Principles of object description

1. An audio description for a blind person

2. Replacing the object with a record

3. The PAS’s ‘shop window’

Relationship between text and images

If we’ve got an image, why do we need all this text?

• Searching image labels is a very blunt tool giving imprecise results

• The wrong image may be attached or the image may become detached

• It makes the identifier look very closely and analytically at the object

Relationship between text and images

If we’ve got an image, why do we need all this text?

• Searching image labels is a very blunt tool giving imprecise results

• The wrong image may be attached or the image may become detached

• It makes the identifier look very closely and analytically at the object

Audiences and searchers

There are many users of our data – HER officers, planners, finds specialists, students, finders, the general public

Will all of the people interested in this object be able to find it again?

These will make records unfindable

• Spelling and typing mistakes, e.g. broach, boarder, chaffing dish, seal matirx, etc.

• The wrong object term being used, e.g. ‘strap fitting’ for a stirrup-strap mount

• The wrong classification being used, e.g. ‘cruciform’ for a cross-shaped brooch or ‘equal-armed’ for an ansate brooch

• Several terms used for the same concept, e.g. pierced, perforated, holed

These will make records unintelligible!

• Information scattered about the record in a random order

• Ambiguity in words or phrasing

• Abbreviations and writing in note form

• Too much jargon

KENT4547

FAHG-123AB4

LON-B3C3C1

SUSS-0DF748

These will make records unintelligible!

• Information scattered about the record in a random order

• Ambiguity in words or phrasing

• Abbreviations and writing in note form

• Too much jargon

These are all ‘round’ but all must be described differently

Buns More buns

Bun-shaped… … or bun shaped objects on the PAS database

ESS-581F82

back

reverse

YORYM-1716A4

The first section is circular in section, but the second section has a rectangular section and the last section is triangular in section.

Too many sections

LON-B3C3C1

LANCUM-593AA1

SWYOR-C16415

‘thin’

‘narrow’

“two rows of small triangular indentations run along both longitudinal edges”

- there are two rows, but not along both edges!

These will make records unintelligible!

• Information scattered about the record in a random order

• Ambiguity in words or phrasing

• Abbreviations and writing in note form

• Too much jargon

Don’t copy something like this (NMS736):

EPM Ae sword chape, double-concave attachment edge between central projection front and back, trefoils on sides pierced for attachment, traces of engraved linear decoration, knop at terminal, 42 x 30mm. Cf. de Reuck, no. 231.

Short descriptions for objects that exist in museum collections

from Middle Harling, Norfolk (East Anglian Archaeology 74)

• Measurements can need supporting information (e.g. ‘Surviving length 42.4 mm, original length c. 60 mm; or 8.5 mm wide in the centre, tapering to 6.8 mm wide at either end)

• Dates can need argument to back them up (e.g. ‘this object type is most common in the 14th century, but the use of niello inlaid in a criss-cross pattern suggests a late 15th- if not early 16th-century date for this particular example’ or ‘Margeson (1993, no. 258) illustrates a similar object from a 17th-century context in Norwich’)

• Completeness – it helps to know whether the break is fresh (showing possible recent agricultural damage) or worn (possibly broken in antiquity or showing long-term agricultural damage).

• Material – for a copper-alloy and iron item, which parts are copper alloy and which parts iron?

‘Oval shaped’ = oval‘Oval shaped in form’ = oval‘Triangular shaped’ = triangular, etc etc etc

A medieval copper-alloy buckle. The buckle has a frame and plate. The buckle’s frame is oval. The oval frame has a straight bar. The straight bar is square in cross-section. On the straight bar is a copper-alloy pin. The pin has an open loop.

etc etc etc ad nauseam!

Avoid unnecessary words

SF-B236E4

LANCUM-3DF1F3

Anglo-Scandinavian stirrup terminal, NMS-364F65

Post-medieval book clasp, SF6153

Modern objects

1. The finder is desperate to get something on the database and you want to be kind

2. A good example of a difficult object, although not in itself intrinsically interesting

3. It has research potential

GLO-6A97F0

BERK-600AC6

The usual cut-off date is c. 1700 AD, but there are exceptions:

SF-083C15

LVPL-0B5F41

correct

not correct!

LVPL-340D82