(This is an excerpt taken from the original proposal sent to the CLA Infotech Fees Committee in the fall of 1999. The whole proposal can be viewed online at http://www.cla.umn.edu/students/infotech-fees/rfp/examples.shtml). 

The Department of Art History has begun the process of digitizing slides to support web page instruction and in-class digital projection. Most of the 1900 images scanned so far (now some 11,500) have been for only two classes. But there is a need to expand the scope of the digitizing project into supporting other classes, which would take advantage of the department’s some 250,000 slides. This will eventually provide the University with a substantial and useful collection of digital images that can be searched effectively and used repeatedly to support a variety of teaching needs. Along with images, digital film and sound files are increasingly being generated and can eventually be added to this digital library.

 Establishing guidelines for scanning protocols and selecting an appropriate database for metadata entry will make it easier for all these departments to cooperate and combine their efforts. If any changes need to be made to collections already established, it is best to implement them now, before they grow too large for conversion. Careful planning must take place so that the individual needs of each department are taken into consideration. Consistency among the contributors must be stressed so that the result is a Digital Media Library that is truly useful for all areas of the University.

 Metadata is loosely translated as "data about data". Metadata can be used to create a cataloging structure in which to describe an object or objects. Sometimes the object is the original work, sometimes it is the surrogate, analog or digital, that contains an image of the work. Metadata is most useful when it allows many different cataloging structures to be "mapped" to one another, allowing for unified search and retrieval.

Here are some useful web sites to learn more about metadata and digital information standards and practices.

Arts and Humanities Data Service.
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative.
The Getty's Introduction to Metadata.

Other Useful Links

The Visual Resources Center uses Filemaker Pro software for our database. It has only been a year since the first database was created and we are still making many changes to the structure. We are currently cataloging our analog slides in a different database than our digital slides. This is because we have added many slides to our digital database that don't exist in our analog collection. We also catalog the analog slides differently so that they can be filed in the slide drawers more accurately. This limitation doesn't exist for our digital images. Eventually, we hope to have one catalog serve the needs for both. 

Here is an example from our slides cataloging database. First we create a Works catalog file for each work.

Then we create a Views catalog file (for each view or detail of the work).

Here is an example from our digital cataloging database.