Ian and I continue to work on the Glenister Slide collection. Since my last post we have received a second batch of metadata information. We inserted this information into the metadata template that we had created using an Excel spreadsheet and then uploaded the items into CONTENTdm. We have also added additional information to the metadata records that we have received such as contact information.
For the metadata Ian and I have been normalizing entries and looking up subject headings for items in LCSH and the Oxford Reference for Earth and Environmental science (these provide an established vocabulary for the concepts the slides are illustrating). We have also added a metadata field called SUI. The SUI is an identifier used by the Geoscience department to identify specimens held in their collection. We did that so that the digital object is linked to the physical object that it represents.
Ian and I have run into several problems working with the collection. Some of the items we have uploaded are not oriented correctly. Since we are not Geoscientists, when we rotated items we were using our best judgement as to which way is up. To remedy this Tiffany is going to send us a list of slides that are not correct and we will rotate them and re-upload them. Another problem is waiting for metadata information. As we wait for the metadata Ian and I continue to work on the Daily Iowan Collection.
Goals for next week: Ian and I are going to start thinking about what sort of user interface we would like the collection to have and will continue to work on the Daily Iowan until we receive more metadata information.
