Page 240 - DLIS402_INFORMATION_ANALYSIS_AND_REPACKAGING

Unit 11: Indexing Language: Types and Characteristics

It is conceivable to expect catalogers to use some type of universal authority control and controlled Notes
vocabulary in specific fields such as the artist/architect name and date field and the title field, and
to maintain the remaining fields that they feel necessary for their users in the same manner as they
have in the past.
The use of controlled vocabulary in such basic fields as artist/architect name and title fields will
enable cooperation between institutions while maintaining the necessary unique fields for each
individual image collection. Cooperation between institutions will not necessarily call for complete
standardization in descriptions, but will call for compatible software systems. Nevertheless, questions
remain about which control tools are the most adequate for describing art and architecture images.
Controlled vocabulary and authority control have developed independently in individual art,
architecture, and museum image collections . Endless methods for cataloging images have been
created due to the diverse needs of the users. The types of indexes that have been created also vary
enormously. In addition, the nature of the image collections vary greatly, even within the same
discipline. For example, in the field of art history, some collections may be based on one very narrow
subject such as Italian Renaissance architecture and may use a very limited controlled vocabulary,
while others may contain thousands of general art and architecture images and use no controlled
vocabulary at all. The only way some of the images can be located is by actually searching through
the physical location where the images are stored.
Image collection developers have, in the past, used whatever tools they felt necessary to organize
their specific collections. These tools include geographical dictionaries, the Art and Architecture
Thesaurus (AAT), the ICONCLASS, the subject list developed by Elisabeth Betz Parker (of the Library
of Congress Prints and Photographs Division), and various naming protocols.
The librarians and curators that I spoke with commented that in the future they planned to consult
the AAT and the Union List of Artists Names developed by the Getty Art History Information
Program (ULAN) in the future because these tools are available electronically and will be easier to
access when cataloging. The image collection organizers admitted that in the past they have not
been consistent in their use of controlled vocabulary and authority lists. Although many of the
collections did have existing “home-made” authority and vocabulary controls available to them,
the lists were not consulted consistently.
Cataloguing for these image collections is based on the “historical knowledge” of the collection,
which is usually acquired during their training (from their predecessor). Because of this, many of
the collections have not handled information consistently from one generation to the next. The
second-generation and third- generation cataloguers generally disagree with various aspects of the
previous cataloguers’ methodology, so they change methods to suit their own needs. This was never
a problem until image collections began to create computerized index systems.
Many image collections converted their records of old paper indexes to computerized databases.
During the conversion it became blatantly apparent that there was a problem with inconsistency in
the information being used to catalogue images. Database structure demands consistency of
information for search capabilities. No matter how good the database software is, “technology will
not dramatically change how an item is indexed without the cataloger or indexer first changing
how he/she goes about the process of documentation.”
Use of Thesaurus vs. ICONCLASS
An image does not tell us what it is about. Images contain information that is not only useful to art
historians but also to social historians, historians of music, medicine, engineers, indeed anyone
who wants to learn about the appearance of historical people and objects: “...A set of photographs
of a busy street scene a century ago might be useful to historians wanting a ‘snapshot’ of the times,
to architects looking at buildings, to urban planners looking at traffic patterns or building shadows,
to cultural historians looking at changes in fashion, to medical researchers looking at female smoking
habits....” Who is to judge what terms should be used to describe an image?

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