EAD: Encoded Archival Description.
An xml language used for marking up archival finding aids, typically for use on-line.
Dublin Core metadata standard
A simple and commonly used field structure for holding metadata
An example of a best practices document:
MODS: Metadata Object Description Schema
an XML schema intended to be able to carry selected data from existing MARC 21 records as well as to enable the creation of original resource description records
METS: Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard
A standard for encoding descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata regarding objects within a digital library, using an XML schema
TEI: Text Encoding Initiative
An XML schema for encoding machine-readable texts such as books, journals, letters.
Data Content
DACS: Describing Archives: A Content Standard. SSA publication.
DACS  is an output-neutral set of rules for describing archives, personal papers, and manuscript collections, and can be applied to all material types. 

17. Resources cont. Controlled Vocabularies Data Format Data Exchange
AAT = Art & Architecture Thesaurus, by the Getty Museum of Art.
Controlled vocabulary used for format names such as “Studio portraits”.
LCNAF = Library of Congress Name Authority File.
Authorized format of proper nouns – people places and things.
LCSH = Library of Congress Subject Headings.
Authorized headings for topics / subjects.
TGN: Thesaurus of Geographic Names
Controlled vocabulary used for geographic names
Data Format
XML: Extensible markup language
Data Exchange
OAI-PMH: Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting
A low-barrier mechanism for repository interoperability. Data Providers are repositories that expose structured metadata via OAI-PMH. Service Providers then make OAI-PMH service requests to harvest that metadata.

18. Contact Amanda Focke, CA
Asst. Head of Special Collections, Fondren Library, Rice University