This document proposes a detailed system called CostumeCore for digitally cataloging historic clothing based on existing standards. It summarizes existing metadata schemas, controlled vocabularies, and guidelines that provide the foundation for CostumeCore. Specific elements are added to describe costume objects, and a visual workflow is presented to help catalogers choose terms from controlled lists. The system is intended to standardize digital costume catalogs while allowing customization for specific collections. Feedback is sought from others to improve the system.

1. • search and sort in ways that are specific to
costume
•sleeve type
•waist level, etc.
• help novices with close reading of costume
• bring together records from multiple institutions to
study larger groups of relevant objects
• bring records for costume objects together with
records for documents, photographs, etc.
A Detailed System for Digital Catalogs
of Historic Clothing
by Arden Kirkland (HistoricDress.org and Vassar College)
BASED ON EXISTING STANDARDS
WHY?
• Cataloging Guidelines
• Cataloging Cultural Objects (CCO)
• Murtha Baca, Patricia Harpring, Elisa Lanzi, Linda McRae,
and Ann Whiteside, eds. Cataloging Cultural Objects: A
Guide to Describing Cultural Works and Their Images
(Chicago: American Library Association, 2006),
http://cco.vrafoundation.org/index.php/toolkit/cco_pdf_ver
sion/
• Examination of conventions in costume collections across the
country
• see spreadsheet at https://goo.gl/Azpi96
• Metadata Schema
• Dublin Core (DC)
• Diane Hillmann, “Using Dublin Core,” Dublin Core Metadata
Initiative, November 7, 2005,
http://dublincore.org/documents/usageguide/.
• Visual Resources Association (VRA) Core
• “VRA Core Schemas and Documentation,” VRA Core
Official Web Site (Library of Congress), July 25, 2014,
http://www.loc.gov/standards/vracore/schemas.html.
• Controlled Vocabulary
• Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)
• J. Paul Getty Trust, “Art & Architecture Thesaurus Online,” The
Getty Research Institute, 2000,
http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/aat/ind
ex.html.
• Europeana Fashion Thesaurus (EFT)
• Van Steen, Nacha. “Europeana Fashion Thesaurus v1
Deliverable 2.3.” Europeana, February 28, 2015.
http://cordis.europa.eu/docs/projects/cnect /7/297167/080/
deliverables/002-
EuropeanaFashionDeliverable23EuropeanaFashionThesaurus
v1.pdf.
• Building on the work of Marcia Lei Zeng
• Marcia Lei Zeng, “Metadata Elements for Object Description
and Representation: A Case Report from a Digitized
Historical Fashion Collection Project,” Journal of the
American Society for Information Science 50, no. 13 (1999):
1193–1208, doi:10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(1999)50:13<1193::AID-
ASI5>3.0.CO;2-C.
Developing guidelines for translating
any digital system to a shared
standard for cataloging historic
clothing.
DON’T reinvent the wheel!
CostumeCore needs YOU!
Help to test this system with your own
collection so we can improve it together!
© 2016 Arden Kirkland - this work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
VISUAL WORKFLOW FOR CHOOSING TERMS
• for each element, the prototype Omeka site for
HistoricDress.org shares visuals for each term
• catalogers choose from controlled lists
• see
http://historicdress.org/omeka2/collections/show/13
• http://historicdress.org/omeka2/items/browse?collection=19
NEW ELEMENTS SPECIFIC TO COSTUME
• neckline
• torso
• sleeve type
• waist
• skirt
•hem
•closure type
•closure
placement
•components
•main color
•secondary
colors
More at:
ardenkirkland.com/costumecore
worksheets, guides, examples
contact arden@ardenkirkland.com
More at: ardenkirkland.com/costumecore