Hi Perian, I'd be curious to hear what mechanism you'll use for embedding descriptive metadata into the image files - it has been an idea often pondered and rarely implemented, as far as I know, but I'd be happy to stand corrected by others who have pulled it off.
There are various technical challenges in embedding the metadata (where does the metadata sit within the file?), and various challenges of procedure and maintenance (e.g. scalability - how do you get descriptive records into huge numbers of files automatically; how does the data get updated if it changes?). In theory, you could use Adobe XMP to embed any type of metadata into a digital file, including descriptive metadata, but at the end of the day, the logistics of getting the data in and keeping it up to date may outweigh the obvious benefit of having such a tight link between file and description. Maybe embedding a unique identifier within the file which can be resolved in your database of record (your Collections Management System, for example) makes more sense. I'd be curious to hear from others how they maintain the link between image file and descriptive metadata - I suspect the identifier route, often via the filename (i.e. the unique id is in the filename), is what most people these days practice. As for mixing different descriptive approaches: if your goal is to have these digitized images searchable from within one interface, you'll eventually have to find a common denominator among different descriptions. If you're starting from scratch in describing them, it would seem worthwhile to consider whether you can achieve adequate description using just one descriptive approach. If not, you'd really want to keep in mind that these different descriptions will have to map to one another down the road. Cheers, Günter *** Günter Waibel Program Officer/RLG 2029 Stierlin Court, Suite 100, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA voice: +1-650-691-2304 | fax: +1-650-964-1461 blog: www.hangingtogether.org [email protected] <[email protected] g> To 01/27/2006 03:32 [email protected] PM cc Subject Please respond to Embedding metadata into digital [email protected] images - which schema? Hi again: As I've mentioned before, I'm working on drafting our digitization procedures here at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, a Jewish cultural history & art museum. I'm trying to determine the best metadata schema to embed in the digital images. I'm curious as to what, if any, schema other cultural history & art organizations use (although we do also have some archeological and archival objects in the collection) in their images. For a mixed collection such as this, is it a good idea to mix schema? I would like to use MARC for the archival objects that are mixed in (as our archive center is already using MARC for everything), but I might end up using Dublin Core or SPECTRA (or whatever) for the other stuff. Or is it wiser to just pick one and "make it fit" as best I can? Thanks, by the way, for all of your help earlier regarding your digitzation procedures - your helpful links have caused my collection of useful guides to grow considerably. Perian Sully Collection Database & Records Administrator Judah L. Magnes Museum 2911 Russell St. Berkeley, CA 94705 --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [email protected]
