ALA 2011 Session Coverage: Creating Multimedia Metadata: Controlled Vocabularies Across Time and Space

Description from the ALCTS website:

The performing arts are ephemeral textual forms that often elude capture and are difficult to access. While libraries and archives have developed metadata that enables research into collections of written texts, little has been done for texts that encompass space and time: dance, theatre, architecture, and archeology. This panel will discuss issues and possible solutions to the development of controlled vocabularies for, and systematic description of, performance arts objects: both tactile and ephemeral. Co-sponsored by the ALCTS Metadata Interest Group and the ACRL Image Resources Interest Group.

Speakers: Lucie Wall Stylianopoulos, Head, Fiske Kimball Fine Arts Library, University of Virginia; Moderator, Kathleen Haefliger, Music & Performing Arts Librarian, Chicago State University; Jenn Riley, Head, Carolina Digital Library and Archives, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Susan L. Wiesner, Treasurer, Society of Dance History Scholars and Instructor in Dance (Theory), Kennesaw State University

Jenn Riley of University of North Carolina Chapel Hill began the session with her presentation Next Generation Controlled Vocabularies. Here she discussed how cultural and technological changes are altering the scope of controlled vocabularies and how the profession creates and uses them. She demonstrated how controlled vocabularies have been historically criticized for updating and adapting too slowly and how this is being overcome by allowing subject specialists and users to build and update terms. Examples included were the Allmusic Guide, LibraryThing, and Worldcat.

Linked Data was also suggested as a way to connect subject authorities from different fields to other specialized communities to enhance description, citing Library of Congress’ work on the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) project as an example in the library profession.

Riley concluded by indentifying a movement in the profession to describe “isness versus aboutness.” She pointed to current work concerning music description being done with the Library of Congress Genre Headings project to determine what terms rightfully belong to LCSH, what belongs to genre headings, and the development of a third vocabulary to describe the medium of presentation for the music resource.

Slides from Next Generation Controlled Vocabularies
Allmusic Guide
LibraryThing
VIAF

Lucie Wall Stlianopoulos of the University of Virginia presented her newly created metadata schema for archaeological resources, ArchaeoCore, in her presentation Alternative Metadata: Siting Archaeology in Space & Time. Stlianopoulos developed this schema to work with ARTStor’s new Shared Shelf image management system implemented with University of Virginia’s Sciences, Humanities, and Arts Network of Technological Initiatives (SHANTI).

Stilanopoulos showed how ArchaeoCore was designed to describe not just the object, but the object as it exists within the context of the site.

SHANTI

Kennesaw State University’s Susan L. Wiesner concluded the session with her presentation If you can do it with dance you can do it with anything. Wiesner discussed how creating an ontology for dance resources could help resolve contention amongst the different ways to describe dance (descriptive, interpretive, and evaluative) by better describing the descriptive relationships.

Wiesner showcased the development of movement derived data to assist researchers in resource discovery related to dance using 3-D motion capture and creating relationships between identified and described movements in the Artefact Movement Thesaurus.

Wiesner’s presentation concluded with a video compilation of found videos interpreting The Dying Swan to demonstrate the variety of ways a researcher may need to identify and link dance resources. The videos ranged from classic ballet to modern dance and on to anime and hip hop.

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