Using The Collection: Understanding Metadata
"Metadata" is a Library Science term used synonymously for the information fields and descriptive data attached to a digital file. In the Historical Photograph Collection, information is entered into a total of twenty-four fields visible underneath the images in the CONTENTdm item viewer. The information titles and describes the image, assigns it subject search terms, dates, decades, the location of the original photograph, and technical details on the scanned image file, including the date it was scanned, file name, file size, dimensions, and format.
Metadata Cateogry Descriptions:
Title: an arbitrary descriptive name assigned to each image
Description: A descriptive statement and any relevant contextual information about the image’s subject
Subject: controlled vocabulary terms to describe the image’s subject matter
Corporate Names: corporate entites represented by the image, including organizations, departments,
governments, cities, or counties.
Personal Names: the names of people represented in the image, including the fullest known name
of the individuals and their birth and death dates.
Place Names: names of physical places, usually buildings, in the image.
Date: known date when the photograph was originally taken
Date Range: decade(s) associated with the image’s creation
Creator: Photographer
Contributors: other people or organizations associated with the creation or development of the
photograph
Publisher: the organization publishing the image in the database.
Series: one or more of thirteen assigned subject categories best representing the image
Source: source of the image, including the collection and physical location of the
photograph or negative
File Name: name assigned to the digital file in the University Archives collection
Rights: copyright statement for each image
Type: file type or genre
Format, original: the type of source material, either photograph, negative, or slide
Dimensions, original: size of the original photograph or negative
Date Digitized: date the photograph or negative was digitized
Format, digital: the file extension or format of the digital file
Dimensions, digital: size of the image in pixels
File Size: size of the JPEG image file in kilobytes
Digitized By: name of individual who digitized the image
Sponsors: Statement of grant sponsorship
Project made possible by North Carolina: Preserving Cultural Heritage Online (NCECHO) through funds from the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS).
