Image taken from http://adeepergroove.podbean.com/2009/11/01/jocs-touch-of-jaz

SUABAN MUSIC
MUSEUM:
Sarah Bankston 
A JAZZ & 
COLLECTION

INLS 520 Armando Suarez 

FALL 2010  

   
Project background 
This past spring Donald Hart, the well-known business tycoon and amateur musicologist,
donated his entire jazz collection, roughly 4,000 items, to our institute, the Suaban Music
Museum. We’re thrilled to receive this rich and varied collection. Hart’s jazz interests are far-
reaching, and his wish is to open up his collection to researchers and enthusiasts alike, in order to
bring about a greater understanding of and appreciation for jazz, both as musical genre and
cultural movement.

The Collection 
This collection is physical in nature, with a major undertaking in process to digitize it in its
entirety. While the entire collection pertains to jazz in the 20th century, there are some special
relationships within the collection. Some of the items are related in that they were owned by a
particular musician or come from a particular region. There are also larger relationships created
by the items belonging to a particular subgenre of jazz.

This collection consists of a variety of mixed media:

I. Audio Recordings (vinyl, cassettes, and CD)

II. Video Recordings (reel-to-reel, VHS, laserdisc, DVD)
III. Photographs
IV. Literature (letters, interviews, journal articles, newspaper clippings, books, etc.)
V. Sheet music
VI. Souvenirs
VII. Instruments
VIII. Paraphernalia (guitar picks, reeds, drum sticks, etc.)
IX. Posters

The Users 
¾ Possible users interested in the collection include:
I. Musicologists
II. Faculty and students in music departments
III. Scholars
IV. Jazz aficionados
V. Musicians

¾ Users’ needs will vary depending on their particular interests, including research and
educational purposes, historical background, or just merely personal interest. While
people with a personal interest may be satisfied with the scantest of information about the
items, the researchers will want to have as much information as is available.
 ¾ The organizational system will be maintained by staff members of the jazz department
within the museum, including curators, cataloguers/registrars, and a digital specialist.
¾ The collection will be used for cultural initiatives by organizing exhibits around items in
the collection, and cultural events will be created to generate interest in this American art.
These exhibitions will be recorded and eventually placed online for users who could not
attend in person.
¾ Scholars, professors and students will be encouraged to use the online collection for
research purposes. However, the aim of the collection is not only to attract experts and
enthusiasts, but also to expose it to users who might not otherwise be aware of such a
unique American cultural phenomenon.

The Ideal System 
¾ Since we realize not everyone interested in this collection will have the means to visit our
institution and see the exhibitions, we want all potential users to be able to connect with it
as intimately as possible through an online environment.
¾ Our vision is to create a robust website that includes a catalog of the materials, a visual
database, and an interactive timeline to place the items in perspective of the development
of the various jazz movements. We plan to develop a faceted search within the catalog so
that users may limit for artist, album, subgenre, era, and beyond.

The Challenges 
¾ Digitization of the entire collection will pose various challenges, such as appropriating
funding to hire new staff to aid our current digital specialist.
¾ While digitizing some of the items, such as the literature, photographs, audio recordings,
letters, and sheet music will be time consuming, the process is relatively easy. On the
other hand, three dimensional objects will pose new challenges for our institution. Issues
include generating funding for new technology, careful handling of the instruments and
other delicate materials, and discovering and creating standards to digitize the items.
¾ Issues with categorizations and descriptions might develop due to the size and variety of
the collection.
¾ Preservation of sound and image quality on some of the older audio and video recordings
may pose a challenge depending on the physical state of the materials.
¾ There may be copyright issues that need to be cleared up before proceeding with large-
scale digitization and broadcast of some of the collection.
¾ Since the aim of the institution is to create an interactive digital system, devising it will
take a lot of creativity in order to enhance user-experience.
¾ The challenges enumerated above will be addressed in various ways. We have received a
technology grant to purchase equipment and hire new staff for digitization efforts.
Digital consultants will be sought to help resolve issues with delicate or awkward
materials. Finally, the current staff will undergo a series of training sessions and
 professional development workshops to get trained on new duties and learn about the
newly acquired collection. As far as copyright questions go, we’ll have to consult with a
lawyer or other copyright expert to make sure we aren’t in violation and we’ll have to
devise a systematic way to let our users know the copyright status of items in our
collection.

