introducing the artists' books thesaurus
TRANSCRIPT
Introducing the Artists’ Books ThesaurusACRL Arts Virtual Midwinter Discussion Forum, 6 January 2016
Allison Jai O’Dell, Metadata Librarian, University of Florida, George A. Smathers Libraries
About the Artists’ Books ThesaurusThe Artists’ Books Thesaurus is a project spearheaded by a working
group of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) Book Art
Special Interest Group. It will offer a much-needed vocabulary for
indexing artists’ books and their features, ultimately leading to
enhanced discovery and cross-collection collocation of artists’ books.
Scope of the Thesaurus“a vocabulary for indexing artists’ books and their features”
Artistic movements and aesthetic styles
Structures, techniques, and materials
Need for the Thesaurus“Lacking genre information in the bibliographic record, users were
generally limited to searching for known artists or titles.”
-- Mary Anne Dyer and Yuki Hibben, “Developing a Book Art Genre Headings Index,” Art Documentation:
Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, vol. 31 (2012): 59.
Need for the Thesaurus Discovery
Collocation
… of aspects not adequately represented in the Art and Architecture
Thesaurus and the RBMS Controlled Vocabularies for Use in Rare Book
and Special Collections Cataloging
The Working Group Jaye Fishel, Letterpress Printer
Esther Marie Jackson, Public Services Librarian, LuEsther T. Mertz Library, New York Botanical Garden
Allison Jai O’Dell, Metadata Librarian, University of Florida, George A. Smathers Libraries
Suzanne Rackover, Manager, Library & Archives, The Banff Centre
Heather Slania, Director of the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center, National Museum of Women in the Arts
Copy-editors:
Roberta Brody, Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, Queens College CUNY
Josh Hockensmith, Art Library Technical Assistant, Sloane Art Library, University of North Carolina
Amy Dawn Wickner, Digital Projects Graduate Assistant, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Maryland Libraries
Goals & Deliverables Controlled vocabulary
Taxonomy of the artists’ books genre
Educational Web resource
Linked dataset
The problem with wordsAsa-no-ha-toji
A type of Japanese stab binding using a decorative and functional stitching
pattern resembling a hemp leaf.
The problem with wordsWhen indexing artists’ books, “a cataloger who does not have a
background in art or the various crafts that make up the book arts can
find it difficult to determine the best terms to use.”
-- Ann K.D. Myers and William Andrew Myers, “Opening Artists’ Books to the User: An Example with Potential
Approaches,” RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage 15, no. 1 (2014): 58.
Oh, that one.
The solution through images“During production, the inadequacy of text-based notes to represent concepts in the book arts became apparent. Visual patterns are easily understood by looking, while textual descriptions of the same can become clunky or meaningless … Visual content provides the supplementary information necessary to understand thesaurus concepts and identify specimens.”
-- Allison Jai O’Dell, “The Visual Vocabulary: skos:example and the Illustrated Artists’ Books Thesaurus,” Journal of Library Metadata 15, nos. 3-4 (2015). [in press]
Collecting & Sharing ImagesFrom collections
From artists
With researchers
With librarians
With artists
On social media
artistsbooksthesaurus.tumblr.com
Tour the demohttp://tinyurl.com/abthes2016
Term viewPreferred and
non-preferred terms
Hierarchy and
related terms
Term viewLinks to external vocabularies
Art & Architecture Thesaurus
RBMS Controlled Vocabularies for Use in Rare Book and Special Collections Cataloging
Notes viewScope notes
Images
Metadata viewDublin Core
MADS
SKOS
JSON-LD
<skos:Concept rdf:about="http://artistsbooksthesaurus.com/?tema=194">
<skos:prefLabel xml:lang="en">Asa-no-ha-toji</skos:prefLabel>
<skos:altLabel xml:lang="en">Hemp leaf bindings</skos:altLabel>
<skos:scopeNote xml:lang="en">
A type of Japanese stab binding using a decorative and functional
stitching pattern resembling a hemp leaf.
</skos:scopeNote>
<skos:example
rdf:resource=http://www.example.com/asanoha-toji.jpg />
<skos:inScheme rdf:resource="http://artistsbooksthesaurus.com/" />
<skos:broader
rdf:resource="http://artistsbooksthesaurus.com/?tema=172" />
<dct:created>2016-01-04 15:21:11</dct:created>
<dct:modified>2016-01-04 16:32:22</dct:modified>
</skos:Concept>
Next stepsAnd how you can get involved!
Submit and Share Imagesartistsbooksthesaurus.tumblr.com
Images from the University of Florida, Special and Area Studies Collections, http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/
ARLIS/NA & VRA Joint Conference“Natural Connections,” March 8-12, 2016, Seattle, Washington Approve Thesaurus Appoint Editor Plan for publication
Provide Feedbacktinyurl.com/abthes2016
Terms are live.Yes, you can use the demo. $2 local for now, though!
