University of Washington

University of Washington

 Digital Collections

The University of Washington was founded in 1861 by a private gift of 10 acres in what is now downtown Seattle. It is one of the oldest public universities on the West Coast and due to its public status the University’s goals focus on accessibility of knowledge and being engaged with their communities through knowledge and discovery in order elevate the quality of lives of others (http://www.washington.edu/discover/). The University’s Libraries’ Special Collections is the major resource for rare and archival materials covering a broad range of topics, formats and periods. The digital collections available online are a small representation of the University’s Special Collections materials but are an extensive and valuable resource for both researchers who either live close to campus or far away. These collections contain a range of materials, including photographs, books, manuscripts, maps, newspapers, posters, reports, architectural drawings, and other media from the University of Washington libraries, University of Washington Faculty and Departments, and organizations that have participated in partner projects with the UW libraries (http://content.lib.washington.edu/index.html).

The digital collections website is user friendly and visually appealing. The homepage offers a quick search option, a carousel of images from the collections, and three lists of links to exhibits, subject of collection focus, and related resources. There are also links to Special Collections A-Z list, subject list, and advanced search option on this page. In browsing the collection, I found the A-Z list most helpful (http://content.lib.washington.edu/).

Every digital collection in the repository has a description/summary at the collection level. Each has a Bio/history note of varying lengths that are accompanied by one or two sample images and a one or two paragraph scope and content note. The second section, the scope and content note is termed “About the database”, which in most cases include information about collection contents, a description of digitization and processing information. However, in other cases the last sections solely describes the digital aspect of the collection and the scope and content note is part of the first section. There is little consistency in how these two part summaries are broken up throughout the digital repository. It is clear that this collection level descriptions does not follow any strict archival description standard such as DACS (Describing Archives: A Standard) or CCO (Cataloging Cultural Objects) due to its irregularities. Though the collection level descriptions are very helpful in contextualizing the collection, the contents of item records are more consistent.

One example of the few collections that are described solely at the Collection level is the Prosch Washington Views Album. The collection consists of one multimedia album that has been described as a single item though it consists of 100 pages of unique photographs and handwritten descriptions. The collection level summary gives an overview of the creators’ history and an explanation of the album’s place in the University of Washington Libraries’ repository. Each page contains the same record with the title “Porsch Washington Views Album”, a broad date range and the same three location depicted subject headings. The record of course excludes much of the individual pages’ details. Each page could be viewed as a single item that could have its own record description. Most likely due to high cost of item level description or lack of specific information, this particular collection does not.

 

Title	Prosch Washington Views Album
Date	ca. 1870-ca. 1910
LCTGM	Photograph albums
LCSH	Prosch, Thomas Wickham, 1850-1915--Photograph collections
Location Depicted	United States--Washington (State)--Seattle United States--Alaska Canada--British Columbia
Digital Collection	Prosch Washington Views Collection
Ordering Information	To order a reproduction, inquire about permissions, or for information about prices see: http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcollections/services/reproduction-info Please cite the Order Number when ordering.
Repository	University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division.
Repository Collection	Prosch Washington Views Album no 28
Object Type	Photograph
Digital Reproduction Information	Scanned from a photographic print using a Microtek Scanmaker 9600XL at 100 dpi in JPEG format at compression rate 3 and resized to 768x512 ppi. 2001.
Object Description	Photograph : silver gelatin, b&w album

http://content.lib.washington.edu/prosch_washingtonweb/

An example of an album described as multiple items is also present in this repository. The Lake Union Improvement Company Photograph Album images are all individually described at the item level. The collection consists of 1 album containing 24 vintage photographic prints, letterpress materials and one photoengraving. There is a disclaimer that not all photographs in the album were included in the database, which can be deduced by the missing album cover image. This makes one think that the particular images were handpicked to be digitized for something other than the sole purpose of being present in the digital repository. Otherwise, the entire album would most likely have been digitized.

 As with the Prosch Album, researchers are able to browse the collection/album page by page. However in this album, there is the option to browse by subjects using LCSH (Library of Congress Subject Headings) or LCTGM (Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic Materials).

The majority of the collections that have been digitized are described at the item level. As mentioned on their website, the collections that have been chosen to be digitized represent some of the most interesting parts of their Special Collections, which may be why more time was invested in processing and describing them. Item descriptions within individual collections are consistent. However, item level descriptions vary slightly at the institutional level. This may be due to what information is available about various collections and a result of different catalogers and processors describing the collections. Over all the photographic digital collection at the University of Washington appear to have adequate descriptions. 

        

Alaskan house with bark front, possibly Athapascan, Alaska, ca. 1904 (http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/loc&CISOPTR=1782&CISOBOX=1&REC=1)

Balanced rock resting above lava arch near Park Lake in Grant County, May 1946 (http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/ll&CISOPTR=1025) 

In looking at the item level descriptions of the American Indians of the Pacific Northwest Collection and alongside the collection of Lawrence Denny Lindsley Photographs of Washington State, both variances and similarities in the records are visible. The titles throughout the collections are sufficient, including the what, where, and when. In these examples, the titles are “Alaskan house with bark front, possibly Athapascan, Alaska, ca. 1904” and “Balanced rock resting above lava arch near Park Lake in Grant County, May 1946.” The catalogers have succeeded in the first rule of cataloging, which is to entitle photographs with exactly what the viewer sees. In the American Indians of the Pacific Northwest Collection, the cataloger uses the notes field to add their own descriptive detail that would not fit into the title. “Notes: Man and boy (and dogs) in front of a small house with bark front, ca. 1898-1910. Half-barrel, kettle and shovel stand on porch; other small wooden houses stand on either side.” We can infer that these types of descriptions come from the Processor/cataloger’s own visual reading of the photograph coupled with their knowledge of its history. In the Lawrence Denny Lindsley Collection the cataloger uses the note field to transcribe what is written on the back of the photograph and what is stamped and handwritten on the negative jackets. “Notes:Handwritten on verso: #4239. Lava arch and balanced rock. Park Lake, Lower Grand Coulee. Stamped on negative jacket: Grand Coulee Series Handwritten on negative jacket: 4239. May, 1946. Balanced rock and arch.”

The elements these two records have in common and are pretty consistent throughout the Institutions’ digital collections are: title, photographer, notes, subjects, location depicted, object type, digital collection, repository, ordering information, and restrictions. I noticed that when the record is describing a photograph the object type is always “photograph” and if the type of photograph is identified, an additional element is added called “physical description.” This is a smart way to identify the object consistently while still making greater detailed description an option if the photographic process is known.

Many of the collections subjects pertain to areas surrounding University of Washington’s history. Overall, the descriptions tend to be most thorough in elements of location depicted, notes, subjects and title, which is to be expected. As noted, some can be browsed by some kind of controlled vocabulary. In creating a photographic digital repository, the University of Washington is a solid example of good practices in description with only a few minor discrepancies.