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Metadata Review for American Consumer Culture

american-consumer-culture-front-page

 American Consumer Culture homepage
*Copyright information bottom of post

One of the most engaging, comprehensive, and unique databases I have recently discovered is called American Consumer Culture: Market Research and American Business.  This database provides insight into the world of buying, selling and advertising from 1935 to 1965 at a pivotal point in American production, consumption, and media/technology. The collection provides access to thousands of market research reports by pioneering analyst Ernest Dichter who founded the Institute for Motivational Research (1946). In contrast to other advertising experts and market analysts post World War II,  “Dichter’s techniques were largely qualitative, focusing on depth interviews and projective tests rather than simple surveys” (“Nature and Scope”). Types of sources included American Consumer Culture are either graphic still images or text and include: memoranda, reports, advertisements, and other industry or business-related documents. Advanced searches have Boolean, primary/secondary source, and (corporate) brand filters.

The search process and metadata mining is quite impressive allowing the user to ask and answer questions based on a variety of searchable fields including author, date, document type, keyword, These fields are also cross-referenced chronologically and thematically with additional components of the database: a comprehensive timeline and thirty-one thematic collections organized within the larger structural framwork (ex. retail and wholesale). Each thematic collection includes an introduction, description, and examples. (See: Industries). There are a few cracks in their metadata search engine, for example, it is difficult to determine where and how many of these documents were used. The use and audience of advertisements is quite simple, but for the many documents (reports, studies, memos), one wonders: Who was the audience and how did that affect and shape the conclusions drawn and arguments presented.

Within the record of the digital object, American Consumer Culture: Market Research and American Business continues to impress. Here is an example for a document entitled “The A-B-C of humor in advertising” — a 1967 report published by Leo Burnett Company, Inc. Click on the image to enlarge.

metadata-american-consumer-and-culture

This search result, and the metadata included, is a great model for creating clear and consistent “data about data.” It describes several of the documents features including physical location of the original (box #, report #), holding library or institution, language, related document info link, date, and copyright. In terms of the original document, additional information is provided: document type, industry, commissioned by (original producer), conducted by (consulting firm), location of consulting firm, method of consultation (ex. test, survey), and keywords. All of these categories work with controlled vocabulary–a key component in creating “successful” metadata. There are also links to their controlled vocabulary glossary and a link to relevant chronology.

As for the features of the digital objects described by metadata, there are options to download as PDF, pages can be viewed in full page or thumbnail view. The document is also keyword searchable and offers an export/citation option. Features not describe by metadata are the scanning specification, scan technician, application, pixels, dpi, and other metadata related to the actual digitization process. Some of this information can be attained by right-clicking the “properties” of the document once downloaded but are not available from the database itself.

American Consumer Culture is a great example of the overlap between definitions that both compete and complement (and heavily discussed in our readings): project, collection, database, and digital thematic research. In the end, regardless of categorization, American Consumer Culture epitomizes “the closest thing that we have in the humanities to a laboratory,” as Kenneth Price argued.

 

*Copyright information listed on the use of images or text accessed through American Consumer Culture: This selection of images is protected by copyright, and duplication or sale of all or part of the image selection is not permitted, except that the images may be duplicated by you for your own research or other approved purpose either as prints or by downloading. Such prints or downloaded records may not be offered, whether for sale or otherwise, to anyone who is not a member of staff of the publisher. You are not permitted to alter in any way downloaded records without prior permission from the copyright owner. Such permission shall not be unreasonably withheld.

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Database Review

american-poetry

At first glance, American Poetry might not catch your eye or seem overly impressive. However, scratch beneath the surface of its simplistic homepage and users will find over 40,000 poems by more than 200 American poets from the colonial period to the early twentieth century. It is also connected to African American, Canadian, and British poetry and literature. The database is hosted and published by ProQuest by way of its humanities published imprint of Chadwyck-Healey. A digital publishing specialist, Chadwyck-Healey is “synonymous with innovation in electronic publishing since the release of the English Poetry Full-Text Database in 1992” (“About Chadwyck-Healey”).

