This document discusses cataloging practices for different types of multimedia materials at several museums and cultural institutions. It addresses challenges in cataloging video games, audiovisual materials, and films. Different institutions use various metadata schemas and standards like RDA, AACR2, Dublin Core, Darwin Core, and PBCore to catalog their collections. Child-centered, radical, and Dewey decimal classification approaches are also summarized. Metadata practices at the Smithsonian, National Museum of American History, National Museum of Natural History, National Museum of American Art, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, and National Portrait Gallery are outlined.

1. Cataloging Multimedia: Problems and Practice
Allison Nellis Ruojing Zhang Joshua Dull
Cataloging Video Games
AARC:Combines rules for Program
File & Realia
RDA:“Computer Program” or
“2D/3D Moving Image”
How do
you
catalog
this?
🎮 Currently No LC Standards
🎮 LCSH cannot accurately
describe plot & gameplay
🎮 UW proposed controlled vocab.
to add plot based metadata access
points. Works on Verb Object
relations e.g.
(Characters) Conquer Evil
Cataloging AV in General
Concerns:
➔ Audiovisual materials contain rich
information; they are difficult to
describe/assign subject heading
➔ Preservation AV data requires new
level of cataloging rules
➔ No “one size fits all” solution
AACR/MARC cataloging rules work for
libraries, but are not enough to support
specialized archives/databases
Metadata are better tools for managing AV
materials. DC and schemas based on DC
are widely used. Many organizations develop
their own metadata. Sometimes it is
necessary to combine multiple schemas.
- MPEG-7: using hierarchical structure
for frame-specific indexing and
retrieving
- PBCore: developed by TV
broadcasting stations for digital asset
managing, reusing old materials and
rights management
Film catalogers currently use the RDA
format and FRBR when cataloging
moving images. The cataloger has to be
aware of things such as language, title,
and a whole slew of other factors that
need to be considered when accurately
cataloging film. FRBR is used to
describe the relationship between the
film to other works.
An issue that can
arise when
cataloging
concerns the
manifestation of a
film. Several
versions of a film
can exist which can
cause difficulties
when cataloging a
film for an archive.
Cataloging Film
Pratt Institute
LIS 653-01
Spring 2015
Prof. Pattuelli

3. To Dewey or Not to Dewey;
That is the Classification Question
Child-Centered Cataloging
● Focusing specifically on the needs, wants,
and ways of thinking of children
● Using child-centered words and phrases for
non fiction works in the library space
● Emphasis on ensuring that children have non
fiction books as informative and fun reading
options
● Most essential focus is on patron happiness
and extreme customer service to get the
patrons to keep coming back- without our
patrons, we are nothing!
Prepared by: Julie Morrison,
Anna Lillian Moser, Marjorie
Ticknor & Sara Sheer, LIS 653,
Spring ‘15
Pros and Cons of DDC
● Worldwide appeal; universal
● Endorsement by Library of Congress
● Benefits of relative location
● Flexible
---------------------------------------------------------------
● Bias - racial, religious, gender, class
● Outdated categorization
● Can not be browsed
● Not intuitive or logical
● Numbers are arbitrary; can be initimidating
Putting METIS Into Practice
● METIS throws Dewey out completely,
replacing categories with words and
pictures
● METIS is user-centered, and
meets children where they are developmentally
● METIS keeps evolving, which can cause
confusion when cataloging and shelving
”To thine own library be true!”
Radical Cataloging
● Pioneered by Sanford Berman
● Eliminate biases: racism, sexism,
homophobia, classism, prudery, etc.
● Catalog every important aspect of a book
so that patrons can find it easily
● “Public notes” to explain unfamiliar
concepts
● Use terminology for minority communities,
i. e., Native Americans, that they
themselves use, and continually consult
and revise
● Add subject headings like “Plutocracy”
● Part of Berman’s ideal of activist
librarianship where librarians actively work
for social justice

5. The Smithsonian &
Metadata
-In 2009 implemented a way
to standardize metadata
throughout the 19 institutions.
-Created a core and
suggested set of elements
similar to Dublin Core. The
Collections Search Center
allows institutions to upload
their digital assets
automatically.
-Opened in 1964, the NMAH contains over 3 million
significant historical artifacts and treasures.
-Curators, conservators and the collections staff use
Mimsy XG to record and preserve information about
objects in the collection.
-Mimsy XG offers flexible, customizable fields. Staff
can select the terminology and controlled vocabulary.
NMAH uses an internal object name thesaurus. There
is no single classification scheme.
-Collection items are entered into an Object Authority
record. Information about acquisitions, conservation,
materials, maker, and condition are also recorded. -
Digital assets are created with embedded metadata.
They are then attached to the record and uploaded to
the Digital Asset Management System (DAMS).
-Largest natural history museum in the world -Holds
approximately 126 million objects and specimens
-7 departments with 10 different collection types
-Uses EMu collections management database
system to manage object and specimens data and
metadata
-Metadata standards are taken from Darwin Core
(DwC), Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG)
-DwC and TDWG standardize terms used to
describe and store biological metadata
-A museum dedicated to American art and depicting
the creative endeavors of artists, spanning from
colonial to modern art.
-This museum boasts one of the largest collections in
the world or American Art. The number of pieces in the
collection exceeds 42,000.
-Curators, collection managers, and registrars use
TMS to maintain item information, including metadata.
-Metadata standards utilized include AACR2 and
CDWA. Metadata standards are the same for items in
the permanent collection and digital assets.
-DAMS is currently integrated with TMS, and the
object’s metadata is embedded within the asset.
-Contemporary & Historic Design Museum -
Contains 217,000 Objects
-123,000 object records in SI Collections Search
-Curators, registrars, collection managers record
metadata for collection objects in TMS
-Cooper Hewitt applies locally defined metadata
schema
-Little use of controlled vocabularies
-Collections metadata was released to the public
on GitHub in 2012, under Creative Commons
license
-Open access metadata encourages public
participation in refining data and conducting new
research in design and digital humanities
Sanam Aarabi, Lydia Garetano, Sarah
Hamerman, Steven Meyer, Fiora
Watts
LIS 653 - 04/2015
Dr. Cristina Pattuelli
-Opened in 1968, tells the history of America through
individuals who have shaped its culture, through visual
arts, performing arts and new media, with a focus on
famous Americans
-As of 2011, the only museum in the U.S. dedicated
solely to portraiture
-65 employees
-Houses over 21,200 works of art
-Utilizes TMS to collect and manage item metadata
-Uses MARC21 and IPTC metadata standards and
elements of Dublin Core
-Contains the Catalog of American Portraits (CAP), a
national portrait archives maintaining information and
images for nearly 200,000 portraits