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Evidence 3 of Competency I

In which I show my competency in applying concepts, principles and techniques that facilitate information access, relevance, and accuracy for individuals or groups of users. Text on this page is relevant excerpt from the Final Report about my internship in the Autry National Center, Electronic Cataloging Initiative. Here is the link to the full report with all details about internship site, internship outcomes and conclusions:

Internship Final Report [PDF]

This document is in iPaper format, which requires ADOBE FLASH PLAYER to view it. Clicking on [PDF] link the document will open in ADOBE ACROBAT READER.

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Internship Outcome II

2.   Preparing the electronic records for public access on the Internet catalog

2.1 Data clean-up and re-cataloging of existing record entries

The Pomo Indian baskets, whose catalog records I was editing, were processed during another grant which provided for imaging, preservation, and packaging. Cataloging was only partially completed, but most of records had some sort of object description and images. As a way to familiarize myself with the subject of the baskets and the Autry’s Mimsy database, I was given 200 or so of Pomo basket records to read and edit for grammatical and typing errors. I was also introduced to a basket curator Bryn Potter who showed me the basket collection and explained the basics of the Native American basketry techniques and materials.

After returning from vacation, I was given 300 records that needed more substantial editing and, on occasion, the writing of completely new text in the fields displayed in the on-line catalog. Through the conversion of the Argus database records into the Mimsy most of the catalog records had original inventory information, but they were more often than not just a string of data which needed to be put into meaningful sentences. The records had none or very minimal indexing and, because the on-line catalog had an ability of keyword search, it was important to standardize object descriptions and subject terms.

My first attempts to edit the Pomo basket records ended quite miserably – I mixed term sedge (Carex) with sage (Salvia); entered the information “black bracken fern root” in the number of the records before realizing that somewhere in the line the word “design” was lost, and that the correct sentence is “... black design in bracken fern root ...”. After working on the records for a while, one of the mayor insights was that it is very difficult to find a mistake if you do not know what is the right information. Only after some substantial readings about basketry techniques I was able to string together a decent sentence that had meaningful (and accurate) information.

Although the Mimsy enables a wildcard search and the grouping of objects, there are limitations of the batch editing. There is no “find-and-replace” option and the editing of the individual records for particular set of mistakes (“black bracken fern root” into “design in bracken fern root”) needed to be typed or pasted by hand in each record.

At the end of my internship, edited records were uploaded to the Autry’s Collections On-line. Almost all basketry records, currently available in the on-line catalog, are processed by me during the internship. A link to the selection of 50 of these records is available at the end of this report.

2.2 Developing subject heading for basket designs and cataloging images using subject headings

One of questions that come up in conversations on the subject “what I should be thinking while cataloging for the Internet” was the possibility to relate and group objects by various patterns and designs. Naming design is very tricky issue, and in existing records there is no consistency of calling similar designs by the same name. Research of the Native American basketry literature made it clear only that most of the authorities agree on the fact that there is no religious significance in patterns, but they widely disagreed in names for specific designs. Also, at the first glance, in one particular tribe designs look fairly similar, but they tend to have significant variations and exhibit influence from other cultures or surrounding tribes. My suggestion was to index patterns using only very limited and simple geometric terms (square, triangle, horizontal band, human figure etc.) without any attempt to be descriptive (butterfly design, cactus design etc.).

All 500 records of the Pomo Indian baskets, that I edited, were indexed using this system. Also, I updated records for other subject terms that appear in on-line records. The advantage of “linked terms” feature (subject headings) is that the change of the term (from singular to a plural, for example) is changed through the thesaurus and change reflects in all records automatically.

2.3 Background research about individual basket donors and their collections – Caroline Boeing Poole and John Hudson Poole

One of the biggest donations to the Southwest Museum basket collection was from Col. John Hudson Poole who donated almost 2,500 baskets collected by his late wife Caroline. Colonel Poole and his son also financed building of the new wing to the museum which provided space for the exhibition and storage of the museum’s basketry collection. The wing was named for Caroline Boeing Poole and opened to the public in 1942. Beside baskets, Col. Poole also donated a number of other native artifacts.

