Meeting Minutes for Greene & Greene Virtual Archives Project Meeting
Monday, July 30, 2001 / 9 am – 5 pm
The Gamble House
Pasadena, Calif.

Present: Robbie Blitz, Ted Bosley, Alain Dussert, Angela Giral, Ardys Kozbial, Bobbi Mapstone (minutes), Tawny Ryan Nelb, Janet Parks, Alvin Pollock, Ann Scheid, Wayne Shoaf
Absent: Stephen Davis, Waverly Lowell

Status Reports

Avery Library / Columbia (Angela, Janet, Robbie)

·         Avery is close to being finished with its inhouse work. Drawing conversion is finished and the transparencies are in the same order as the database, ready to be digitized. Avery has an authority list for names and subjects. The manuscript material and photographs are not cataloged.

·         The RFP for digitizing the 4” x 5” transparencies of the drawings and Hulburt photographs is going out in August.

·         Columbia is in the process of purchasing a MrSID license.

·         Ted selected approximately 1700 images to be mounted on the GGVA web site. This represents a only a portion of Avery’s G&G collection. Avery is digitizing its whole G&G collection. Images that are not available in the GGVA will be available on Columbia’s server and will be linked to the finding aid. If users of the GGVA want to see more Columbia images, they will be directed to the Columbia web site.

·         Alvin will pull together the databases from each institution to create one database for the GGVA.

·         Avery is ready to go on structural and administrative metadata.

The Huntington / Greene & Greene Archives (Ann, Alain)

·         Alain was hired as the cataloger for the Greene & Greene Archives portion of the project. He is working on the collection management database.

·         The collection has been cataloged as a museum collection, not an archival collection. Accession numbers tell provenance.

·         Drawings are in a FileMaker Pro database.

·         Photographs are in the process of being cataloged.

·         Correspondence is being organized.

·         John Sullivan at The Huntington Library will digitize the materials and should begin his work in January 2002.

·         Ann and Alain are working with Wayne to develop core data fields.

·         Ted will select images at The Huntington at the beginning of August.

The Gamble House (Ted)

·         Photography for the decorative arts is finished. Included are approximately 200 4” x 5” transparencies of all decorative arts in The Gamble House and the G&G exhibition. The project called for 140 images. An establishing shot of some rooms will give an idea of scale since dimensions cannot be included with image. Color bars and scales were impossible to use.

·         The photographer, Oggi Borosov is creating the administrative metadata.

GGVA Project (Ted)

·         December 2002 is completion date of the GGVA project.

·         Budget issues.

·         Budget is tight and everyone should look for ways to save money.

·         The project is over budget on the decorative arts images because of labor intensive work to be done by the photographer and the increased number of images. The photographer will outline the images to separate them from the background.

·         Due to USC regulations there will be no interest accrued on the unspent balance. The project was counting on that interest to pay for small items.

·         It might be necessary to write a  separate grant to raise funds for extra money spent on photography. There are organizations that are interested in giving money to digital archive projects.

·         Bobbie is working on the domain name issue.

·         The authority list for client names will be the list from Ted’s book which he sent to the project team.

·         AVIADOR at Avery was very useful when researching Greene & Greene book and saved much time in image selection.

·         Ted will be away for a few weeks in October.

UC Berkeley / Environmental Design Archives (Waverly via Ardys)

·         Waverly (and Ted) hired Ardys as Project Manager. Ardys’ time is split 70% to the project and 30% as Archivist for the Environmental Design Archives.

·         Waverly sent a copyright letter to the Greenes but did not hear back from them.

·         Carrie McDade will work with Ardys as the cataloger for the GGVA project. Carrie is currently working on the NEH project at the EDA and will switch to GGVA in September. Ardys and Carrie have looked at the GenDB, but haven’t done any item level cataloging.

·         Ted wants to make one more trip to Berkeley for image selection. Ardys has the list of images selected so far.

GGVA Project (Ardys)

·         Copyright permission from the Greenes.

·          Letter from Isabelle Greene / OK. The last letter from Isabelle Greene, now deceased, gave permission for her father's work to be placed on the site. There may be complications now that more family members are involved.

·         Thomas / OK. Thomas Greene is still alive and has agreed to have his father's work on the site.

·         Berkeley and Columbia should have separate letters.

·         Ted to review letters from the Greene family for wording. Ted should review selected documents with copyright information in mind.

·         What about the authors of letters to the Greenes? We need permission from the authors.

·         Contractors are works for hire.

·         A copyright disclaimer will be included at the bottom of home page. It will say, in effect, that we made a good faith effort to find the authors. If anyone is out there, please let us know. Ted or Ardys will check with USC legal counsel about the wording.

·         Ardys is figuring out how to set up a listserv or another easy method of e-mail distribution.

·         Ardys is working on a project web site that will make communication between the participants more efficient.

·         A handbook for the GenDB exists and is in final editing stages. Kelcy Shepard started writing it before she left the EDA. Genie Guerard, a librarian at UCLA is finishing it. Ardys is in touch with Genie to get the final draft.

Structural and Administrative Metadata

The reports from each institution took less than the time allotted. Prompted by the Avery’s need to get its RFP for digitizing out, we had a discussion about structural and administrative metadata. Points discussed and some conclusions appear here.

Specifications for the master image (TIFF) and derivative images (JPEGs, MrSID) that will appear in Avery’s RFP are as follows:

·         TIFF / 4000 pixels on the long dimension

·         High resolution JPEG / 1024 pixels on the long dimension

·         Low resolution JPEG / 512 OR 256 pixels on the long edge / get samples from vendors

·         MrSiD / 650 dpi  / compress at 18:1 – 20:1 / get samples from 15:1 to 20:1 and see what looks best

It was decided that the drawings do not require a high resolution JPEG image. Derivatives for drawings will be low resolution JPEG and MrSID. For photographs and manuscript material, derivatives will be low and high resolution JPEGs. Special images will get special specifications. For example, a MrSID derivative would be useful for a panoramic photograph or the image of the 16-foot panel in The Gamble House living room.

