Summer2005.Q3.Response

Summer 2005 Q 3

Here is an attempt to answer this question.

Problems
 * Difficulty in creating a thesaurus of a controlled vocabulary for images to aid in retrieval.
 * Patrons are different in how they search and how they look at the image.
 * Example—picture professionals will use professional jargon in their search query but nonprofessionals will not know the jargon.
 * Multiple ways to look at an image so difficulty in creating a search query that will produce a result.
 * Copyright issues—Can you print an image if it is copyrighted?
 * Description of image—How much do you describe for the access points? All areas of the picture? Colors? Subjects?
 * How do you describe the purpose of the picture? Historical images had different purposes when they were first created.
 * Images can take up large amounts of computer space. Do you compress the picture? Do you change the quality of the picture to reduce space?
 * Descriptive metadata is often used for describing images for digital libraries.

(Jodie's answer)
 * Metadata:
 * What scheme to use?
 * What access points should be provided?
 * Controlled vocabulary: make your own or use someone else’s? (Unique collections will likely need their own)
 * How will people, landmarks, objects in the photo be identified? [Will likely need someone who is very familiar with the subject area to help with this]
 * What resolution should the photo be scanned at? Are we keeping an archival copy in addition to the “use” (lower resolution) copy?
 * Server space an issue, especially if keeping high resolution archival quality images
 * If being displayed on the web, should the images be watermarked to discourage unauthorized use?
 * Will we allow patrons to purchase the rights to use the photo in publication or the web, or for a simple personal copy? If so, will need an appropriate pricing structure.
 * Expensive equipment needed: powerful computer (probably a Mac, plenty of RAM, fast processor, large hard drive), high quality scanners (regular and oversized flatbeds), high quality printers, decent photo paper