CCO and Descriptive Titles

Title That Complies With CCO

Title: Fire fighters battling the fire at the Schwabacher Brothers' building, Seattle, Washington, June 27, 1892.

Comments:At first glance I thought the cataloging was not up to CCO standards, but the more I looked at other archives I realized this was actually pretty good. According to rule 1.2.2.2.1 of CCO Object Naming[1], information about the location and date should be indexed elsewhere. As it stands a user could find this picture by searching for Seattle or Washington. Weirdly, a user could search for 27 or June and this photograph should appear in the search results. Individual words in the title are hyperlinked so that the user can search by those terms. Some other positives of the cataloging are the fact that the subjects are controlled terminology from the Thesaurus for Graphic Materials and Library of Congress Subject Headings. There is a notes section that provides more information about the photograph and provides a transcription of the caption on the photo. There is something to be desired in the description of the object type. Rule 1.2.1.1[2] offers good examples of how a work type should be described and cataloged. It seems simple, but they are descriptive and can be linked to provide the user with even more information. Photograph and image are the words used to identify this object/work, and while not wrong it is extremely unhelpful to link these terms to other photographs and images when you are searching in a photographic archive. It would have been much more helpful for the object type to be classified under the process used to make the photograph. Another issue I had with the cataloging was the lack of authority records for the photographers. 

Title That Doesn't Comply With CCO

Title: Student leader Alpha Fowler addresses an Anti-Talmadge group in Woodruff Hall, October, 1941. At this time Governor Gene Talmadge's interference in University affairs led to the loss of the University's accreditation, to the disgust of students. Some may recognize Fowler as the star of The Green Hand, an agricultural drama of the 4-H filmed at the University and available in streaming video courtesy of the Brown Media Archive, (Image 31)[4]

Edited Title: Student leader Alpha Fowler addresses an Anti-Talmadge group in Woodruff Hall, October, 1941.

Comments: In my opinion this doesn't comply with CCO standards because there is no structure to the information provided. The first sentence of the caption seems to be the descriptive title and that's what I've made the edited title. It provides the user with enough information to understand what is happening in the photo and to continue researching the topic. The date information could be repeated in a separate field that could be made searchable, as could the names of the group, hall, and speaker. The rest of the caption could be placed under the notes section of the cataloging. There would also need to be information regarding the work itself; what process it underwent and it's dimensions. The homepage for the collection provides information regarding the photographer, Henry Wallace Richter, that should be included in the cataloging and linked to an authority record.[5] It would also be nice to have subject headings that are linked to the Thesaurus for Graphic Materials, Art & Architecture Thesaurus, Library of Congress Subject Headings, or another authority.

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[1] Murtha Baca, Cataloging Cultural Objects: A Guide to Describing Cultural Works and Their Images (Chicago: American Library Association, 2006), 58.

[2] Ibid., 54-55.

[3] University Libraries University of Washington, "Fire fighters battling the fire at the Schwabacher Brothers' building, Seattle, Washington, June 27, 1892.", http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/ref/collection/boydBraas/id/94

[4] Hargrett Rare Books & Manuscript Library, The Wallace Richter Album: Selected 1941-1943 Campus Photographs from UGA 07-005, http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/archives/exhibit/richter/index.html

[5] Murtha Baca, Cataloging Cultural Objects: A Guide to Describing Cultural Works and Their Images (Chicago: American Library Association, 2006), 53.