"Double Take" Series Presented By The Library Of Congress: Lecture #4

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This is the final post of four where I review my notes and take-aways from the "Double Take" webinar series presented by The Library Of Congress on picture identification and exploration. Check out the full webinars and other lecture series from the Library of Congress, and while you are at it head over to the LOC's Picture This blog. You can read over my notes from all the webinars Here 

Lecture Title: How Should We Indea This Image?

Presented By: Cataloging Specialist Arden Alexander and Processing Technician Libby McKiernan

Notes:

Prints and Photographs collection
    Created The Thesaurus for Graphic Material 
        100 years worth of subject heading and objects 
            Why created?
                Other indexes of subject headings were not covering everything they needed
                Wanted to include emotions into the index
                Indexers can ask to include their own headings
TGM Search Help
    Always use advance search 
    Narrow down the search by using "of" and "about" 
        Example: Pumpkin search tern rendered images of Pumpkin Island Lighthouse
How To Index
    Examine the the image using visual literacy skills
    Index the "of" and "about of the image
        Be careful not to include too much- "when in doubt, leave it out." 
            There is no hard and fast rule on how many or how few terms to include but avoid assumptions 
      
Summary:
This lecture was more hands on, which is why I took so few notes, BUT was very helpful in getting a better idea of indexing. It has been my experience that indexing, while rule exist, is pretty much up to the indexer. Most helpful though, was the idea of leaving things out, since my inclination is to include as much as possible. From the user's point of view, it would be helpful to get everything and sift through, however to keep things tight for people doing research it is necessary to use as few as possible. 

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