Cataloging and Functionality

The main outcome of this discussion was the creation of a subcommittee, renamed a task force at the writing of these minutes. By definition, a task force is given its assignment, completes the assignment and disbands. This task force will determine and define the descriptive metadata for the GGVA and then it will disband.

Task force members are Janet, Waverly, Ann, Ted and Ardys. Ardys will coordinate communication.

Discussion began with a form that included descriptive metadata that was discussed at the January meeting. Questions about semantics and editorial style came up for each field. A summary of the discussion and questions directed to the subcommittee follows.

Project information

·         Project name.  What is a project? Is it all of the information about a particular building? Is it each job that the firm was hired to do? What is the convention for naming the project? Residence? House? Client name in reverse order? Examples: Earle C. Anthony house or Earle C. Anthony residence or Anthony, Earle C. house. What is the authority for naming projects?

·         Project creator. Greene and Greene, Charles Greene, Henry Greene.

·         Client. Use Ted’s list as the name authority.

·         Location. City and state. Use postal code abbreviations for state? Write out the whole name of the state? Examples: CA or Calif. or California? Do not include the street address.

·         Date (range or single). Year only? How do date ranges read? Can we use circa dates? What is the authority?

·         Status. Built. Unbuilt. Demolished. Extant. What are the definitions of these terms? Is this a closed list of terms?

·         Note. How is this field defined? What kind of information goes here?

·         Searchable subject terms. Define this field. Is this the 650 subject headings that the Avery used for projects? What’s the authority?

Item or object information

·         Creator. Need to add this to the list. Hulburt items were created by Hulburt, not the Greenes.

·         Title of object.  Comes from the title block of drawings. Supplied by cataloger if it is not on the item.

·         Date. Comes from the item. What is the data entry convention? Examples: mm/dd/yyyy or yyyy/mm/dd. If the item is undated, what is the convention? Example: n.d.

·         Physical description. Media and support. What is the authority? AAT?

·         Dimensions. Height x width x depth. Inches or centimeters? Whole numbers or fractions?

·         Type of object (genre). What is it? Examples: drawing, photograph, chair, rug. What is the authority? AAT?

·         Added entries. Does this mean access points? Should the creator be part of this field? What information goes here?

·         Extent of grouping. This was deleted by the project team. Does anyone remember from January how this was to be used? Was it going to count the number of images on the web site, ie the number of digitized images?

·         Repository location. Location of the original item. The Avery Library, Environmental Design Archives, Greene and Greene Archives, The Gamble House.

·         Unique ID number. The unique ID number assigned by the repository.

·         Accession number. Deleted by the project team. The task force should revisit.

·         Rights and reproductions. One statement for each repository.

·         User access. One statement for each repository.

GGVA Web Site

For this portion of the meeting we discussed a variety of options for the design and content of the web site.

·         Ted handed out a suggested introduction to the web site.

·         Disclaimers. One disclaimer will address copyright (see copyright discussion above). A second disclaimer will remind users that the GGVA reflects only a portion of the primary materials related to Greene and Greene.

·         A summary of each building will be included.

·         A Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) page should be included. The questions could be simple to complex, but must not be patronizing. The Alexander Architectural Archive has a good FAQ section for beginners. (See http://www.lib.utexas.edu/apl/aaa/instruction.html.)

·         Bobbi has been working on registering the URL. Greeneandgreene.com, .net and .org are already taken. Wayne will talk to USC about greeneandgreeene.usc.edu. All are OK with usc.edu in the URL. Thumbnail images will sit on the USC web site. Larger images will sit on each institution’s web site.

·         Remember to credit the Getty on the web site.

·         What is the purpose of this web site? It is an official research site for documentation of Greene and Greene. The user needs to know that this is a scholarly site.

·         Suggested links:

·         Who/what is Greene and Greene? Gallery of selected drawings/images.

·         Frequently asked questions

·         Where can I see Greene and Greene work?

·         Where can I learn more about Greene and Greene? (Biographies)

·         About us. Links to the repository sites.

·         How to use this site.

·         Search images. Browse images.

·         Include a gallery of good images, especially for people who don’t know much about Greene and Greene.

·         Contact us.

·         Rights and reproduction.

·         Gamble House example.

·         Photograph (ie The Gamble House)

·         Descriptive paragraphs.

·         History.

·         All images.

·         Browse.

·         Alvin brought sample thumbnail images with text attached.

·         Search forms will be on USC’s server. The database will be on Berkeley’s server.

·         Should include sample searches to get the user started.

·         Simple search. Advanced search.

·         Design aesthetics of the web site to begin in the fall. Ted and Ardys will hire a graphic designer.

Schedule

·         Ardys will create a master schedule.

·         Descriptive metadata task force is the top priority.

·         Huntington scanning is likely to take place January-June 2002. Item level cataloging August-December 2001. Image selection (Ted) August 2001.

·         The Avery’s RFP for digitizing should go out in August 2001. Digitizing to be completed by December 2001. Archival part of the finding aid to be finished by December 2001.

·         Text background for each project to be assigned by Ardys to Janet, Waverly, Ann and Ted and split approximately ¼ of the projects each after the task force is finished. Text will be turned in to Ardys for editing. Paraphrase heavily from Ted’s book.

·         Ted is responsible for the decorative arts metadata.

·         Ann needs the format for administrative metadata to give to John Sullivan.

Next meeting

Monday, January 28, 2002 / 9 am – 5 pm
The Gamble House
Pasadena, Calif.