Visual Resources Metadata

1. Visual Resources Metadata Jenn Riley Metadata Librarian IU Digital Library Program

2. A birds-eye view of image cataloging • Both general and subject-specific expertise needed • Standards still very much in development • “Title” isn’t necessarily obvious • Works are frequently anonymous • Art image cataloging tends not to be integrated into “traditional” cataloging operations • No tradition of cooperative cataloging L566 Digital Libraries

3. Selected types of metadata standards • Structure standards • Content standards • Data value standards (controlled vocabularies) L566 Digital Libraries

4. Selected structure standards for visual resources (sort of) • Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA) • Visual Resources Association (VRA) Core • Dublin Core (DC) • MAchine Readable Cataloging (MARC) • Encoded Archival Description (EAD) L566 Digital Libraries

5. CDWA • More of a framework than a structure standard • Museum focus • 381 categories • Smaller number considered “core” • Indicates when values generated from: • A small controlled list • An external authority file • Consistent formatting • Managed by the Getty • CDWA Lite expressed as an XML Schema L566 Digital Libraries

6. VRA Core (1) • Developed under the auspices of the Visual Resources Association • Each record denoted as referring to a Work or an Image • 17 data elements • No element required • All elements repeatable • Various fields have recommended controlled vocabularies • More general in focus than CDWA L566 Digital Libraries

7. VRA Core (2) • VRA Core 3.0 • Current version • XML DTD • VRA Core 4.0 • Currently in beta testing phase • Should be released by the end of the year • XML Schema L566 Digital Libraries

8. Dublin Core • “Core” elements for any type of resource • Used primarily in digital asset management systems covering many types of resources • Best used as a “lowest common denominator” format when necessary, rather than a native metadata format L566 Digital Libraries

9. MARC and EAD • Not designed specifically for visual resources • Tend to be used in environments with small VR collections, in a library or archive context, respectively L566 Digital Libraries

10. Selected content standards for visual resources • Cataloging Cultural Objects (CCO) • Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2nd edition (AACR2) • Graphic materials : rules for describing original items and historical collections L566 Digital Libraries

11. CCO • Developed under the auspices of the Visual Resources Association • Can be used in museum, library, and archive environments • Currently in draft; release scheduled for 2006 • Designed to be compatible with both CDWA and VRA Core • Recommends providing separate values for indexing and display for each class of data element • All headings are post-coordinated • For representational works, recommends plural forms of headings when multiple instances of the object appear, and singular forms of headings when one instance of the object appears L566 Digital Libraries

12. AACR2 • Chapter 8 covers graphic materials • Poor match between AACR/ISBD areas of description and data needed for image retrieval • Not centered around unique cultural objects • Not adequate for cataloging large quantities of images at an item level L566 Digital Libraries

13. Graphic Materials • Meant to supplement AACR2 rules • Follows the ISBD areas of description • Covers description only, not access points • “Equal attention” to item-level and collection-level cataloging L566 Digital Libraries

14. Common fields subject to authority control • Names • Subjects/forms/genres • Geographic places L566 Digital Libraries

15. Union List of Artist Names (ULAN) Mostly creators of art, but also some performance artists and donors Personal and corporate names Accessible through the Getty Web site Contributions vetted through the Getty Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) Not restricted to any given domain Personal and corporate names Accessible through OCLC (and others) NACO participants contribute new records themselves Some controlled vocabularies for names L566 Digital Libraries

16. Some controlled vocabularies for subjects/forms/genres • Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) • Iconclass • Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic Materials I: Subject Terms (TGM I) • Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic Materials II: Genre and Physical Characteristic Terms (TGM II) • Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) L566 Digital Libraries

17. Subject access to art images • “Ofness” [1][2] vs” Aboutness” [1][2] * • Image catalogers traditionally more comfortable with interpretive acts than book catalogers • Little if any text from which to take concepts • Some challenges * • what does “subject” mean? – i.e., what kinds of property of works should be indexed? • what kinds of method should be used to determine the subject(s) of works, and… • to select terms that represent those subjects? *of vs. about examples, and list of challenges from Jonathan Furner’s presentation on CCO at ALA 2005, <http://www.ala.org/ala/alcts/alctsconted/alctsceevents/alctsannual/COO_Furner.pdf> L566 Digital Libraries

18. Some controlled vocabularies for geographic places • Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN) • National Geospatial Intelligence Agency GEOnet Names Server • Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) L566 Digital Libraries

19. How to create VR metadata • No standard mechanism • Museum databases • MARC catalogs • Digital asset management systems, e.g., • Luna Insight • CONTENTdm • But mostly homegrown systems! • Slide libraries tend to use local databases in the FileMakerPro platform • Current interest in collaboration, cooperative cataloging, and sharing software is changing this situation rapidly L566 Digital Libraries

20. More information • These presentation slides and handouts: <http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/~jenlrile/presenatations/slis/05spring/l566/> • CCO session at ALA 2005: <http://www.ala.org/ala/alcts/alctsconted/alctsceevents/alctsannual/catculturalprog.htm> • Visual Resources Association <http://www.vraweb.org/> • Eileen Fry, IU Slide Librarian, fryp@indiana.edu • jenlrile@indiana.edu L566 Digital Libraries