The database American Poetry first debuted in 1996 and offers multiple search options, which include keyword, first line/title, and poet/author. For any of these options there is a metadata search index generated by the database that offers a list of searchable terms found within the collection. If one is researching a specific poet then there are additional search fields where results can be mined by gender, ethnicity, literary period, and years lived. Ethnicity and literary period also have indexes available to help users find and select appropriate terms recognized by the database. There are also collections linked on another page that are cross-searchable via the Literature Online interface. Some samples of these collections include African Writers Series, Twentieth-Century Drama, and an upgraded edition of the King James Bible online. The governance of this literature and poetry collection falls under a special selected editorial board. Board members advise on the selection of text and editions with the goals of comprehensiveness and inclusiveness.

After performing a search, using their easily navigable search options, and selecting an individual work, there is a great deal of information provided by American Poetry in regard to the literary period and author. For each poem or work of literature, there is a link with information about the author: gender, birth/death dates, ethnicity, nationality, and literary period. For the poem itself, there is full-text but it is transcribed right onto the webpage and the original is not viewable. While those seeking the text alone (and its legibility) will be satisfied, it leaves a bit to be desired for the historian or digital humanist who wonders what was lost through digitization. There is no exportable image, and searching full-text within the text can only be done using Contol+F as you can on any webpage. There are options for “Print View,” “Download Citation” and “Text Only.”

Surprisingly, the “Download Citation” option is clunky compared to the database’s overall streamlined organization and presentation format. The necessary information is there, but the export and formatting options required additional steps. Rather than go through this process, users would be better off typing up the citation the old-fashioned way—formatted and entered manually in a document. There is also a “Durable URL” option but it simply provides a link that can be saved or emailed. Emailing the link to someone who does not have access to the database will not be able to view your sent data without signing in with a user name and password. However, this feature can help to generate a quick link list for the researcher.

Chadwyck-Healey first began publishing in 1973, and has spent over £50 million over the last decade. Their bibliographic basis is the Bibliography of American Literature (Yale University Press, 1955-1991) and supplemented with additional poets recommended by the Editorial Board to “provide a thorough representation.” Text conversion was processed through four stages: selection of texts, encoding and indexing, re-keying and scanning, and preservation. The selection of text involved a consortium of scholars, research libraries, national libraries, and a publishing team. The encoding method was Standard Generalised Mark-Up Language (SGML). As stated, “SGML encoding of original texts allows works to be divided into content elements . . . and recognized accordingly that provides a route through vast amounts of data” (“Text Conversion”). The re-keying and scanning process took SGML and compared it to text generated by Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Re-keying primarily rectifies spelling and punctuation discrepancies. During the digitization process, the entire text of each poem was included as well as any accompanying text “written by the poet and forming an integral part of the poem,” (“About American Poetry”). This allows for preservation of materials.

Access to the collection follows a strict subscription-only policy; however, it can be accessed remotely. While most databases are primarily operated remotely, this designation shows the age of the database a bit—harkening back to the days of library-only or on-campus databases. There are also some other options that show the age of the database including notes on how to navigate JavaScript, which internet browser to use (Internet Explorer listed), 18 different step-by-step sample searches, changing system color (for user preference), shortcut key to navigate the site “without using a mouse.” In today’s touchpad, cloud-based world many of these features are antiquated as students and faculty alike are more sophisticated and search-savvy.

American Poetry remains an early model of early digitized databases—designed with students and educators (and paid subscriptions) in mind. The publisher, Chadwyck-Healey, boasts that is it used by “specialist researchers to undergraduates alike” and that its full-text primary source materials “create fresh avenues for critical debate, scholarly dialogue, and serendipitous discovery.” While this claim may be a bit far-fetched, this digital collection does contribute and make available a vast amount of poetry and literature related to “America” and mother “Britain,” to the digital world. For this reason, American Poetry is still very much worth the price of an institutional subscription.

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CC_Prelinger Archives

1) URL: https://archive.org/details/prelinger?&sort=-downloads&page=3

2) Terms and Conditions: https://archive.org/details/prelinger&tab=about

3) Collection Summary according to the website:
Prelinger Archives was founded in 1983 by Rick Prelinger in New York City. Over the next twenty years, it grew into a collection of over 60,000 “ephemeral” (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films. In 2002, the film collection was acquired by the Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division.

