About
This project’s purpose was to practically apply descriptive metadata to a collection of items pertaining to a personally chosen topic. To do this, I used the Dublin Core Schema in order to have consistent element sets for all of the objects I would be providing descriptive metadata for. While I wanted this overarching consistency, I knew that I also wanted to provide different information for the physical objects than I would provide for the books. The differences for each will be explained in detail below.
Objects
For the objects, I used the 12 element sets as shown below in the object example metadata. I chose these element sets because I thought they would be the most useful in describing the necessary aspects of the objects included within this project. I then decided that I had wanted to use Getty as the controlled vocabulary for the objects as it seems to be more cultural object focused. From Getty, I primarily used the Union List of Artist names, the Thesaurus of Geographic Names, the Art & Architecture Thesaurus, and the Iconography Authority (for specific uses, see the example below).
- Title
- Title of object given from web source of object.
- Description
- Description is provided by the web source's description of the object.
- Identifier
- Promethean_Iconography_#
- Creator
- Creator, used from provided web source but standardized using Getty Union List of Artist Names.
- Date
- Date listed on web source.
- Spatial Coverage
- Area where object was created or found, and standardized using Getty Geographic Names..
- Relation
- Area where object is presently located (i.e. museum), and standardized using Getty Geographic Names where possible; where not possible, it is linked to the web source site.
- Format
- Format given by information provided by web source and standardized using Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus.
- Type
- Type given by information provided by web source and standardized using Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus.
- Subject
- Subject given by information provided by web source and standardized using Getty Iconography Authority.
- Source
- Link to specific web site for the object.
- Rights
- Link to where web source's rights can be found.
- Item sets
- Images
- Media
Books
While some of the element sets used for the books are similar to those used for the objects, there are some differences; in fact, for the books I used only 11 element sets, which are shown below. Again, I chose these specific element sets because I thought they would be the most useful for describing the necessary aspects of the books included in this project; obviously, as these are books, they would have different descriptive needs than the objects. Because of these differences, I also decided to use a different controlled vocabulary: Library of Congress, which is definitely more literature focused. From Library of Congress, I primarily used the Name Authority File, the Genre/Form Terms, and the Subject Headings (for specific uses, see the example below).
- Title
- Title of specific work that is relevant; standardized using Library of Congress Name Authority File.
- Description
- Description of relevant work as provided via the web source.
- Identifier
- Promethean_Literature_#
- Creator
- Creator of original work and standardized using Library of Congress Name Authority File.
- Contributor
- Contributor, who is most likely the translator of the work, and, where possible, standardized using Library of Congress Name Authority File.
- Publisher
- Publisher of physical book and standardized using Library of Congress Name Authority File.
- Date Created
- Original date of creation, not the date of the current publication.
- Type
- Type is the genre of the work, and is standardized using Library of Congress Genre/Forms Terms.
- Subject
- Subject, or main topics of the literature, standardized using Library of Congress Subject Headings.
- Source
- Source of the book's information.
- Rights
- Rights as provided by the web source.
- Item sets
- Images
- Media
Reflection
After completing this project, I feel I have a better understanding of metadata and schemes, and have a knowledge of how to practically apply different element sets and controlled vocabularies to both objects and books. From this project, I have also learned that I prefer Getty to Library of Congress because Getty has more intuitive searching within the vocabularies and has more terms. With Library of Congress, I found it more difficult to search, and I found it odd that they did not have a standardized term for Prometheus, but did have standardized terms for more obscure Greek mythology figures. They both definitely had some shortcomings, but I found Getty to be more helpful. Overall, I am glad to have practical experience in applying descriptive metadata to both cultural objects and books.
Created 2019 by Melissa Bergoffen.