Photographs from Special Collections at WCU

Recipe for Photographs from Special Collections in Omeka

This recipe is for photographs that are either physically held in Special Collections or have already been digitized and come from digital collections. Either way, you must have an image file to upload as well as the metadata about the photo. See the research guide for info on scanning a photograph. If what you find is something strange and troubling, stop and ask for help. We love finding weird stuff. Note: if your photograph documents or references an event, you have to create TWO entries: one for the paper item (that’s a photograph image), and (two) an item for the event, which is not the thing that you hold in your hand. The first guide is for the physical item. The recipe for the event follows.

Here’s how you enter a photograph into our Omeka site

Head to the admin side of our archive, which uses Omeka http://blackstudentslives.org/archives/admin

Login using your credentials. Your default username is your wcupa email address, all lowercase. Your default password is your wcupa email address, all lowercase. (credentials will be activated 1/27)
From the dashboard, select “items”

From the top menu, select “add an item”

Carefully fill out the fields in the form, attending to correct spelling and capitalization.
1. Title = Name the Object. Rarely will a photo have a name. Be careful and use a name that anyone who will encounter this object will recognize. For example, a photograph of students with no date, title it “Photograph of students” and.
2. Subject is an objective classification of the content of the item. Think librarians classifying the item. What might ALL agree the subject is? Eg, Students. Note: subjects AREN’T tags; use tags for tag-like purposes.
3. Description is your description of the item. For example, “This photograph pictures a female and male student posing in front of a tree on West Chester’s campus. From the buildings, the date appears to be after (insert date) and before (insert date).” The description describes the object for a viewer. It will be public.
4. Creator = author/creator of the photo. Not you. Is the photographer identified? Almost certainly not. Leave blank if unavailable.
5. Source = The Named collection this item is found within (if known). Else blank.
6. Publisher = Special Collections, Francis Harvey Green Library, West Chester University
7. Date = date the photo was taken, if known.
8. Contributor = your name
9. Rights = (paste this in directly → ) Digital images in Library Services’ Digital Collections are issued by Special Collections, Francis Harvey Green Library, West Chester University. Images are provided for non-commercial, educational, and personal use only, and are not intended for reproduction or redistribution. For the above purposes the user may reproduce these materials (by download, printing, etc.) without further permission, on the condition that proper attribution of the source for all copies is provided by clearly acknowledging the name of the Library, the title of the web page or resource and the URL at which it was located, please credit as follows: Special Collections, Francis Harvey Green Library, West Chester University, West Chester, Pennsylvania. For questions regarding use of digital materials contact Special Collections (libspeccol@wcupa.edu or 610-436-3456).
10. Identifier = if the item has an item number within the collection, use that (it’s often on the folder itself). But most items have not been described on an item level. If no item number, leave blank.

Now select “Item Type Metadata” from the top menu, under “Add an Item”
Under item type, select Still Image
1. In Original Format, type Photograph
2. In Physical dimensions, note the actual size of the original image (not the digital file) in inches.
Now, under “add an item” at top select “Files”
Select “choose file” and navigate to your saved image from the photo you scanned or downloaded.

Final Step: Add the item! Now, after all is in order, click “Add Item” to create the item for your newspaper article and upload the images to the project’s archive. This step creates the item with all of the information contained in the previous steps.

Stage two: Your thingy also refers to an Event

Adding an Event

This presumes you’ve already added an item; if not, follow the recipe above for logging in, etc.

From the top menu, select “add an item”

Title = Name of Event. Be careful and use a name that anyone who’s encountered this event will recognize. For example, “BSU meeting” followed by the date of the meeting.
Subject is an objective classification of the content of the item. Think librarians classifying the item. What might ALL agree the subject is? Eg, Student Organizations, etc.
Description is your description of the item. For example, “This meeting discusses topic (x).”The description describes the object for a viewer. It will be public.
Creator = author/creator of item. Most events have organizations as their creators. Leave blank if unavailable. Corporate authors are ok: for example, the BSU is the creator of a flyer advertising a BSU event.
Source = Special Collections, Francis Harvey Green Library, West Chester University
Publisher = Organization Name
Date = date of meeting
Contributor = your name
Rights = (paste this in directly → ) Digital images in Library Services’ Digital Collections are issued by Special Collections, Francis Harvey Green Library, West Chester University. Images are provided for non-commercial, educational, and personal use only, and are not intended for reproduction or redistribution. For the above purposes the user may reproduce these materials (by download, printing, etc.) without further permission, on the condition that proper attribution of the source for all copies is provided by clearly acknowledging the name of the Library, the title of the web page or resource and the URL at which it was located, please credit as follows: Special Collections, Francis Harvey Green Library, West Chester University, West Chester, Pennsylvania. For questions regarding use of digital materials contact Special Collections (libspeccol@wcupa.edu or 610-436-3456).

When done with the items in this list, select the check box for public at the top right.
Now select “Item Type Metadata” from the top menu, under “Add an Item”
Under item type, select Event
1. Duration: how long the event lasted, if known; blank if not.
2. Event Type: Classify the event. Meeting, Dance, etc.
3. Participants. List individuals known to have been in attendance.
Now Select “Map” under Add an Item

Type in the address of the location of the meeting. For on campus meetings, choose the address for Lawrence Hall: 700 S New St, West Chester, PA 19383. Please use as complete an address as possible, including zipcode. Then select “Find”.
Click Add Item and You are Done!
Now, under “add an item” at top select “Files”
Select “choose file” and navigate to your saved image from the document you scanned.