Prelinger Archives remains in existence, holding approximately 11,000 digitized and videotape titles (all originally derived from film) and a large collection of home movies, amateur and industrial films acquired since 2002. Its primary collection emphasis has turned toward home movies and amateur films, with approximately 12,000 items held as of Spring 2015. Its goal remains to collect, preserve, and facilitate access to films of historic significance that haven’t been collected elsewhere. Included are films produced by and for many hundreds of important US corporations, nonprofit organizations, trade associations, community and interest groups, and educational institutions. There are four main collections: commercials, studio clips, Coronet Instructional Films, Prelinger Archives Home Movies.

4) This one seems to be both with several video download formats. Although I’ve listed it as CC, but this particular entry clearly lists it as in the Public Doman and links the following: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/

sleep-for-health

5) PD_Sleep for Health
https://archive.org/details/Sleepfor1950

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CC_Digital Commonwealth, Massachusetts Collections Online

1) URL: https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:bz60d201n

2) Terms and Conditions: https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/copyright

3) Collection Summary according to their website: Digital Commonwealth is a non-profit collaborative organization that provides resources and services to support the creation, management, and dissemination of cultural heritage materials held by Massachusetts libraries, museums, historical societies, and archives. Digital Commonwealth currently has over 130 member institutions from across the state. This site provides access to thousands of images, documents, and sound recordings that have been digitized by member institutions so that they may be available to researchers, students, and the general public.

In addition, Digital Commonwealth members may apply for free digitization services from the Boston Public Library as part of a grant awarded by the MBLC (Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners) and funded by the LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act).

The Digital Commonwealth is a web portal or gateway to digital assets hosted by Massachusetts cultural institutions.  Cultural institutions include libraries, museums, historical societies, archives, research institutions, and other repositories of our cultural heritage.  Digital Commonwealth uses Open Archives Initiative (OAI), a protocol for metadata harvesting, and Dublin Core.  Dublin Core is an international metadata standard that has been for describing countless digital collections worldwide. Simple or Standard Dublin Core consists of a set of 15 optional and repeatable elements. The elements are used to provide information about an object, such as its title, creator, date, subject, etc. For Digital Commonwealth, Dublin Core (encoded in XML) will be harvested via the OAI protocol and incorporated into the search index.

4) Listed with each photo is relevant info and a handy citation generator:

Chicago Style: “Social Religious Building, George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, Tenn..”  Card.  1930.  Digital Commonwealth,  http://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/bz60d201n  (accessed September 14, 2016).

Title: Social Religious Building, George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, Tenn.
Date: [ca. 1930–1945]
Terms of Use: No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.

5) CC_Social Religious Building, George Peabody College for Teachers

06_10_019615
https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:bz60d201n

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CC_Harpeth Hall School Digital Collection

  1. URL: https://archive.org/details/harpethhall

2) Terms and Conditions: https://archive.org/about/terms.php

3) Collection Summary:
This collection contains 225 texts, and I helped to digitize it as the archivist of the Harpeth Hall School in Nashville, TN. It contains yearbooks, catalogs, newspapers, and miscellaneous books from 1897 to 2007. It is hosted by Internet Archive which contains thousands of collections and millions of texts, photos, audio, and video. The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form.

The 1920 yearbook, Milestones, can be downloaded full-text in several formats or embedded and is keyword searchable online. It is in the public domain.

4) This is an example of CC sharing, but is also PD due to the date of publication prior to 1923. Archive.org has implemented 1) a license chooser in the upload process, 2) the CC marks on works licensed/copyright waived with CC, 3) a subset of the CC REL metadata specification, and 4) a way to search for CC licensed content.

5) Example:

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©_Meharry Medical College Digital Collection

1) URL: http://contentdm.auctr.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/mhmc

2) Terms and Conditions: http://contentdm.auctr.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/mhmc/id/49

I chose this database because it is neither CC or PD but is available for fair use access and personal download with a watermark. I think it is important to show that many databases and digital collections are neither completely restricted nor free to use in any way.

The collection states: Images in these collections are either protected by copyright or are the property of the Archives Department of Meharry Medical College Library. To order a reproduction or to inquire about permission to publish, please contact cdouglas@mmc.edu or call 615.327.6470.

