digital thinking: applying studies in the field
DESCRIPTION
This was a guest lecture presented to the Graduate Students of the Information School at the University of Missouri at Columbia. The theme of the lecture was showing how emerging professionals are applying their studies into their field of practice.TRANSCRIPT
Digital Thinking: Applying Studies in the Field
Sarah GillisAssistant Registrar, Image ManagementWorcester Art Museum, MA
FRBR
DCC LIFECYCLE
What do I exactly do?
• Responsibilities:– Organizing and Maintaining the Photographic
Archive (physical and digital)– Database Administrator: Media and Data
Standards– Rights and Reproductions (External Requests)– Copyright (obtaining Non-Exclusive License)– Colour Management/Proofing for publications
Worcester Art Museum
• Collection: ~36,000 objects
• Encyclopedic Collection
• Almost 2/3 of collection digitized
• Produce nearly triple the amount of images in comparison to collection size
Digital Image Preservation Initiatives at the Worcester Art Museum
• Organization/Workflow
• Access/Restrictions
• Discovery
• Re-Access
Digital Access : Pre-Organization
• Three (3) servers: two relatively new, one really old.
• JPEGs, TIFFs and DNGs accessible to entire staff
• Backlog of over 7,000 images due to a under-staffed department
• Scattered organization presented threatening space issues in multiple servers
Digital Access : Post-Organization
• One (1) central image server that houses the TIFFs and DNGs
• JPEGs remain stored and mapped to the old server for now– Action plan in development for when server
needs to be replaced
• Access Restrictions then followed– Only two (2) other departments have read-only
TIFF access– NO ONE but the Image Manager and Head
Registrar have access to the DNGs
Digital Images - Reorganization
• TIFFs– Year Accessioned• Loans within year Loan began
• Installation Shots– Year of Exhibition (overlap years start
with earliest)• Name of Exhibition
Digital Access : Post-Organization
• One (1) central image server that houses the TIFFs and DNGs
• JPEGs remain stored and mapped to the old server for now– Action plan in development for when server
needs to be replaced
• Access Restrictions then followed– Only two (2) other departments have read-only
TIFF access– NO ONE but the Image Manager and Head
Registrar have access to the DNGs
Digital Access : Post-Organization
• LOCKSS• More cost efficient to invest in a RAID
external hard drive than back up/archive onto discs
• Now have an 8TB RAID LaCie external Hard Drive (IMLS grant funding)
• Hard drive came with program to back up image server
• Houses image archive
The T.A.R.D.I.S
Spreadsheets are backed up onto cloud storage through Wuala (program came with hard drive)
Now that we can locate the images…
• How do you differentiate between them based on file name?
• Old Method: ObjectNumber_anythingelse.jpg
• Not a bad file naming system, but can get muddled once multiple digital images are produced.
• Need to implement a more simple, yet distinctive organizational system.
DCC Curation Lifecycle Model
DCC Curation Lifecycle Model
• Full Lifecycle Actions– Description– Community Watch– Preservation Planning– Curate/Preserve
• Sequential Actions– Essentially the outer ring and arrow off shoots
• Occasional Actions– Dispose– Reappraise– Migrate
DCC Curation Lifecycle Model
Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Reference (FRBR)
• Acknowledges that materials (physical and digital) can be related to each other through various entities
• An art object located in a museum has been assigned its own unique identifier, i.e. the object number– Level of organization and description goes
beyond just the physical object
• Throughout the years multiple instances of photography of the object has occurred.
Breaking down FRBR…
Person
Breaking Down FRBR, cont’d…
I say, my good man, I believe I shall make a painting of a woman carrying a small child on a rocky New England shoreline in the middle of a Nor’Easter. It shall be known as The Gale.
Winslow Homer, American, 1863-1910
WORK:The Thought…
Note: The work is dependent on the person in order for it to be realized in an expression.
Breaking Down FRBR, cont’d…
Person
Breaking Down FRBR, cont’d…
Winslow Homer (American, 1863-1910), The Gale, 1883-1893, oil on canvas, 76.8 x 122.7 cm (30 1/4 x 48 5/16 in.)
