[Metadatalibrarians] Working with historians and archivists

Annie Sollinger annies at library.umass.edu
Mon Aug 14 09:27:50 PDT 2017


Hi Erica,

A few years ago at UMass (before I arrived), Special Collections took in a huge number of print photos (or negatives, I'm not sure) from University Relations/Campus Creative Services. Folks from all over the library chipped in to contribute descriptive metadata to the "University Photos Project." The results are here: http://credo.library.umass.edu/search?q=collection:%22University%20Photograph%20Collection%22

I can try to find out if there's any documentation of how this was achieved, if you're interested, or you could contact scua at library.umass.edu and ask about the project. 

Good luck,
Annie Sollinger

/ / / / / / /
Annie Sollinger
Digital Image Metadata Librarian
Liaison for Digital Humanities
University of Massachusetts Amherst
413.545.4978


Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2017 11:16:08 -0700
From: Erica FINDLEY <ericaf at multcolib.org>
To: metadatalibrarians at lists.monarchos.com
Subject: [Metadatalibrarians] Working with historians and archivists
	on	descriptive metadata
Message-ID:
	<CAGi+6WeJ308L0=4cxDaiWbjKHt17-pqBBKc7OtgAT6uoyE_pVg at mail.gmail.com>
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Good morning,

I manage our library's digital collections <https://gallery.multcolib.org/>.
My expertise is around digitization and metadata practice. I am not a historian or an archivist. In past workplaces, I have worked side by side with an archivist or historian to write metadata for these types of collections. In the position that I am in now, these knowledge holders work in other departments.

We are digitizing collection where including historical context in the metadata will be important. I am anticipating that this will require identifying people and events taking place in the photograph as well as applying an expert knowledge to determine the significance of what is pictured. This has been hard for me to think about how to do because I nor the cataloging staff who write the metadata have no or very little historical knowledge related to this collection.

However, there may be other people on our staff that do have knowledge that they could contribute.

I am curious how you may have approached this in your institutions especially if you work in a large public or academic system where the knowledge holders do not work in the same department with you. I am interested in what this collaboration may look like once you have identified the knowledge holders. How do you consult with them without draining their time away from their regular duties? What types of assistance or resources do you ask for them to provide? How do you quantify for them the time that might be required to do this work?

Thank you in advance,

Erica

*Erica Findley*
*Cataloging | Metadata Librarian*
Multnomah County Library
Isom Building
My schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00 am-5:00 pm
Phone: 503.988.5466
multcolib.org <http://www.multcolib.org/


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