3) Collection Summary (Larger Collection):
A Digital Collection Celebrating the Founding of the Historically Black College and University is a collection of primary resources from twenty-two HBCU libraries and archives. It includes several thousand scanned pages and represents HBCU libraries first collaborative effort to make a historic collection digitally available. Collections are contributed from member libraries of the Historically Black College and University Library Alliance.  The collection includes photographs, university correspondence, manuscripts, images of campus buildings, alumni letters, memorabilia, and programs from campus events.

Specific Collection:
A national treasure, Meharry Medical College is the oldest, private historically black medical school in the country. Founded in 1876 as the medical department of Central Tennessee College, Meharry became an independent Medical College in 1915. Meharry includes schools in medicine (the oldest and largest of all schools), dentistry, and graduate studies.  The Meharry digital collection contributes images having the following themes: Presidents, Campus Buildings, Faculty, Alumni, the School of Medicine, the School of Dentistry, the School of Graduate Studies, the School of Pharmacy which closed in 1938, and the School of Nursing which closed in 1962.

4) While free to access and download with watermark for personal use, the collection states: Images in these collections are either protected by copyright or are the property of the Archives Department of Meharry Medical College Library. To order a reproduction or to inquire about permission to publish, please call 615.327.6470.

5) Example: ©_Nursing Students, 1919
http://contentdm.auctr.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/mhmc/id/49

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CC_NASA on the Commons

1) GReat Images in NASA (GRIN): http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/

This site has been moved and renamed “NASA on the Commons”: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasacommons

2) Terms and Conditions: https://www.flickr.com/commons/usage/

3) Collection summary according to the website:
The Great Images in NASA (GRIN) system provides a database of photos documenting NASA. Photos include: aircraft structures, aircraft design, aircraft models, wind tunnel tests, materials research, space programs, astronaut training, robotic planetary exploration and images taken by NASA spacecraft such as the Hubble Space Telescope and Mars Global Surveyor. GRIN contains many, but not all of the most popular images from NASA’s history. It also contains important historical images that you may not have seen before. We established GRIN to help journalists, publishers, educators, authors and the general public find high-quality historical photos. Photos were selected both for their historical importance and their visual impact. Having been moved to Flickr (owned by Yahoo), over 2,500 images are supported copyright free with the following conditions:

  • NASA materials may not be used to state or imply the endorsement by NASA or by any NASA employee of a commercial product, service or activity, or used in any other manner that might mislead.
  • NASA should be acknowledged as the source of its material.
  • It is unlawful to falsely claim copyright or other rights in NASA material.
  • NASA shall in no way be liable for any costs, expenses, claims or demands arising out of use of NASA’s cassettes and photographs by a recipient’s distributees.
  • NASA personnel are not authorized to sign indemnity or hold harmless statements, release from copyright infringement, or documents granting exclusive use rights.

4) This is a sharing service so it is CC. The photo linked as the example also says NASA Public Domain. However certain photos are labeled “Some rights reserved” which takes you to: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

5) Example:

nasa

Download options:

download-options

Also labeled:
Privacy: Public
Safety level: Safe

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PD_The J. Paul Getty Museum

1) URL: http://www.getty.edu/museum/

2) Terms and Conditions: http://www.getty.edu/legal/copyright.html

3) Collection Summary: The J. Paul Getty Museum collects, presents, conserves, and interprets great works of art. This includes: antiquities, drawings, manuscripts, paintings, photographs, sculpture, and decorative arts. In addition to their online collection the Getty also hosts rotating exhibits, educational programs for a variety of ages and special topics, maintains a research and conservation department, fifteen published books (some available full-text online), public programs (artist talks, performances, films, and tours). The Getty operates under what is called an “Open Content Program.” As stated on their site: The Getty makes available, without charge, all available digital images (for download) to which the Getty holds the rights or that are in the public domain to be used for any purpose. No permission is required.

4) Images are not labeled CC or PD but under their Open Content Policy it explains that they offer works in the PD.

5) Example: PD_Sunrise (Marine) by Claude Monethttp://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/125556/claude-monet-sunrise-marine-french-march-or-april-1873/?dz=0.5000,0.4099,0.68

Before downloading, users must fill out a form indicating use and purpose:

getty-image-download-screenshot

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