Physical Painting:(Expression)
Breaking Down FRBR, cont’d…
Winslow Homer (American, 1863-1910), The Gale, 1883-1893, oil on canvas, 76.8 x 122.7 cm (30 1/4 x 48 5/16 in.), Museum Purchase, 1916.48 (Object Number, Unique ID)
Physical Painting:(Expression)
Breaking Down FRBR, cont’d…
Person
Breaking Down FRBR, cont’d…
Winslow Homer (American, 1863-1910), The Gale, 1883-1893, oil on canvas, 76.8 x 122.7 cm (30 1/4 x 48 5/16 in.), Museum Purchase, 1916.48 (Object Number, Unique ID)
Photographic Renderings:(Manifestation)
DP1578
Breaking Down FRBR, cont’d…
Winslow Homer (American, 1863-1910), The Gale, 1883-1893, oil on canvas, 76.8 x 122.7 cm (30 1/4 x 48 5/16 in.), Museum Purchase, 1916.48 (Object Number, Unique ID)
Photographic Renderings:(Manifestation)
Physical Photo-Documentation
BWP123
Breaking Down FRBR, cont’d…
Winslow Homer (American, 1863-1910), The Gale, 1883-1893, oil on canvas, 76.8 x 122.7 cm (30 1/4 x 48 5/16 in.), Museum Purchase, 1916.48 (Object Number, Unique ID)
Photographic Renderings:(Item)
Digitized Photo-Documentation (from parent physical)
D-BWP123
Breaking Down FRBR, cont’d…
Person D-BWP123.tifD-BWP123.jpg
Breaking Down FRBR, cont’d…
Winslow Homer (American, 1863-1910), The Gale, 1883-1893, oil on canvas, 76.8 x 122.7 cm (30 1/4 x 48 5/16 in.), Museum Purchase, 1916.48 (Object Number, Unique ID)
Physical Painting:(Expression)
All of these hierarchies supports the original expression as conceptualized by Winslow Homer.
Filename Organization
• Thinking in FRBR terms…– Each visual instance of this one work of
art requires its own unique identifier, aside from the object number assigned to it
– Keep It Simple Stupid– Quick identifier (prefix) Numerical
sequence (suffix)
Filename OrganizationPrefix What is represents
DP Digital Photograph
DNG Digital Negative
SL Slide
BWP Black & White Print
NG Negative
GNG Glass Plate Negative
CR Color Reproduction (transparency)
XR X-Ray
CON Conservation Image
If this represents a physical image, the digitized rendition will share the shame filename, but with a ‘D-’ as an additional prefix to acknowledge that this is a digitized item.
Filename Organization
FRBR and TMS
Object Record
FRBR and TMS
Media Module
FRBR and TMS
Media Record
FRBR and TMS
Media Record
FRBR and TMS
Media Record
FRBR and TMS
Media Record
FRBR and TMS
Media Record
Embedded Metadata
• Visual Resources Association – VRA Metadata Panel (beta)
– VRA Import/Export Plug-in (Adobe Bridge)
– www.vraweb.org
Embedded Metadata: What to Embed?
Object Data Fields from TMS for Embedded Metadata (EM)
Classification Title Approximate date
Medium Measurements Credit Line
Object Number Description Gallery Location (if available)
Photography Copyright Artist (Agent)
Embedded Metadata: What to Embed?
Gallery Location Only
Embedded Metadata: How to Embed
• Select a folder created by staff photographer, which contains day’s work
• Create an Object Package in TMS containing all records related to photographer’s folder–Make sure that all records go in the
same order as the folder; critical for accurate embedding of metadata
Embedded Metadata: How to Embed
• Export pre-existing metadata into spreadsheet (VRA Import/Export Tool)
• Export TMS metadata into an excel spreadsheet
• Carefully copy and paste TMS metadata into VRA import template spreadsheet (same spreadsheet from the first export)
Embedded Metadata: How to Embed
• Once all metadata is entered, save excel spreadsheet as a tab delineated text file
• Import into images using the same Import/Export Tool
• Batch Rename images following pre-determined filename format (e.g DP1573)
Embedded Metadata
Now that was just Embedded Metadata…
• Aside from EM, also keep spreadsheets of archived batches
• Let me show you…
Effects of Reorganization
• Work is still not done• Not trying to promote a culture of
‘no’ but a culture of preservation– Protecting the digital integrity of born-
digital media is the future
• Causing a major shift in internal culture– Restrictions– New file naming system– Centralized Access
External Discovery: eMuseum
External Discovery: eMuseum
External Discovery: eMuseum
Digital Thinking…
That’s all folks…
Special Thanks to the support of: