Meeting Minutes for 07/16/2019

Digital Archive Committee Minutes
July 16, 2019
1:00 PM

Summary of last metadata subgroup discussion

• The subgroup started working on the best practices for the person entity
  • First, you should search for a duplicate entity before adding an entity
    • Link on the document about Searching for Entities in Islandora
  • When adding an entity try to gather as much information as possible before adding the entity
    • It is easy to add it when creating the entity, instead of having to enrich the entity later
    • Use all the resources you have available to gather as much information about the entity
  • Best practices for person entity display name
    • Nicknames should be in quotes (Gordon “Gordy” Wren)
    • Maiden names should be in parentheses (Bethany (Craighead) Aurin)
    • Pets should exist in the person entity
      • The name of the pet should be followed by the species
    • How to handle name requests for band members
      • Discussed what to do if they only want to be known as their alias
      • Whether they are linked to a secondary person entity for their real name, or if they want to be just known by their band member name
  • Biographical Information
    • For pets give a brief description of the animal and the name of its owner (Frisky the horse owned by … from ...)
  • Think about titles - military ranks, lawyers, doctors, etc.
• Here is a link to the Digital Archive Metadata document
  • Anyone can make comments on this documentation
  • Anyone can be part of the metadata subgroup
  • Just ask for edit access to the documentation
  • The goal with this documentation is to make it available to everyone 

Documentation for how each collection is constructed (In Progress)

• There were some collections with very specific things that were built, but how they were built was never documented 
  • These collections use image mapping and different codes 
    • For example, the Vail Quilt project was done by mapping out each section of an image to be a clickable link that links to another object or collection
  • Marmot would like to document how these specific collections and objects are built to duplicate them for others
• Marmot identified map collections with a list of objects
  • Brandon had to do some digging to find out how this type of collection is built
• Some of the documentation will be internal, while other documentation will be external
• Marmot will work on documenting how any special collection is built 

Metadata Subcommittee Group Meeting (minute 10:27 on the recording)
Digital Archive Metadata Doc
Best Practices for Entities  

• Brandon asked if there was anything that needed to be discussed about the information from the last meeting
  • Alysa wanted to go back to talk about the band member naming convention
  • She thought it would be a good idea to supply an example 
  • According to an email from Elizabeth about how to display a band member, the display name for the person entity is the person’s name
    • The notes field explains with alternative name to use for which role
    • Alysa is guessing that when they attach the entity to the band, they type in the person’s band name, and add that entity to the object, instead of the entity’s name
    • John confirmed that the band name was an alternate name, but the display name was the individual’s real name
      • This is how Mesa County remedied the issue of how to add the band member into the archive
      • Elizabeth put the alternate names in the Biographical section
    • When tied to objects, Display name is alias
      • If artist is unwilling to share real name then we can facilitate an alias as the entity name
    • When using Creator, the creator name can be whatever you want
      • Traditionally, you use the same name you have for the entity, but in this situation, if the person wants to be listed with their alias, it could be typed in as the creator name.  
      • When you actually click on the link for their alias, you would be taken to the entity where you see the person’s real name
      • With references to the band name when working with a certain group, and when working with another band is a different name
    • Alysa mentioned that the best practice is that we always want the real name to be the entity name 
      • We can do the work around when we attach an entity to an object 
      • When you have a band member who works with two bands, and does not give their real name, you will have a duplicate entry
      • John mentioned that the person entity does not accommodate a “same person as” field like “same place as” field in a place entity
      • Alysa wondered if it is possible to have the “same person as” field added to Islandora?
      • Action Item: Brandon responded that he was not sure, and would have to do some research
        • He added it to his task list to research if the “same person as” field could exist
• Title of a person
  • Title examples are HRH, military ranks, lawyers, reverend, etc.
  • John knows the rationale for not including titles at Bud
    • A lot of their objects referred to a person that possessed a title at that time , but no longer had that title or died with a different title
    • They did not want to list a title the person was referred to in the object, nor did they want to give their ultimate title to avoid confusion
    • Brandon made a suggestion to use the Creator Name to add the person’s rank or role in parentheses for individual objects
    • Alysa commented that Brandon’s suggestion would be to use this field the same way as the band member would be used
    • Brandon suggested listing the last highest rank a person had in their life on the person entity, but on the actual object level you would list them with the rank they had at the time of the creation of the object as the display name
    • Matthew let the group know that Lacy would not put the title in the display name, but would add that information to the description field
    • John mentioned that Bud encountered that some individuals held multiple titles , so that was used for their argument against putting titles in the display name 
    • John suggested that on the instructions they indicate that the biographical information field can be used to describe titles, indicate domesticated animal ownership, or any discrepancies where clarification is needed
    • According to the documentation, biographical information maps directly into Pika under the Description field
  • Brandon asked if the academic and military fields should be filled out, or if those fields would be filled out as well as that information added to the description field
    • Do we start with the existing fields, and add any clarifying information in the biographical field 
    • John responded that he was inclined to say that anything not accommodated by an existing field be put in the biographical information field
    • Alysa responded that If there is a form field to fill in, you should use it
    • Brandon asked if display names, when linking to objects, should always be stripped of the  rank
    • Alysa responded that we should continue the conventions and not put the titles in the display name on the entity, but if you would like the rank to show up in the object that is where you would change the display name
• External Links
  • John wondered if anyone else add anything other than Wikipedia, Marmot genealogy, Cemetery Database,  Find a Grave, or External Pika (if they wrote a book or a book features them prominently) links to their  person entities
  • Brandon asked the question should external links always be accessible to everyone, and should we consider access to databases that would require authentication
  • Brandon suggested information be added to the documentation that external links should always be accessible to anonymous users
• Place Entities
  • Name format current convention should be Name (City or Town), County, State
  • Business current convention is Business, City, State
  • Rivers, Lakes, Landmarks
    • A good practice is to use a maximum of two commas to name a place. This is generally enough information for someone to understand your reference to a place and the location
    • Anytime a body of water or land mass traverses multiple counties, and states, you would want to pick the next reasonable area, region, or political area and the one right after that as well
    • Sometimes you will need to take the next largest relevant geographic area which could be the entire state
      • Yampa River, Colorado, USA
      • Devil’s Causeway, Flattops Wilderness Area, Colorado
    • When a body of water, land mass, or landmarks travers multiple counties, multiple states, and possibly multiple countries, you should pick the next applicable geographic region
      • Colorado River, USA
      • Rocky Mountains, North America
      • Four Corners, USA
  • There was a question about whether to include Oceans
    • If you have a photograph of a warship and a local person in that photograph was in another country, you are going to have to identify water bodies outside of the preview of the US
    • It was suggested to use LC subject headings to refer to International locations or places.
  • The subcommittee  wanted other place names that the group thinks will need clarification
  • Anyone who has a link to the Digital Archive Metadata document can comment
    • Ask for permission if you would to edit the document

Next Meeting is August 20, 2019 at 1 p.m.