CCO Post

Image that Follows CCO Guidelines

Title: Cleaning gold dust for shipping,Yukon Territory, 1898

I personally think this image features a title that is a perfect example of an image that follows the guidelines established by CCO. Looking at the title, one can see that, in this instance, the title is acting as a descriptive phrase, one that is referring to “Iconographical subject or theme of the art work” [1]. Like Jen Hale I couldn't find an authorized heading specifically for just the 'Yukon Territory' so it should be safe to assumed that the Digital Collections from the University of Washington is utilizing local guidelines, as is suggested in rule 1.1.2.1.1. [2]. Below an assortment of bibliographic information there is a section titled 'Object Type'. Here, as outlined in rule 1.2.1.1., the image has been indexed both 'Photograph' and 'image', terms that "Describe the type of working being cataloged" [3]. Locating the image on the website was relatively easy; by typing in the 'Yukon Territory', I was brought to a search results page and the image was the third option.

Since I was curious about learning more about CCO, I read parts of chapter 6, which discusses Subject. In the instance of this image, I like the fact that the subject terminology used for this image features terms from a variety of vocabularies, in this case the Library of Congress Subject Headings and the Library of Congress Thesaurus of Graphic Materials. This is discussed in rule 6.1.2.1. both search set of subject terms enable easy access for the user.

1. Visual Resources Association., Murtha Baca, and ebrary Academic Complete. Cataloging Cultural Objects: A Guide to Describing Cultural Works and Their Images. Chicago: American Library Association, 2006. p. 49.

2. Visual Resources Association., Murtha Baca, and ebrary Academic Complete. Cataloging Cultural Objects: A Guide to Describing Cultural Works and Their Images. Chicago: American Library Association, 2006. 52

3. Ibid. 54.

Image that Doesn't Follow CCO

Old Title: Industry - food

New Title: Photograph of a woman in Israel, working with an open box of matzoh 

This photograph was found through Harvard's HOLLIS. This picture was one of many in a collection titled 'Industry - food'. You will note that that is also the title of this this specific image. This was a major reason that help me decided on using this image for the non-compliance example. Although those at Harvard might consider 'Industry - food' to be an adequate title, they really should have adhered to CCO's rule, 1.2.2.2.2: Constructed Title. Here CCO states, "If no descriptive title is available in an authoritative source, construct a descriptive title" [4]. Do  note that you can search for the title through HOLLIS, and it will supply the researcher with the entire image collection and not individual images from said collection. 

The new title that I constructed does fall in line with rule 1.2.2.2.2 since I refer to the form of the work. To create this title, I followed rule 1.2.2.1 and was sure to "Capitalize the first and all nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives..." [5]. Since the information listed in the record is rather sparse, I could not provide an exact location and had to settle to using 'Israel' as my descriptive location. In rule 1.2.2.2.5, CCO states that users who are constructing a descriptive title should use "Any generic information available" [6]. This is why I avoided properly identifying the woman as something such as a factory worker since I am not certain of her occupation. Historically, communal living (Kibbutz) was popular in Israel and this collection of photographs of food industry could actually have been taken on Kibbutz rather than a designated factory site. I am going to justify this vagueness with rule 1.2.2.2.4 which features a section title 'Uncertainty in Descriptive Tile' and states "Constructed titles may express uncertainty, if necessary" [7].

4. Ibid. 60

5. Ibid. 58
6. Ibid. 66
7. Ibid. 65