Content Sample 

Item #1—Kind of Blue by Miles Davis

¾ This is a sound recording, specifically a CD. We chose this as part of the content sample
because sound recordings comprise the majority of the collection. With sound recordings
we will want our system to account for the title, artist, accompanying artists, year of
release, geographical location of release, instruments used in recording, the genre and/or
subgenre of music, and the format of the sound recording.

Item #2—Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis

¾ This is a sound recording, specifically an LP. We chose this as part of the content sample
because sound recordings comprise the majority of the collection and this one illustrates
yet another format. With sound recordings we will want our system to account for the
title, artist, accompanying artists, year of release, geographical location of release,
instruments used in recording, the genre and/or subgenre of music, and the format of the
sound recording.

Item #3—Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje

¾ This is a book, specifically a hardcover historical fiction. This was chosen as a sample
item because we received many books as part of the collection. With books we need the
system to account for title, author, year of publication, publisher, language, subject,
genre/subgenre, and format.

Item #4—Round Midnight by Bernard Tavernier

¾ Round Midnight is a film and is included in this sample since it is yet another well-
represented type within the collection and presents different considerations for our
system. With films we need to capture title, director, actors, year of release, language,
genre, and format. Some sort of description would be ideal.

Item #5—Photograph of Dexter Gordon by Herman Leonard

¾ This photograph was included as a representative of the image-based items in our
collection. For photographs, our ideal system would include title (if available),
photographer, year taken, subject, format, and a description.
Reflecting upon our collection 

The exercise of creating a content sample has given us an opportunity to move our
consideration away from the purely abstract to focus on something a little more tangible. The
process of peer-review, the instructor feedback, and our own ruminations have revealed several
challenges and opportunities as we approach the organization of our jazz collection.
The first challenge we face with this collection will be reining it in. That is, our collection
is something we’ve imagined entirely, so the sky has been the limit until now. We need to
consider some time parameters that perhaps our wealthy collector was only interested in jazz
from a certain time period or was no longer interested in collecting past the early 1980s. In this
content sample we’ve attempted to account for the number of items in order to give ourselves
some sense of scale.
After exploring the collection in a little more depth, it is becoming apparent that some
categories we created in our scenario are perhaps not so clear-cut. For example, we have listed
separate categories for instruments and paraphernalia, but as we examined the bulk of the
paraphernalia we realized that they are mostly instrument accessories and perhaps may be
subsumed by that category.
As a result of peer-review, we realized that our ambition to digitize everything will be
complicated by the reality of copyright laws. Since we’re not experts in this field, we’ll need to
consult with the museum’s lawyers to make sure we do not violate any existing copyrights. Al-
though, some of the items have entered the public domain, other items are protected by privacy
and publicity copyrights. Regarding the latter, notification of these rights will have to be stated in
each of the applicable items for the user’s information. Furthermore, limitations on listening and
viewing time will have to be enforced by the use of small samples.
One of the technical challenges of the collection is due to the evident deterioration found
in numerous audio and video recordings. The conversion to digital form will have to be
undertaken by a recording engineer specializing in restoration. Although a large percentage will
definitely be salvageable, there’s the understanding that a small percentage are in such bad
condition—and since the restoration requires numerous steps—that after just one play they will
begin to deteriorate even further.
The last major challenge we’ve uncovered so far (which really is an opportunity to
innovate) is that our collection is so varied and the different items necessitate different
classifications, tags, etc. It’s a little overwhelming to think of creating one coherent system that
will deftly organize all the materials we are bringing to it. In addition to this, the recent class
readings, along with instructor feedback, has us considering user needs in a different light. While
it’s easy to say that the collection will be used for research purposes, we haven’t identified yet
what sort of research musicologists would do with such a collection. Perhaps some outreach
between the museum and local and national music departments will need to be considered so we
can understand the scope of work being done within the field in order to better design our
system.

Facet Analysis 
Incorporation of facets into our jazz collection was not a simple matter, due to the
inherent complexities behind cataloguing music. Subject music headings are complex since they
require a number of different characteristics within each heading and by nature audio items don’t
really have graspable, tactile characteristics. Additionally, our content spans several formats
besides strict audio, including books, posters, instruments, photographs, and films. In choosing
facets, we took particular consideration into the proper identification of the objects/items to be
classified and retrieved, re-examining our previously submitted content sample and delving
deeper into specific items. Furthermore, consideration for the methodology was given regarding
the possible range of users that will utilize the collection. These included external users such as
faculty and students from various educational institutions, scholars, jazz aficionados, musicians,
and the general public. Internal users include archivists and museum professionals. The purpose
behind our facet analysis is to not only create an organized catalogue data for our digitized
collection, but to also generate a standard of categories that are functional in nature, facilitating
the browsing experience for the given user. With this in mind, the structure for the classification
uses simple concepts with logical relationships between the categories, which can then be broken
down into related sub-facets.

List of Facets 
Agents – The classificatory scheme will be flat, capturing a low-level of detail, but enough to
narrow down a search within the collection. Examples of Agents would be photographers,
musicians, artists, directors, and authors. This facet will be helpful for anyone using the
collection, but probably the general public with mild interest would benefit more than someone
doing heavy-duty research. We envision someone using the Agents facets to get started on their
search within the collection; it will have little use once users start drilling down into the
collection.

Geographical Location – The classificatory scheme here will be hierarchical, beginning with
larger categories that can be drilled down even further. Examples of the first level of
Geographical Locations would be countries, such as the United States, France, Brazil, Cuba, and
Finland. Once a country has been selected the sub-facets would be revealed, in this case the
cities of the country chosen. For example, if the United States was selected, the user would then
see New York City, Chicago, Kansas City, and San Francisco displayed at the next level. This
facet will be useful for researchers who are trying to pinpoint a specific geographical region in
relationship to their work. Casual users may also enjoy this feature as a way of identifying
particular jazz movements in relation to geographical region.
Format – The classificatory system here would also be hierarchical, but depending on the
selection there may not be a more detailed level. For example, audio, film, books, and
photographs may all be listed under the Format facet, but if a user selects “photographs” they
won’t be given a more detailed level since there isn’t much variation among photograph formats.
However, if they choose “audio”, they will be given the more detailed choices of LP, CD,
streaming online, etc. Again, this is a facet that will appeal to all users of our collection since it’s
more basic description of the collection that will help them navigate within the collection.

Style/Genre – The classificatory system behind this will be hierarchical. Since our collection
ranges in format, this facet needs to encompass the language of these different formats.
Examples of the Style/Genre facet are cool jazz & bebop (when classifying music); fiction,
poetry & nonfiction (when classifying books); and documentary & live concert (when classifying
film). This is a particularly tricky facet to conceptualize, and it may be that as we continue to
develop our system we will discover a cleaner way to classify this information. At any rate, the
Style/Genre facet will be of particular use to musicologists who are researching particular
subgenres of jazz or for internal users such as exhibit curators trying to cull items from a
particular genre for a show.

Instrument – The classificatory system with Instrument will be hierarchical. This facet will
encompass the type of instruments used in a particular work or by a particular musician. Some
of the top level categories will be brass, percussion, woodwind, and strings, and once selected, a
greater degree of specificity will be displayed. For example, if woodwind is selected, the user
will then be given a choice of clarinet, saxophone, oboe, etc. Even within some of these there
will be another level, such as alto clarinet. While this facet will be appealing to anyone using our
collection, musicians will find this browsing option particularly helpful as they search for pieces
to perform. Furthermore, this facet might aid scholars doing comparative research concerning
the use of a particular instrument within a certain movement of jazz.

Period – The classificatory system behind this facet will use a timeline. Users can select
specific decades or use a slider feature to narrow to specific time periods. This will be helpful
for users who are new to jazz to begin understanding different eras within the genre. Researchers
may use the Period facet to dispute the origins and development of particular subgenres.

Facets as Applied to Our Content Sample 
Item #1: Kind of Blue Miles Davis (Compact Disc)

• Agent: Musician Æ Miles Davis

• Geographical Location: United States Æ New York City
• Format: Audio Æ CD
• Style/Genre: Audio Æ Modal Jazz
• Instrument: Brass Æ Trumpet
 • Period: 1950 - 1959

Item #2: Sketches of Spain Miles Davis (LP Album)

• Agent: Musician Æ Miles Davis

• Geographical Location: United States Æ New York City
• Format: Audio Æ LP
• Style/Genre: Audio Æ ?(Spanish folk, Flamenco, Blues)
• Instrument: Brass Æ Trumpet
• Period: 1960 – 1969

Item #3: Coming Through Slaugher Michael Ondaatje (book)

• Agent: Writer Æ Michael Ondaatje

• Geographical Location: United States Æ New Orleans
• Format: Book Æ Hardcover
• Style/Genre: Book Æ Historical Fiction
• Instrument: Brass Æ Cornet (this is what the main character plays)
• Period: 1970 – 1979 (if we choose to go with year published); 1900 – 1909 (if we go with
period depicted in the book)

Item #4: Round Midnight Bertrand Tavernier (film)

• Agent: Director Æ Bertrand Tavernier

• Geographical Location: France Æ Paris
• Format: Film Æ DVD
• Style/Genre: Film Æ Drama
• Instrument: Woodwind Æ Saxophone Æ Tenor Saxophone (this is what the main
character plays)
• Period: 1980 – 1989 (if we choose to go with year released); 1950 – 1959 (if we go with
period depicted in the film)

Item #5: Dexter Gordon Herman Leonard (photograph) `

• Agent: Photographer Æ Herman Leonard

• Geographical Location: United States Æ New York City
• Format: Photograph ÆBlack & White
• Style/Genre: Photograph
• Instrument: Woodwind Æ Saxophone (this is what the Gordon is
playing)
• Period: 1940 – 1949
 Your Current Search Results 1 - 5 of 42
1. Miles Davis: Biography
Your Search Term:

-miles davis

Limited By:

Format: Book (remove)

2. Kind of Blue? A Miles Davis Reader
Period: 1980-1990
(remove)

Refine Your Search

3. Miles: An Retrospective
Audience:
Aficionados
Faculty/Students
Musicians
Scholars

Geographical Loca-
tion:
New York 4. The Birth of the Cool: Miles Davis’ Early Years
Paris
New Orleans
(more)

Style/Genre:
Fiction
Historical Fiction
(more)
Jazz 5. Miles and Miles and Miles
Cool Jazz
Modal Jazz
(more)

Subject:
Art
Biography
History
Music
(more)

Period:
1980 - 1985
1986 - 1989
 Flamenco-style Faceted Browsing

Search by keywords, title, author…. Search

Audience People Period

Faculty/Students (506) Musicians (683) 1900 - 1909 (14)
Musicians (450) Writers (256) 1910 - 1919 (116)
Aficionados (379) Directors (57) 1920 - 1929 (326)
Scholars (510) Photographers (24) 1930 - 1939 (259)
Producers (98) 1940 - 1949 (108)
Illustrators (49) 1950 - 1959 (211)
Style/Genre 1960 - 1969 (197)
Music 1970 - 1979 (204)
Geographical 1980 - 1989 (398)
Blues (159)
Jazz (976) Location 1990 - 1999 (421)
Books 2000 - 2009 (352)
North America (1050) 2010 - 2019 (50)
Fiction (346)
Central & South
History (259)
America (789)
Music (541) Source
Africa (458) physical description
Philosophy (127)
Europe (237)
DVD/Video Music (790)
Asia (205)
Concert (278) Books (575)
Documentary (153) Print Materials (127)
Feature Film (99) DVD/Video (246)
Journals (90)
3D Objects (72)

With this interface, the user is presented with a search box along with several facet fields.
The user can choose to enter search terms or click on one of the linked items in the facet
fields. If the user hovers over the facet title (see the example in the Source field), they’ll
get a brief description of what that facet entails.

When the user selects a faceted-item, they will be taken to a results page that has a
“Refine Your Search” area on the left-hand side that will allow them to drill down further
into the faceted hierarchy (an example of such an hierarchy is on the following page).
 An example of the “People” hierarchy

So if the user selected “Musician” under the “People category, the results page may look
something like this:

Refine Your Search:

People —> Musicians
Your Current Search:
Trumpeters (167) People: Musicians
Saxophonists (209)
Drummers (158)
Vocalists (90)
1. Kind of Blue (Audio - Vinyl)
Clarinetists (108) by Miles Davis (trumpeter)
Pianists (113)
(more) 2. Bird (Film - DVD)
directed by Clint Eastwood
Source
Music (790) 3. Dexter Gordon (Photograph)
Books (575) photographed by Herman Leonard
Print Materials (127)
DVD/Video (246)
Journals (90)
4. A Love Supreme (Audio - CD)
by John Coltrane (saxophonist)
Geographical
5. Shack-man (Audio - CD)
Location
by Medeski, Martin, & Wood (trio)
Digital-based Faceted Browsing (based on LUNA)

With this interface, the user sees a “front page” where they see thumbnails of every-
thing scanned into the collection. They can choose to enter a search term, browse
page by page, or use the facets on the left-hand side of the page.

