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The American Museum of Natural History Special Collections Practicum by Jack Weiss
Dean Tula GianniniLIS 698-01
Origins of the Image Database
• Shortly after its founding in 1869, AMNH began accumulating images made by its scientist and explorers. They photographed their missions, as well as the lands and peoples around them.
• Albert Bickmore, AMNH founder, was an enthusiastic proponent of visual education.
Growth of Photographic Collection
• By end of 19th century, AMNH had a 140,000 lantern slide lending library for NYC schools. This began trend to “go beyond the Museum’s walls”
• Currently, the Photographic Collection has about 1.5 million images in all formats. Originals are kept in 7-story climate controlled archive
• To build internal support for digitization projects, Library staff produced a 50 image print-on-demand book distributed to AMNH Trustees in Jan. 2007
NY METRO Library Council
• In 2007, AMNH secured a grant from NY METRO and created its first digitization project, Picturing the Museum: Education and Exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History.
• This 989 image website was a showcase for the Photographic Collection and the prototype for the Image Database.
NY METRO Grant
• Enabled cataloger and scanning technician to be hired
• Enabled equipment to be purchased: Epson Perfection V750-M Pro flatbed scanner, MAC Pro work station, Eizo CG211: ColorEdge Color Calibration LCD Monitor w/hood, and Eye One Calibration Hardware
Sources of Image Metadata
• Mellon Foundation grant funded digitization of typed logbooks, negative envelopes, and photo print file cards.
• All data was “triple-keyed” by hand (outsourced) to compare and eliminate errors.
• This produced 186,000 “legacy records”
Cataloging Procedures & Metadata Documentation
• The Descriptive Data Fields were formed according to DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard)
• Mapped to Dublin Core
• Syntax Rules for ‘new caption’ field based on VRA Core Element Description were designed to be brief and descriptive
Descriptive Fields Used
• Drop-Down Menus: Format, Original Photographer, Copy Photographer, Artist, Department/Discipline, Subject Heading
• Drop-down menus used for ease and consistency
• Fill-ins: Caption title, Date, Geographic Location (repeatable), Institution, Permanent Hall, Expedition, Cultural Context, Cataloger’s Notes (seen only in Administrative Interface)
My Internship Role
• Edit Metadata• Save Original Caption & Source Data• Write New Caption, descriptive and brief,
eliminate any “culturally insensitive” terms• Complete fill-in and drop-down menu
selections using Authority Files (various AMNH Departmental databases, LC Authorities, TGN)
Workflow
• Work of interns editing metadata reviewed by Visual Resource Librarian
• If approved, work sent to Head Archivist for review in batches of 100 images
• If approved by Head Archivist, available for on-line viewing; “culturally insensitive” images are suppressed and available only to researchers at AMNH
Classic Photo Album
Omeka CMS Virtues
• Good points: easy to install, easy to learn and use.
• Over a dozen plug-ins available
• Dublin Core is default Metadata Set
• Tagging is easy
• It’s open source (free)
Omeka CMS Drawbacks
• Endless scrolling within a record
• If one moves to another tab without hitting ‘Save Changes’ risk of loss of new data; no warning from Omeka
• Not designed to handle large volume collection
Digital Migration to new CMS?
• AMNH might acquire LUNA• LUNA is a proprietary CMS • Annual Licensing fee; fee for 24/7
maintenance/support• Source data unavailable – customization handled by
LUNA for a fee• Easy to create different interface templates• Can offer streaming video• Features searchable text• Handles large volume collection easily