Metadata:

As told through Little Magazines and Riot Grrrl Zines

DH 101

Spring 2015

May 6th, 2015

Mackenzie Brooks

Agenda

• A quick tour through the past, present, and future of information organization and retrieval
• Little Magazines, Fanzines, Zines subject analysis activity
• Standards: what are they good for!
• Zine cataloging activity
• The problems with metadata
• Project check in

Keep in mind:

• Metadata as DH building block
• Metadata = data about data
• Frequently that means "information about a book" but increasingly it means, "information about a digital object." 
• Information as power -- who is telling the story?

Our story begins...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria#/media/File:The_Burning_of_the_Library_at_Alexandria_in_391_AD.jpg

the Medieval library

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chained_library#/media/File:Libraries_in_the_Medieval_and_Renaissance_Periods_Figure_4.jpg

Anthony Panizzi, Charles Cutter, and Melvil Dewey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Panizzi#/media/File:Panizzi.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CharlesAmmiCutter_BostonAthenaeum.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewey_Decimal_Classification#/media/File:Melvil_Dewey_1891.jpg

https://www.flickr.com/photos/8601342@N03/4549779936/

the OPAC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynix_(software)#/media/File:Dynix-Main-Menu-via-Telnet.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Google1998.png

Ghost of Metadata Present

Why Metadata Matters

http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/image.axd?picture=%2F2014%2F01%2Fmetadata.jpg

#hashtag

http://schema.org

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/48204903

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python

Ghost of Metadata Future

Every thing a unique identifier!!!

Little Magazines

Fanzines

Zines

Activity #1:

Keyword Creation

• One student per table.
• Keep the contents of each box together.
• Read/skim a magazine.
• On a sheet of paper, write down a few keywords that describe what the magazine is about. 
• Fold the paper and leave it with the magazine, but do not read the work of others!

Standards exist for a reason.

Dublin Core

= metadata schema

Dublin Core Elements

• Title
• Creator
• Subject
• Description
• Publisher
• Contributor
• Date
• Type

• Format
• Identifier
• Source
• Language
• Relation
• Coverage
• Rights

xZINECOREx

Activity #2: Cataloging zines!

• Log into Omeka 
• From the menu, go to Items > Add an item
• Pick a magazine and fill out the fields with the appropriate information.
• Consult the Dublin Core website if necessary. 
• Create custom fields if necessary 

http://www.mackenziekbrooks.info/omeka/admin

What do all these publications have in common?

Archiving the Underground

• Sanford Berman
• Zine thesaurus
• Respecting cultural producers