Search the Search

Search by keywords, title, author….
Collection by
Source Advanced Search

 Music
 Books
 Journals
 Photographs
 Prints
 DVD/Video
 3D Objects

_______________

Other Options

 People
 Period
 Geographical
Location
 Style/Genre
 Audience Browse All 1 of 2 3 4 5 ….. 532 533 > | 12 of 5087

There is also an Advanced Search option which allows users to either choose op-
tions from all facet fields or select specific fields in order to create a Boolean-type
search.

Once the user reaches the results page, they can continue to refine using the facets
on the left-hand side of the page. The facets are grouped under the simple headings
of “Who”, “What”, “When”, and “Where”. For example, if the user selected, Music
from “Search the Collection by Source” the Front Page, they would see the follow-
ing results page:
Who Search
Search by keywords, title, author….
Trumpeter
Advanced Search
Saxophonist
Pianist
(more)
_______________
What
Vinyl Records
Audio Cassette
Compact Disc
(more)
_______________
Where
North America
South America
Asia
(more)
_______________
When
1900 - 1909 Browse All 1 of 2 3 4 5 ….. 357 358 > | 6 of 907
1910 - 1919
(more)
Metadata Specification 
One of the definable characteristics of cultural heritage institutions is the diversity of their
collections. Such materials may include sound and audio recordings, photographs, text, 3D
objects, and digitized items. Therefore, making these resources accessible requires a metadata
schema containing an appropriate semantic structure. Although, in reality no single schema
could satisfy all the complexities and requirements of a heterogeneous collection, we have
decided to choose the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (DCMES) format, since it comes
closer to meeting the required specifications to accurately describe the resources in our collection
in order to facilitate their access. Some of the reasons for the selection of this particular
metadata schema are:

• Interoperability
• Simplicity/usability
• Widely recognized metadata standard
• Extensibility

Interoperability is highly significant as a basis for interchange of information amongst

various domains. One of the goals of the museum is to facilitate access to the collection, thus
being able to share and work collaboratively with other cultural institutions is imperative. This
being the case, DCMES uses a broad level of common element sets which a number of analyses
have proven to be widely used amongst various cultural repositories. i

Simplicity is also a significant advantage of DCMES, as it not only easily accessible by a

variety of users, but it requires less specialized training for the individuals that will ultimately be
responsible for its use. It is simple and easy to use, and since the magnitude of this project will
require extensive staff time, interns or part-time staff could be hired to perform many of the
simpler cataloguing duties. Additionally, DCMES is widely used by a large number of cultural
institutions to describe their resources, and it is often regarded as an adequate compromise
between complex metadata structures and simpler formats, with the capability to transport the
embedded semantic metadata into online formats such as XML, RDF, and HTML. ii

Basically, DCMES uses a set of 15 broad elements that are easily applicable to describe a
variety of information resources, and they can be expanded with other descriptors as needed to
meet the specific requirements of the collection. Since the value applied to the elements is
subject to the use of related terms to describe the same resource, as well as personal preferences
in the use of language, an authority control will be required to ensure consistency. By using
controlled vocabularies, we can facilitate the users to accurately retrieve desired information. iii
Since no one single tool is exhaustive enough to cover all the terminology in our collection, we
have decided to make use of various tools of controlled authority taking into consideration the
specific content of our collection. The Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) is intended for use
by a variety of users, and it’s widely utilized in various cultural institutions to improve access to
information in art, architecture, and material culture. iv Other applicable tools include the CCO
Commons: Cataloging Cultural Objects, Categories for the Description of Works of Art
(CDWA), and Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). Elements that are mandatory will
be noted as such in their descriptions, with optional elements being used as needed:

