The Contents of the Package from New Catholic Times

The Following is a list of the contents of the package I received in class of materials from the New Catholic Times. There were three books and ten photographs in the package. The photographs were in a manila envelop entitled: Crime. On the verso side of each photograph was also the handwritten word: Crime.

Books

1. "Issac Applebaum"--Text: Andrea Kunard and Richard Rhods. Design: Julie Gibb and Christian Morrison, GreenStreet. Translation: Francoise Espie-Bourseau. Text (English text Proofing): Elizabeth Willing. Printing: CJ Graphics. Photography: Isaac Applebaum. Printed in Canada. Centre Saidye Bronfman, 1991.
2. "Roy DeCarava: Photographs." The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. September 12- October 26, 1975. Printing in USA, 1976. Introduction by: Alvia Wardlaw Short.
3. "Print Finishing" by William Mortensen. Printed in San Franscico, California by Camera Craft Publishing Company. First Edition: November 1938.

Photographs
The following photographs are Press Photos. Each of them contain captions underneath that give a description of the photograph, the orientation of the photograph (horizontal or vertical), the number of images on the page (1 or 2), the photographer or location of the photograph, the date it was made and if available the date of the story it was in.

1. "On Death Row"--Frank Coppola (1978 photo), a former seminarian convicted in the torture slaying of Muriel Hatchell, is scheduled to die in the electric chair in Virginia's Mecklenburg State Prison on August 10. Bishop Walter F. Sullivan of Richmond, Va., and other religious leader have appealed to Gov. Charles Robb to stop the execution which would be Virginia's first in twenty years. (NC Photos from UPI) (Two Verticals 8-9-82) EDITORS: See Story 12-8-5-82
2. "Washington Riot"-Looters carry off bicycles from a Washington store during a disturbance which broke out after an anti-Ku Klux Klan rally in a park a few blocks from the White House. Windows in several stores, restaurants and a bank were smashed before police could re-establish order. (NC Photo from UPI) (Vertical 11-29-82)
3. "Clean Record"--Young men who have committed minor offenses scrub away graffiti on a New York subway car under a new program that officials hope will give offenders a way of paying their debts to society in a positive manner. "This program has a double benefit, "said Brooklyn District Attorney Elizabeth Holtzman, whose office initiated the program, "Farebeater and graffiti writers will receive meaningful punishment and the public will get cleaner subway cars." (NC Photo from Wide World) (Horizontal 5-24-82)
4. "Prints of a Guy"--George Slook, third grader at Holy Rosary School in Claymont, Del., grudgingly relinquishes fingerprints to principal Sister Ellen Murphy with help from classmate Kelly Buckley. The fingerprinting is a part of a national campaign to aid in locating missing and runaway children. After the ritual (below) George decides it wasn't so bad after all. (NC photos by Jimmy Grant) (Two Horizontals 2-13-84)
5. "Execution Stayed"--Lemuel Morrison and a dozen other demonstrators opposed to capital punishment stage a candlelight prayer vigil outside the Holman Prison where convicted murderer John Lewis Evans was scheduled to be executed. After receiving the last rites from Father Kevin Duignan (right), Evans was granted a temporary stay by a federal judge only three hours before his appointment with the electric chair. (NC Photos from UPI) (Two Verticals 4-22-83) EDITORS: see story to come
6. "Anger and Hope"--Jesuit Father Terrance Sweeney is pictured with some of the Los Angeles street gang members who appear with him in a documentary he wrote and produced, "Streets of Anger, Streets of Hope." In the film, which aired recently on Los Angeles television, Father Sweeney examines the causes of gangs and suggests was that street killings can be halted. (NC Photo) (Horizontal 8-24-81) EDITORS: See story to come
7. "Death Sentence"--Leron Williams, 32, is escorted from a courtroom in Columbia, Tenn. by two Maury County Sheriff's detectives after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting of Father John Jay Jackson in Jackson, Tenn. Williams was sentenced to die in the electric chair next July 27. (NC Photo from Wide World) (Vertical 12-18-81) EDITORS: see story 15-12-15-81
8. "Pleads Guilty"--Pallotine Father Guido John Carcich, charged with misappropriation of $2.2 million in donations to the Pallotine order, arrives at Baltimore Criminal Court where he agreed to plead guilty to one count of the 61-count indictment against him in exchange for the state dropping the other counts. Her was sentenced to 18 months probation on condition that he spends a year on a full-time basis ministering to the needs of prisoners in state prisons. (NC Photo) (Horizontal 5-11-78) EDITORS: unreadable
9. "Churches Vandalized"--vandals broke in and smashed this statue of Jesus at St. Augustine's Church in Honolulu, Hawaii. A group of vandals on a two-night rampage marauded a total of nine houses of worship causing damage estimated at more than $100,000. (NC Photos from UPI) (Vertical 8-25-82)
10. "Returns to Court"--Flanked by attorneys, Father Bernard Pagano walks toward US District Court in Wilmington, Del. Father Pagano is suing four state police officers for a false arrest in the "Gentlemen Bandit" case (NC photo from Wide World) (Horizontal 3-21-84) EDITORS: see story 3-21-84

This comprehensive list contains the exact printed captions at the bottom of of the photograph. These look as though they are copy photos of the original and a few of them show signs of staining or abrasion. One appears to have food particles stuck to it.

