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Columbia University Libraries Digital Program |
| Date: 6/26/02 From: Janet To: Angela, David, Jane, Lars, Maria, Stephen Re: Urban Database Meeting
Here is what I took out of the meeting today. Please send comments, additions, etc. Action items are marked by ***. Timeline: The project assistant will probably start in late July. Since nothing can happen to any materials until he enters them into the database, it needs to be up, tested and agreed to by all the players, and ready for use by early August. (Conservation can get started once the production master numbers are assigned, but we don’t want them to get too far ahead of the database because they will have to reconcile any pre-database data with the database once it’s created.) 1. Physical organization of Urban materials The materials are organized by production. Each production consists of a variety of media that may include watercolors and the 4x5 color transparencies made of them in a previous project, sketches and notes, photographic prints, technical drawings, other miscellaneous archival items (accounting, clippings, etc.), collapsed stage models, and erect stage models. Physical organization is partly by medium and partly by size. Watercolors, their transparencies, and the models are each housed separately. The flat paper and photographic items for each production are mixed together, grouped by size. Items of the same size are foldered together. A production will have one folder of each size except in rare cases where there is so much material that two same-size folders are needed. Folders are housed by size in boxes. Each box holds folders from several productions. The unique location of any item is a combination of box and folder numbers. There are 8 or 9 different sizes/types of boxes. This project will not deal with any flat item over 15”x17”.
2. Accession numbers Every item handled by the project will be assigned an accession number. The project assistant will be responsible for assigning the numbers and for physically writing them on the item where appropriate, or on the folder.*** Jane and Maria will prepare instructions for which media can be numbered directly and which not, and how the writing should be done (i.e., with pencil, where on the item, etc.). Accession numbers will consist of: production number box/folder number code for medium sequential number for each object within the folder sequential number for each page/side of an item that contains information Each production will be assigned a unique 3-digit number. Box/folder numbers will be as given in the finding
aid. Boxes numbers for erect stage models need to
be created (none currently exist) and ***
Jane and Janet will work on this. Box numbers for
collapsed model bundles will be assigned sequentially
by the project assistant as they are encountered in
the project, and will be replaced by new box numbers
assigned sequentially by the project assistant as
they are rehoused. There will be a code number (or mnemonic) for the major media categories: color transparency/negative, black and white negative, photographic print, gray-scale document, color document, models -- are there others?
The project assistant will enter all of this into the database as the first act as soon as items are brought down to Preservation to enter into the project, and will write the numbers on items or folders. *** Angela will do a couple of variations on this scenario using several of the productions to see how it would play out in full. We will all look at them and decide which variant works best for everyone. 3. Master database There will be a master access database maintained by the project assistant that will contain the official accession number for each item handled by the project. It will be used to track the movement of physical pieces and provide Enrique and the vendor with the basis for file names during scanning. *** Angela and/or David will set up the database (and show Janet and the project assistant how it works), and the project assistant will maintain it and will be the person who inputs information. 4. Conservation database A separate database will be derived from the master
for Conservation, to assure that everyone is using
the same accession numbers. Conservation will use
it to record treatment information and other relevant
data not needed in the master database. 5. Creation of database from finding aid Patrick has the finding aid in a ProCite database, with the list of stage models as a second database (?). *** Jane will act as liaison to find out exactly what is available, and then ***Stephen/Angela/David will determine what format they need to get a copy in. They will then manipulate that data to produce the skeleton of the database that will be fleshed out by the project assistant as he goes along. 6. Scanning The scanners (Enrique and vendor) will have the accession numbers available in the database, will see the number on the item or folder, will scan the item and enter the number as the file name. Capture metadata will be recorded, to include at the
very least the type of scanning, e.g. flatbed grayscale,
flatbed color, etc. Enrique will create Tiffs. Derivatives will be produced
later. Another item not discussed at this meeting, but that
must be addressed: 7. Tracking The project assistant will give RBML a paper listing each box/bundle he brings down to Preservation. He will then track in the database where it (or its contents if they get separated out) is physically located at any time, i.e. in Conservation, in Reprography, at his own desk, at the vendor. RBML staff will be able to see the database to see
where items are, but will not enter any data.
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