¾ Creator: This element describes the creator of the content of the particular resource, and
may include names, organizations, and services. They will be listed according to Library
of Congress standards. If there is ambiguity as to the actual responsibility of the content,
the organization name will be listed under the “Publisher” element, and “Creator” will be
used for individuals. If available, this element will be mandatory.
Example: “Davis, Miles.” The creator of the LP, Sketches of Spain.
“Selmer.” Manufacturer of saxophones.
¾ Contributor: If another entity is responsible for making significant contributions, but
secondary in nature to the content of the resource, it will be described within this
element. Although this element is optional, it should be described if available.
Example: “Troupe, Quincy” who contributed, as the editor, to the publication,
Miles: The Autobiography.
¾ Date: This element has two manifestations: Date Original and Date Digital. Date
Original will represent the date the original item was created or modified (example:
release date) while Date Digital will represent the date the item was digitized. This is a
mandatory element, and it will use the W3C Date & Time Format.
Example: W3C format is YYYY or YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD (to allow for
varying levels of available data). Coming Through Slaughter, a book published in
1976, would have a Date Original entry that displays as 1976; if it was digitized
for our collection in May 2009, it would have a Date Digital entry that displays as
2009-05. The film Bird which was released on September 30, 1988 would have a
Date Original entry that displays as 1988-09-30; if it was ‘digitized’ and uploaded
as a streaming film on July 5, 2010, it would have a Date Digital entry that
displays as 2010-07-05.
¾ Description: The description field contains information about the content of the
resource, and may include among others, an abstract, free-text, or a detailed graphic
description of the resource. The description element is significantly important as a rich
potential for relevant subject matter, therefore, it’s imperative to use indexable terms, and
therefore this element will be mandatory.
 Example: “Smoky, backlit black & white photograph of jazz saxophonist Dexter
Gordon holding the saxophone in his lap, while smoking a cigarette.” A
description of the photograph by Herman Leonard.
¾ Format: This element presents the digital or physical medium of the item. This is a
mandatory element, and it will use the MIME Media Types as a controlled vocabulary for
the digital objects and an internally developed controlled vocabulary to “describe the
physical carrier of the resource”. v
Example: A digitized recording of Miles Davis’ So What would have a Format
entry that displays “Audio-mp3”. A physical copy of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue
would have a Format entry that displays “Audio-CD”. Note that CD is the
preferred term over options like Compact Disc.
¾ Language: This element describes the language of the item. Language is a mandatory
element when applicable. Photographs, for example, would not be required to include this
element. The Language element will make use of the ISO 639.2 controlled vocabulary, as
seen in the CDP’s Best Practices. vi
Example: An audio recording in French would have a Language element that
displayed “fre”.
¾ Publisher: The Publisher element as defined by Dublin Core is the “entity responsible
for making the resource available”. vii If the item is digitized, the Publisher field will
display the institution where it was digitized. This is not to be confused with the person
who actually did the digitization—that information would fall under Contributor. The
Publisher can be universities, presses, record labels, or any other publishing/distributing
organization.
Example: For John Coltrane’s album A Love Supreme, the Publisher would be
Impulse! A digitized photograph of John Coltrane (which was digitized by our
institution) would display Suaban Music Museum as the Publisher (and the
individual who scanned the photo would be listed under Contributor).
¾ Rights: This element is mandatory, as it provides the rights held over the particular
resource, typically covering copyright laws and intellectual property rights. It can be
expressed in either a textual note or a URL pointing to a certain statement of these rights.
Example: “Physical rights are retained by XXX. Copyright is retained in
accordance with U. S. copyright laws.” viii
¾ Subject: This value signifies the type of content of the resource, and it is a good practice
to use terms from a previously decided controlled vocabulary to reduced language
ambiguity. This element is also mandatory.
 Example: “Ondaatje, Michael, 1943-,” taken from LCSH.
“Phonograph records” – preferred term as described in AAT.
¾ Title: The Title element is mandatory and will provide the name of the item. If the item
doesn’t have an established title, a descriptive title may be applied by the Suaban Music
Museum.
Example: “Shack-Man”, title of a Medeski, Martin, & Wood album
“Dexter Gordon”, title supplied by Suaban to an untitled photograph
¾ Type: DCMI defines Type as “the nature or genre of the resource”. ix Type is a
mandatory element, and it will employ the DCMI Type Vocabulary for a controlled
vocabulary to prevent genre categories from becoming unwieldy.
Example: “sound” for a sound recording of Billie Holiday singing “Strange
Fruit”
The choice was made to use the Dublin Core metadata schema based on a variety of factors that
will facilitate the access and retrieval of our particular jazz collection. As mentioned, some of
these factors include its interoperability, simplicity, extensibility, and wide acceptance and
success within numerous cultural institutions.