I look forward to starting a MARC catalog for these objects in the future. It is an interesting collection with a rich history to uncover and preserve.

Cataloger's Learning Workshop (Week 3)

The Library of Congress in Washington, DC put out an article on Metadata entitled Metadata Basics: Metadata Development Overview. The definition of Metadata according to NISO is: structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use or manage an information resource. Metadata is often called data about data or information about information.

The American Library Association (ALA) gives another definition about Metadata: structured, encoded data that describe characteristics of information-bearing entities to aid in the identification, discovery, assessment, and management of the described entities.

Here are a few points taken from the Metadata Basics reading:

1. MARC was developed by the Library of Congress in the 1960's to represent bibliographic descriptions and relationship among data. It does not do well with management needs or evaluative needs.
2. Electronic metadata can be used for "any area that shows a demand for electronic resource discovery and sharing, a metadata standard can be developed or proposed." The resources used to describe electronic metadata consist of: bibliographical objects (MARC), archival inventories and registers (EAD), geospatial objects (FGDC), museum and visual resources (CDWA, VRA, CIMI), education materials (LOM), software implementation (COBRA). There are many other forms of metadata and different standards to follow for each--they are not limited to these.
   
3. These are some examples of what metadata looks like in different online collections. The first one is a library bibliographic catalog from KentLINK OPAC, which displayed the metadata in a MARC format. Two digital collections display their collections in different metadata databases: The Worthington Memory collection in Ohio operates a Dublin Core record and the Alexandria Digital Library (go to the bullet about the ADL and click on the standard XML, it is a cached PDF file) uses standard XML.
4. CDWA (Categories for the Description of Workd of Art) is a metadata standard avaible for research on the Getty. To View: under "catalog examples" click on any item. Compare the user-view record with the fielded format record. It is a good example of how many fields need to be filled in and how many seemingly redundant fields. Note that there are five or so under the "Photograph" example of variations of the artist name.
5. Metadata performs several functions. It is a resource discovery allowing searches to be performed to find sources by relevant criteria, give location information of objects and to identify resources. It is a way of organizing e-resources as well as a way to facilitate interoperability between systems allowing for cross-system searches. It is also for digital identification by giving standard number to the digital object (ie. ISBN) as well as useful for archiving and preservation, which ensures resources will survive and be accessible in the future.
6. It is important in metadata to use standardized vocabularies such as the DCMI type supplied by Dublin Core. It is a general list of approved term that can be used as the RESOURCE TYPE element. It is used to identify the genre of a specific resource.
7. There are also thesauri available to aid with the creation of metadata. The Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) is a particularly relevant source for my field. These are also particularly helpful in order to aid in data retrieval.
   
8. The Best Practice Guides aid with guidelines to create field definitions, how to best catalog metadata and are a vital source for those working with digital metadata. The Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI) has a Guide to Best Practice: Dublin Core, which is considered a standard of information for museum professionals dealing with digital metadata.

Metadata is complicated and there are several different schemas and standards to approach creating a database full of metadata. Some of these examples have proved helpful with showing examples of the field, but the best way to learn is to practice and to make sure to always pay close attention to detail. Good metadata is useful; bad metadata is lost forever.

Part II: Digital Imaging (Week 2)

This week's reading consisted of the second half of Howard Besser's Introduction to Imaging released from the Getty Institute online. This half stressed the importance of careful planning of all aspects before undertaking a project in digitizing a collection. Improper planning could result in a disorganized project and running out of funds before the project is even completed. One of the most important pieces in the planning stage is confirming the legal status of the object being scanned. It is vital to know if legal clearances are required to " reproduce the originals or to modify and display the reproductions"-- also check that we have those clearances if they are necessary. Severe repercussions could come from illegally reproducing and display the digital reproduction.

There are several other points made throughout the second half of Besser's writing and research. Some of them are:

1. Scanning is either done in-house or contracted out. If done in-house, there are four different types of scanners that can be used: drum, flatbed, film or transparency and a digital camera set on a copy stand. Drums scanners offer the highest quality scan (up to 8,000 samples per inch, spi) but that material scanned must be flexible and durable. Mounted or fragile objects could not be scanned. A flatbed scanners can scan between 1200 and 5000 spi, and are very affordable, but can only scan the object so long as it fits within the glass. A film or transparency scanner can scan negatives or slides and are are comparable quality to flatbed scanners. For the fragile or over-sized objects, the digital camera on a copy stand is the best choice. Digital cameras also allow control over the lighting conditions and can document 3-D objects.
2. Before image capture, it is important to decide exactly what has to be digitized and what wouldn't be important. Highly fragile objects should only be copied if it is necessary. Black and white negatives can last over 200 years in the right conditions and color negatives over 50--better copies can be made from them than from a digital copy of them. It would be better to avoid digitizing them. Be sure that the scanning parameters are also set. Besser recommends to "use-neutral" which means the master files are created of high quality so they can be used for any future purpose. Scan at the highest spi the scanner allows for.
3. There are several metadata schemas available for use. Some of them are: MARC (Machine-Readable Cataloging), EAS (Encoded Archival Description), CDWA (Categories for the Description of Works of Art), and MPEG-7 (Multimedia Content Description Interface). MARC has long been used to create bibliographic records. EAS is a set of rules "for creating finding aids for archival collections" in which, there is a specified intellectual and physical arrangement of the collection as a whole. CDWA is used to describe artworks and their visual "surrogates." MPEG-7 is used to describe multimedia and audiovisual works and is growing in importance.
4. XML is a code that is used to describe data unlike the better known HTML, which is used merely to present data. XML can make semantic parts (like "author" or "title") machine-readable, meaning they can be understood and "acted upon" by computer programs. XML also gives users uniformly created metadata packages that can easily be shared, migrated, published to the Web--in other words, XML is extremely versatile.
5. In quality control, checksums should be documented and periodically compared. Checksums are the exact number of bits in a specific file, or actual values and pattern of data using slightly more complex checksum algorithms.
6. When testing access to digital collections via the internet, be sure to check how the site looks when opened with various browsers as well as both Macintosh and PCs. That way, the site can be made to look uniform on all of them.
7. Digital Preservation is an important concern as hardware obsolescence is constantly occurring and files need to be saved on new hardware or as different types of files so new programs can read them. It is also important to run periodic checks on a digital collection to be sure that files have not corrupted over time and that they still open properly. It important that vigilance is taken with watching data conditions and technological trends to manage the collection accordingly.
8. Be sure to make multiple copies of the assets stored on different formats and then at different geographic locations in case of fire, water damage or other atmospheric inferences. If one is destroyed there are other copies saved in other locations.
9. Migration is the updating of files by resaving them in new formats so that new software can read them. This is problematic because transforming data can cause corruption or loss of information. This could destroy the digital copy completely. Technology Preservation is one suggestion to solve this problem, by which the institution would preserve the technological conditions in order to keep the older formats from becoming obsolete and needing updates.
   
10. Emulation is a tool used for "digital archeology" or the method and processes to recover data from obsolete hardware, defunct format or corrupted files if preservation strategies fail. It has been used to recreate arcade games by using software that gives the "look and feel" of the original, but without the original hardware.
    

The problem with digital collections and born-digital images is that there is no best preservation method developed and no one is sure of what strategies would be correct at this point. It is important to afford the most protection to Master Files and to keep up with technological trends and to manage the digital collection with care and diligence. The need for digital collections is growing as the amount of born-digital images and media are being created. They also give a wider access to the world's cultural heritage than ever before, which opens possibilities for learning, sharing and gaining an appreciation for photographs and other cultural objects.

Part I: Digital Imaging (Week 1)

The reading was Part One found at the Getty Institute online. It was a basic overview of digital imaging and terminology based around imaging systems. I'll list some of the pertinent points in the following:

1. Master files should always be in a high quality format for an image, such as .TIFF files
2. Metadata is defined as "data about data" and is known as digital documentation about the digital image
3. Metadata should be "persistant, authoritative, and verifiable"--bad metadata in a sophisticated database is less valuable than good metadata in a simple desktop excel spreadsheet
4. There are three kinds of Metadata: Descriptive (describes that content and is most like traditional cataloging), Administrative (tells context and form and gives the how and why the file was created), Structural (gives relationships between parts and other digital files or objects...a way to link files)
5. Computer monitors use the additive or RBG system, BUT printers use the subtractive CMYK system--colours will not transfer from monitor to monitor the same way without using an ICC color profile, which acts as a translator between devices
6. 16-bit colour sees over 65,000 colours, which is called "true colour." However, the eyes sees millions of colours. 24-bit colour on a monitor is now the highest obtainable on affordable monitors, though many institutions are moving towards using 48-bit capture for archival purposes
7. Resolution is defined as the density of pixels within a specified area--for example, ppi is how many pixels per inch, the higher the ppi in a photograph, the higher the resolution. It is important to note what guidelines and institution has for their image resolution
8. .JPG files are what is called lossy compression because they temporarily sacrifice the quality of stored images by discarding some of the data. .JPG files are used for access files only as seen on Internet sites. NOT FOR MASTER FILES. Master files should always be of the highest quality so not to loss and image data over time
9. Since there are many forms of storing digital files, it is recommended that there are several different back up files in different formats--there is no information on the life of these digital forms or the best preservation strategy
10. Digital files can be kept three different ways: online (connected to a network or computer), offline (where they are stored one CD-ROMS, DVD-ROMS and are not accessed online), nearline (objects are stored offline but can be easily accessed such as on "jukebox" systems)

It was full of good information and several definition of technical digital aspects from pixels to People-to-people networks. It was a reading worth keeping for reference in the future. Access the websites for more reading and information on digital imaging.