The idea behind the research was to provide some background about the collectors, how they acquired the individual objects, and maybe to find some interesting story related to the collection or individual baskets. In museums today more and more emphasis is given to the context of the object in an overall fabric of the culture, rather than to an individual object itself. It is not enough anymore to understand only how objects are made and for what they are used, but also stories about their makers.

However, the research in the Poole family was quite disappointing. The Southwest Museum registry has documents related to the history of acquisition and the shipping of the collection, but there was nothing about the collectors or individual baskets. The library archives had only a file with newspaper obituaries about Col. John Hudson Poole and one of two books written by him. The museum has no documents related to Caroline Poole because all exchange between Col. Poole and the museum occurred after her death.

Eventually after intensive search through digital databases provided by SJSU King Library – the Braun Library is not subscribed to any on-line database – I found references to Col. Poole’s bibliography in The National Cyclopedia of American Biography volume XLII. In Pasadena Public Library, where the Pooles lived, I found obituary for Ms. Poole. In Online Archives of California I found two collections with reference to the Pooles, notably Bernard M. Rosenthal, Inc. (antiquarian bookshop) records in Bancroft Library, Berkeley, San Francisco. Unfortunately I was not able to find much of the story beyond mere bibliographies of Caroline and John Hudson Poole.

Scope notes for Caroline Boeing Poole and John Hudson Poole is submitted in Appendix I and II of this report. As far as I know the notes are not yet available on-line.

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2.5 Assisting in uploading completed records to the data management

The Autry National Center use Mimsy XG, database specially designed for use in museums. It consists of various modules (objects, people, events etc.) that enable comprehensive recordkeeping and management of every object in the museum. For difference of archives, museums catalog on an item level and in that way are very similar to libraries. But at the same time, all cataloging is original and there is very little standardization how and which information is entered. The Southwest Museum originally developed ARGUS museum database, but after merger into the Autry National Center, it was decided to migrate data to a new system and integrate the catalogs of two museums into one union database.

After all data records and images are marked for “web release” they are uploaded from Mimsy database to Mweb on-line catalog interface using MS Access as mapping software. The online catalog provides different levels of access to the information. The general public can view general cataloging information and images of artifacts. Researchers can ask for permission to access the information in the records which does not quite satisfy the quality for general web release – like original registrar comments and notes. The representatives of the tribes that work with the museum staff can access records that are considered culturally sensitive and are not accessible to the public in any form.

Mimsy and MWeb are two independent programs that maintain two separate sets of data. The Internet user does not access data in the Mimsy catalog, but data is copied into a database powered by the MWeb. That also means that collapse or loss of the data in one system does not affect the other. In addition, the Autry archives its data and TIFF images on a separate off-site server.

The uploading process is a very sensitive process and ECI developed a handbook describing the steps in the procedure. The process is highly individualized and, at this moment, requires lot of manual work. Probably it would be possible to program a small software that would reduce the process to simply clicking a few buttons (what would reduce the possibility of mistakes), but that would require somebody with substantional knowledge in programming, which the Autry does not have. It could contract somebody from the outside to do the programming, but that apparently costs a lot of money. The problem with completely automated systems, maintained by the outside contractors is lack of ability to customize data input and display. Manual mapping and upload enables high control over which records will be uploaded, but it increases the possibility of mistakes.

I was shown and explained how to use the Access query mode to map the upload. After the upload, I was asked to perform searches and try out various features of the Collections On-line and report if I find any problems. Oddly enough, I did find two problems. The subject term “feathered baskets” appeared twice in every record, although it was entered only once in appropriate field in database records. That problem is apparently related to the thesaurus and ECI is looking for a way to resolve the issue. That particular subject heading apparently have some hidden curse attached to it, because I also discovered that one could not browse through the list of records linked by that subject term using “next” button. Apparently, it was some minor programming glitch that was quickly resolved.