Metadata Report (Brockmeier-Schmelzle Archive)

Starr Hoffman

Fall 2006

• Metadata Report (download in MS Word format)
• link to the contentDM collection
• link to the admin interface

Scope and Purpose

This metadata element set is derived from Dublin Core and its customized fields are mapping to existing Dublin Core fields whenever possible. It is designed for use in the Brockmeier-Schmelzle Archive, an archive that contains digital representations of photographs, artwork, documents, audio and video recordings, medals, quilts, and other physical objects. Specific elements such as Subject.Participant, Anecdote, Owner, Era, and Generation have been added to convey some of the family history behind the objects, as well as the more usual facts about them which can be more easily conveyed by standard Dublin Core elements.

Referenced Standards

See the Controlled Vocabularies Used page.

Definitions

object: The physical object which is represented in this archive by a digital surrogate (usually an image file). Unless otherwise specified, elements refer to the physical incarnation of the object. (For instance, Size.Digital specifies that it refers to "The size of the digital incarnation of the object.")

Conventions

Due to the nature of this project, pulling from many different sources, a standard filenaming convention has not been established. The only broad convention is that the filename be descriptive of the physical object that it represents, and that if there is more than one image of an item, that it be appended with a number.

Similarly, the wide variance of object types makes it difficult to establish a convention for object title. It is suggested that title be descriptive, as brief as possible, and use sentence capitalization, unless the title is a formal one (in which case, use title capitalization). Use of owner names in titles is discouraged, as the "Owner" field has been designed for that purpose.

The Element Set

In the set below, each metadata element has an element name, label (how the element name appears in contentDM), definition, and comment (which may elaborate on input rules or specific aspects of the element). In addition, it is indicated for each element if it has been indexed, if it is repeatable, and if it is required. Elements that are not part of the standard Dublin Core element set also list the DC element to which they are mapped (if any). Those elements which make use of a controlled vocabulary define which vocabulary is to be used; non-standard vocabularies are listed as "proprietary."

Metadata Element Set

See the Metadata Element Set

Planned Edits

• record edits
  • add 30 more records
  • add the physical and digital size information for each record
  • edit titles to better fit the title conventions
  • replace the test images for the quilt and sewing machine with actual images
  • make the quilt and sewing machine compound objects
  • add audio and video files
  • add document(s) and either:
    • provide a field for transcribed text
    • provide transcribed text in "Description" field
    • enter transcribed text as a separate object (text file) and link to the original document image using the "Relation" field
    • enter transcribed text as a separate object (text file) and make it a compound object (with the image of the document)
• element edits
  • change all commas in "Subject" field to semicolons
  • import all terms in "Subject" field to controlled vocabulary
    • currently, subject terms are improperly indexed because they appear as full-text, not as controlled vocabulary terms
  • delete the current fields "Owner" and "Owner.Status" in favor of "Owner.Original," "Owner.Past," and "Owner.Current"
    • look at VRA Core "Provenance" first
      • for provenance, VRA Core uses the element "Location" ....with qualifiers
  • are both "Permissions" and "Rights" fields needed? decide in favor of one
  • decide on a field(s) to store additional technical metadata
    • application/software needed
    • camera/scanner used
    • metadata creator/date
  • delete the "Source" field
  • correct spelling of “millennials” in controlled vocabulary for “Generation”
  • add more input rules detailing the entry of technical metadata in the “Size.Digital” element
• other edits
  • determine a standard size/resolution for the digital images and thumbnails
    • haven’t yet made this decision, because very few images have been received from my sources
  • complete online family tree chart
    • will import the URL as an item in the collection
    • http://www2.tribalpages.com/tribe/browse?userid=mithdara&rand=290865146