Implementation of Metadata Plan 
Now that our metadata plan has been identified, the next step is to develop the processes and
systems to complete the project. To do this, we must understand the roles of the people involved
and identify how they will interact with the systems that have been put in place. Various
technicians will be responsible for the documentation, administration and digitization of
metadata information:

• An information architect will be hired as a consultant on a per-hour basis of about

$60.00/hr x for the initial setup of the needed systems. This will encompass a period of
observation of already existing systems, interviews with staff and patrons, design of the
system, and an implementation/testing/training period.
• Museum professionals (non-MLIS degree holders)—a Curator, an Assistant Curator, and
a Registrar—will orient the IA to the museum’s systems, organize staff and patrons for
focus groups, and give any needed input and access to the IA. They will, of course, learn
the system, but will not be primarily responsible for entering the metadata.
• Professional librarians (with MLIS degrees) will be hired to maintain the system and
input metadata. This group consists of three permanent full-time staff; a
Cataloger/Metadata Librarian II, a Cataloger Librarian I, and a Digital Specialist
 Librarian. At the outset they will work with the IA to design and understand the system.
The Digital Specialist will also work with digitization projects.
• Students, particularly graduate students performing unpaid internships/field experience
for credit, will work in assisting the librarians on various digitization and cataloging
projects. Initially we envision two such internships/field experience positions. Part-time
temporary employees will be hired on a need-basis.
• Outsourced/contractors will be utilized on a minimal basis, primarily for the original push
to digitize as much of the new collection as possible. Since the institution’s facilities and
capabilities are limited, outsourcing some of the process will provide the advantage of a
reduced monetary investment in technical infrastructure and staff expertise. xi
• Other people involved in the metadata workflow include two Information Technology
full-time staff members responsible for the maintenance and analysis of the systems
tools, and distribution of the metadata internally and externally. These IT professionals
are already full-time staff at the museum, and this new project is encompassed within
their normal job duties.

As far as workflow is concerned, the IA will be hired for an 8-week contract with the
possibility of extension should the original implementation take longer than expected.
Observation and focus groups will take up the first two weeks, then about 4 weeks for design,
and the final two weeks for implementation/training/testing. The museum professionals will be
involved with the project throughout its entirety, facilitating the process and coordinating staff
and patrons. The IT professionals will be involved with the IA from week 3 until the end of the
implantation to ensure the new system will work with already-existing systems.

While this is happening, the museum professionals, the Digital Specialist, and two graduate
students will be working to begin to digitize the collection. During the last two weeks of the
IA’s contracted period, these staff members will begin to learn the new system, testing it and
providing feedback.

Once everything is in place, the professional librarians and graduate students will work
together to get the collection online. The graduate students, directed by the Digital specialist,
will primarily digitize documents and provide the files to the catalogers who will then input the
metadata in the system. Some metadata will arrive with the digitized document, provided by the
graduate student: Digital Technician, Digital Publisher, Digital Date, Format, Type, Language,
and Permissions. The Title, Creator, Subject, and Description may also already be available.
Anything not provided already will be input by the catalogers. As the graduate students learn the
system they will be permitted to input records which will be spot-checked by the catalogers
before being batch-loaded into “live” production.

Quality and Consistency (2 examples) 
Sample Record #1

Title: Kind of Blue

Creator: Miles Davis
Publisher: Columbia Records
Release Date: 1959
Subject: Phonographic Records
Jazz
Modal Jazz

Instruments
Brass
Trumpet
Percussion
Drums
Strings
Bass
Piano
Woodwind
Saxophone

Musicians
Miles Davis
John Coltrane
Julian “Cannonball” Adderley
Bill Evans
Wynton Kelly
Jimmy Cobb
Paul Chambers

United States
New York
New York City

Resource Type: Sound

Format: Audio-CD, Original; Audio-mp3, Digital
Language: English

Description: Seminal modal jazz LP recording consisting of Miles Davis ensemble sextet, with
saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, pianists Bill Evans and Wynton
Kelly, drummer Jimmy Cobb, and bassist Paul Chambers.
Digital Technician: Sarah Bankston
Digital Publisher: Suaban Music Museum
Digital Date: 2010
Permissions: Physical rights are retained by Suaban Music Museum. Copyright is retained in
accordance with U. S. copyright laws.

Sample Record #2

Title: Coming Through Slaughter

Creator: Michael Ondaatje
Publisher: House of Anansi
Release Date: 1976
Subject: Book
Fiction
Historical Fiction

Instruments
Brass
Cornet

United States
Louisiana
New Orleans

Resource Type: Text

Format: Text-paper, Original; Text-html, Digital
Language: English

Description: Set at the beginning of the 20th century, this novel is a fictional account of the life
of Buddy Bolden, a New Orleans jazz musician. Winner of the 1976 Books in Canada First
Novel award. Note: only the first chapter is digitized.

