Elizabeth Carron: Photographic Access (Reflection #1)

 

The Waldorf-Astoria Archive is a unique archive which houses several collections with an aim to collect, preserve, and organize records of historic and intrinsic value related to the history of the hotel. A secondary goal is to make these records accessible by providing  open-access to materials via a digital platform and to further enhance an understanding of the hotels history within the history of New York City. I’ve looked at several other historic hotels and I have not seen a similar archival undertaking. Many websites include a photo gallery and a short history, but none offered an online digital archival experience. This in itself makes this site special. However, the online library never abandons its commercial focus:

“Our online presence through our digital archive integrates our efforts of providing open-access with a more prestigious archive database. No longer must one set foot on our entire city block to relish in the history of this historically unforgettable destination. We bring the archives into your home; an experience reminiscent of the days when radio projected the Waldorf into every American home.”

The site utilizes Omeka, an open-source collection management software utilizing the Dublin Core metadata standard in order to achieve several goals including:

- An attractive, easily customizable interface.

- Flexible approach to metadata.

- Support for web standards (CSS, XHTML, RSS).

- Import and export functionality utilizing standardized data formats (CSV, XML, JSON).

The utilization of this software does provide a nice point of access in that it builds upon SEO capabilities. The site will turn up in the results; being an unusual source for archival information, this is a definite plus. That said…

A series of tabs affords the user several additional options for navigating the site. The expected administrative tabs such as ‘Home’ were arranged less logically than I would have assumed. The arrangement of the tabs suggests that the resources are less oriented towards research  – also indicated by a lack of a search bar – and is more browsing-friendly.

 

Amazingly, there is an easily accessible finding aid, composed in what I consider to be a traditional finding aid format. Access to the photographic materials are subject-based. As a whole, the finding aid is not arranged at a collection level but at the series level. Perhaps this is conducive to its size. Thus, photographs are at an individual series level divided into subseries such as Administrative Records, Biographical, Buildings and Albums. The Albums subseries contains a number of photo albums created in commemoration of particular special occasions in the history of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

 

The structure of the finding aid is vaguely confusing as it is hierarchical in some ways and highly reliant upon linked cross-references. I selected ‘Politicians’ as my subject access point. Because of the nature of Omeka, and because these items are not organized into collections, my results were broad. I could refine them by title, creator, or date added to the collection, but none of these limiters are helpful in this context. Why would I want to search by the date added to the collection?

I finally found  a record which I thought interesting. Omeka uses Dublin Core and provides a readymade template for entering or uploading metadata. The metadata for this record could have been more robust given that the software bears the brunt of backend development. Omeka also relies heavily upon a system of tags. Those tags make keyword searching more useful. In the tags for this particular record, nowhere did it mention that Willy Brandt was a Chancellor of West Germany (not Germany). Given his celebrity, what broadcast was  being made? When it was made? Was it produced by NBC or ABC? A little research and a stronger title could make for a more specific discovery and a less serendipitous browsing experience.

further reading:

 

Kucsma, Jason, Kevin Reiss, and Angela Sidman. "Using Omeka to Build Digital Collections: The METRO Case Study." D-Lib Magazine 16.3-4 (2010)ProQuest. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.

Morton, Amanda. "Digital Tools: Zotero And Omeka." Journal Of American History 98.3 (2011): 952-953. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 Mar. 2014

Vestberg, Nina Lager. "Ordering, Searching, Finding." Journal Of Visual Culture 12.3 (2013): 472-489. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.

Zinkham, Helena. "Description and Cataloging." Photographs: Archival Care and Management. By Mary Lynn. Ritzenthaler and Diane Vogt-O'Connor. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2006. 184-87. Print.