{"id":637,"date":"2011-06-28T16:09:18","date_gmt":"2011-06-28T20:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=637"},"modified":"2011-06-29T09:05:10","modified_gmt":"2011-06-29T13:05:10","slug":"getting-meta-with-metadata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2011\/06\/getting-meta-with-metadata\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Meta with Metadata"},"content":{"rendered":"

Metadata<\/em>. This rather ambiguous term is the skeleton underneath every image on Philly<\/em>History.org. Metadata is how we know when and where a photograph was taken. It is how we know who took the photograph and, to some extent, why they took it. Without metadata, searching Philly<\/em>History.org for photographs of Independence Hall or your grandmother\u2019s house would be nearly impossible. But what is metadata?!<\/p>\n

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Metadata is essentially \u201cdata about data,\u201d meaning information about any type of \u201cdata\u201d – whether it\u2019s a letter, a photograph, a painting, or even a piece of furniture. Metadata can range from the time and date something was created to who created it and even the reason behind its creation. At its core, metadata allows us to describe an object and, in the case of databases like Philly<\/em>History.org, use that description to locate one item out of thousands. When you enter a book\u2019s title and author into a library catalog, you\u2019re using metadata to find the specific book you want to read. Similarly, when you search Philly<\/em>History.org for a photograph taken at a specific location, that location and any other information about the photograph is metadata.<\/p>\n

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Each image on PhillyHistory.org is connected to an administrative page where members of the PhillyHistory team can enter metadata information.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Before we upload a new photograph to Philly<\/em>History.org, we first create a database record, known as an \u201casset,\u201d that details as much information as possible about the image. For the majority of the photographs in our collections, this includes a title, description, photographer name, location, and date, as well as the photograph\u2019s record group and negative number. By and large, this information is taken from the original envelope containing the negative or from a log book kept by the photographers as shown here.<\/p>\n

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A photographer's logbook provides metadata for many of the historic images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When entering metadata into a new record, we follow certain standards, commonly known within the archival community as \u201cbest practices.\u201d Perhaps the cardinal rule of metadata is that all information must be entered as it appears in the original historical record. In our case, this means entering each title as the photographer recorded it in the log book or on the original envelope, even if the title is as general as \u201cHouses, Stores, Etc.\u201d In these instances, Philly<\/em>History.org users or one of the members of the Philly<\/em>History team often recognize a building or a house and suggest a better title for the photograph, but, according to the rules of metadata, we can\u2019t change the title. Instead, additional details from a user or one of our archivists are entered in the \u201cNotes\u201d field. In a Philly<\/em>History.org record, the \u201cNotes\u201d field is our chance to add anything the photographer forgot or to correct something that is wrong or misleading. One common correction involves location, as the location the photographer recorded is sometimes not the one pictured in the photograph but rather the location from which the photograph was taken. In these cases, we title the photograph just as the photographer did, \u201cNortheast Corner of 12th and Market Streets\u201d for example, but leave a note about the difference between the photographer\u2019s location and the location pictured in the photograph.<\/p>\n

One other fun fact about metadata – if a photographer misspelled a street name, best practices tells us to enter the street name as the photographer recorded it, followed by the correct spelling in brackets. In the archival world, brackets indicate a change or addition to the original historical record and are peppered throughout the records on Philly<\/em>History.org. In this way, metadata is also about translating records that someone wrote fifty or a hundred years ago, an endeavor almost as challenging as understanding metadata!<\/p>\n

Managing metadata in an archive comes with all sorts of additional and complex issues. For more information beyond this brief introduction, visit the following links.<\/p>\n

\u201cMetadata Resources\u201d<\/a> \u2013 Compiled by the Minnesota State Archives.<\/p>\n

\u201cMetadata Standards\/ About\u201d<\/a> \u2013 Compiled by the Princeton University Library.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderstanding Metadata\u201d<\/a> \u2013 Published by the National Information Standards Organization Press in 2004.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting Meta with Metadata\u201d is the second article in \u201cBehind the Scenes at <\/em>PhillyHistory.org,\u201d a new series of blog entries that will provide insights into the activities that go into creating PhillyHistory.org. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Metadata. This rather ambiguous term is the skeleton underneath every image on PhillyHistory.org. Metadata is how we know when and where a photograph was taken. It is how we know who took the photograph and, to some extent, why they took it. Without metadata, searching PhillyHistory.org for photographs of Independence Hall or your grandmother\u2019s house […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-scenes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}