TCC Archives Metadata Standards: Description of Elements

Description of Elements and Origin of Record Data 

At present, TCC uses the following Dublin Core elements to describe items such as photographs, booklets, brochures, and record tracks. The following elements have been selected to help best-describe records in the collection. However, new elements can be added as needed.

Title: The Dublin Core title element was selected to help keep photos uniquely identifiable in the system. While the title will act as a unique access point for each item in the collection, the title does not have to be complicated. Titles should include the archive homebody (Tulsa Community College), a brief and regulated description that abides by the controlled vocabulary (such as: “Northeast Campus Construction”), the format or object description (photograph, regalia, et cetera), an approximated or specific date (such as: “c.1978), and a number if the object is part of a series of sorts or if there are several photos identical titles (such as photos of President Goodson at TCC all in the year 2015). Each section of the title should be separated by a comma, such as with archival arrangement. So, most titles will look like: Tulsa Community College, Northeast Campus Construction, c.1978, No. 1 or Tulsa Community College, Dean VanTrease, Regalia, c.2000.  Titles do not necessarily have to abide by the controlled vocabulary since they will only be used by the user to distinguish between files and to identify objects.  

For most photos, the archival homebody will be “Tulsa Community College.” However, any photos created in prior to 1996 belonging to TCC should be indicated as “Tulsa Junior College” to reflect TCC’s prior name. 

Description: The Dublin Core description element was selected so users could quickly and accurately surmise what each object in the collection is and how it relates to TCC. Every file should have a description, even if it is a repetitive or simple description. Descriptions can be more user-centric than subject headings, so it does not necessarily have to abide by the controlled vocabulary. Descriptions should follow archival standards and should include as-complete-as-possible explanations of who or what the object centers around, as well as any additional information available, such as what a program discusses, highlights of an article, et cetera. 

Source: The Dublin Core source element was selected to help in-person researchers or curious users discern where the physical item currently resides. This should help streamline any requests to see an item in-person and to help users identify relationships within the collections. The source should indicate where the item is presently located. If the item is representative of a current item in the archive, then the item’s collection, box number, folder number, and page number should be detailed as shown below. If the item comes from an outside source, the item’s current location, box number (if applicable), folder number (if applicable), binder or scrapbook number (if applicable), newspaper date (if applicable), and pagination (if applicable), should be detailed. The separate source identifiers should be separated by commas and indicated as the type of identifier (such as box versus folder). Individual identifiers should be capitalized as shown below. 

Source Example: Campus History Collection, Box 3, Folder 1, Pages 1-3 OR Philips Scrapbook Collection, Scrapbook 2, Page 6. 

Some items are on loan from Tulsa Community College’s Marketing Department. Items from marking will contain a dash-M (“-M) at the end of their digital photo title. The Marketing Department should get proper credit for these with a comma and “Marketing” added to the end of the transcribed source. 

Marketing Source Example: Presidents Collection, Box 1, Folder 10, Picture 1, Marketing.  

Creator: The Dublin Core creator element was selected to give proper credit to the creators of collection objects. If known, the creator should be listed as LastName,FirstName. If the creator is affiliated with an organization, they should be listed as LastName,FirstName, Organization. If the creator is obviously affiliated with an organization but the specific creator is not listed, then the organization should be listed as the creator. If the creator is unknown or if affiliation is undeterminable, then the creator should be listed as “Unknown”.  

Creator Example:

• A program detailing TCC’s new Northeast Campus construction plans that includes program and college scopes but lists no author=Tulsa Community College.
• An article written by Jane Smith and published in the Tulsa World=Smith,Jane, Tulsa World.
• A photograph without any metadata taken of Tulsa Community College’s Northeast Campus while under construction but by who and for what purpose is not known=Unknown.

Publisher: The Dublin Core publisher element was selected to give proper credit to the publishers of collection objects, namely those published by the college and newspapers. If applicable, the publisher should be transcribed as shown on the item. 

Rights: The Dublin Core rights element was selected to let users know of the rights and rights holder associated with each collection object. For every item in the collection, all rights should be indicated as “All Rights Reserved.” 

Rights Holder: The Dublin Core rights holder element was selected to let users know of the rights and rights holder associated with each collection object. The rights holder’s statement should be copied and pasted onto every object. Items owned by the Tulsa World or the Philip’s family should contain their respective statements. Items owned by Tulsa Community College should have TCC’s rights statement. 

• Tulsa Community College Rights Holder Statement: These materials are the property of the Tulsa Community College Library. They may be used for research and educational purposes only. Any other usage, including commercial, requires prior permission to be granted from the library.
• Tulsa World Statement (for Philips Scrapbooks only): Tulsa Community College was granted permission by the Tulsa World for use of its content in the (name of digital collection here).

Date: The Dublin Core date element was selected to help differentiate between dates and date ranges in the various collections. All dates should include the four digit year only. If you are certain of a year (such as if a photograph indicates that the photo was taken in “1999”), the date should be transcribed exactly without brackets or a circa indication. Approximated dates, including circa dates, should be transcribed to brackets per archival standards (for example, c.1978=[1978]). Objects where specific dates are important (such as the date range of an important conference, the groundbreaking of a campus, et cetera), can have more specific date information included in the object’s description. 

Provenance: The Dublin Core provenance element was selected to help establish the origin and history of objects in the collection. If the provenance is known, especially in the case of items loaded to the archives from the Philips family, the provenance should be recorded as completely as possible. If provenance is unknown, the element should say “Unknown”. 

Identifier: The Dublin Core identifier element was selected to help locate physical items in the collection that are being displayed in the digital collection, such as if a researcher wanted to view regalia in-person and the archivist needed to pull the correct box containing the regalia. The identifier should reflect any unique identifiers associated with a file, such as the naming convention assigned to a file when it is uploaded into Omeka. If a naming convention exists for the file, include it here without the type of file (such as .TIF). If not, leave this element blank.  

Identifier Example: If the file name is “CH-OKTCCUS-b003f003pg001.TIF”, the unique identifier would be CH-OKTCCUS-b003f003pg001.  

Subject: The Dublin Core subject element was selected to help maintain library cataloging standards, help users surmise what an object is “about,” to link objects across collections with identical or similar subjects, and to prepare the collection for likely future transition into a system that may require LOC subject headings. Due to the nature of some of the archive’s materials, some objects may have name authorities included in addition to subjects. Each file should have at least one or more Library of Congress Subject Headings associated with it. The Subject should match a LCSH exactly (save for authority names, even those locally-grown) and should not contain localized subject headings. If possible, the subject heading should describe as-accurately-as-possible what the file contains and should avoid generalized subject headings about community colleges and Tulsa unless applicable to the specific file/object. It is not necessary to add too many subject headings to each object, but enough to describe the object should be included. Photos will likely only have one or two subject headings while wordy-files, such as newspaper articles or programs, may have more. 

Tags: Tags are an additional feature of Omeka and are not a Dublin Core element. Tags were selected to help users locate information through hyperlinked connections. Tags should largely abide by the Controlled Vocabulary list and should be directed towards the user. While there are many possible tags for each file or object, the cataloger should determine less than ten as a rule, though some objects will have more. Try to devise tags that users will be looking for in their searches, such as photographs from the 1970s, or Northeast. A good rule of thumb for assigning tags to an object is to assign a tag each for the approximate year of the item, the decade, what is going on inthe photo, the campus, and the medium. So, a photograph depicting Northeast Campus under construction circa 1978 would have “1978,” “1970s,” “Construction,” “Northeast,” and “Photograph”.