Digital Technician: Armando Suarez

Digital Publisher: Suaban Music Museum
Digital Date: 2010
Permissions: Physical rights are retained by Suaban Music Museum. Copyright is retained in
accordance with U. S. copyright laws.

Tools:

As previously mentioned, we have identified Dublin Core for our metadata format, and XML as
the desired encoding scheme. In order to provide end-user access and effectively share our
collection online, we will use CONTENTdm. Some of the inherent benefits of using this
software in our organization include: xii
 • Cost-effective
• No need for extensive technical skills; easy to use and set-up
• Active global user community
• Open, extensive, and interoperable
• Efficient streamline of workflow, with built-in editing tools and controlled vocabularies
for ease in cataloging process
• Supports numerous metadata standards, including Dublin Core
• Support of complex media

Costs of the Project

The estimated cost of the 8-week project is $85,300. Once the system is in place, assigned full-
time staff will continue working on project without neglecting their ongoing daily duties. On the
other hand, selected graduate students and interns will work primarily with the donated jazz
collection. Based on the number of items, we expect to have the bulk of the collection fully
processed in less than a year. The initial 8-week funding for this project is broken down as
follows:

Information Architect: $19,200 (based on a 40-hour work week and the project only lasting 8
weeks)

Museum Professionals xiii : $22,500 (combined figure of all three staff members’ salaries for the
8-week period)

Professional Librarians xiv : $18,600 (combined figure of all three staff members’ salaries for the
8-week period)

Graduate Students: $ 0 (unpaid field-experiences)

Database and Media Servers xv : $15,000

CONTENTdm License xvi : $10,000

References
                                                            
i
Jackson Amy S., Han Myung-Ja , Groetsch Kurt, Mustafoff Megan, Cole Timothy W. 2008. “Dublin Core
Metadata Harvested through OAI-PMH” in Journal of Library Metadata. Vol. 8 no.1.
http://imlsdcc.grainger.uiuc.edu/docs/metadatachanges.pdf
ii
Harper, Corey A. “Dublin Core Metadata Initiative: Beyond the Element Set” in Information Standards Quarterly
(ISQ). Winter 2010, Vol. 22, issue 1.
http://www.niso.org/publications/isq/free/FE_DCMI_Harper_isqv22no1.pdf
iii
Zhang Yan, Godwin Iris. Preserving Regional Historical and Cultural Heritages: A Case Study in Building
Local Digital Libraries. School of Information Science, the University of Tennessee.
http://www.ils.unc.edu/~yanz/DerrisDL.pdf
iv
Harpring, Patricia. Introduction to Controlled Vocabularies: Terminology for Art, Architecture, and Other
Cultural Works. Online Edition.
http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/standards/intro_controlled_vocab/index.html
v
CDP Metadata Working Group. 2006. Dublin Core Metadata Best Practices. Collaborate Digitization Program.
http://www.bcr.org/dps/cdp/best/dublin-core-bp.pdf
vi
Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages. http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-
2/php/English_list.php
vii
Term Name: publisher. Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, Version 1.1. http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/
viii
Hillman, Diane. 2005. Using Dublin Core – The Elements. Dublin Core Metadata Initiative.
http://dublincore.org/documents/usageguide/elements.shtml
ix
Term Name: type. Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, Version 1.1. http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/
x
Figure derived from the IA Institute Salary Survey: http://iainstitute.org/en/learn/research/salary_survey.php
xi
Robin, Dale L. 2007. Outsourcing and Vendor Relations. Northeast Document Preservation Center.
http://www.nedcc.org/resources/leaflets/6Reformatting/07OutsourcingAndVendorRelations.php
xii
OCLC. Digital Collection Management, CONTENTdm. Accessed November 22, 2010.
http://www.oclc.org/services/brochures/211472usb_contentdm.pdf
xiii
Figures derived from Payscale.com: http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Industry=Museum/Salary
xiv
Figure derived from ALA’s Mid Level Salary Survey:
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/issues/personnel/MidLevel09.pdf
xv
Based on web searches for database and media servers.
xvi
Based on a complete guess since I couldn’t access that information without starting an actual order with OCLC.