There are about as many different ways to go about inventorying an audiovisual collection as there are audiovisual collections, BUT because it’s a good idea to follow an established metadata scheme, I strongly recommend starting with Dublin Core, which can handle a surprising variety of situations and scenarios with its elements. This is the list of fields I typically use, with their DC name in parentheses. Bear in mind that DC fields are repeatable and can be used for more than one value.
- Item Unique ID (DC_Identifier)
This can be any unique number. At the Rubenstein Library, it’s a combination of the collection number, the media format, and a sequential number, which guarantees us a unique number that also has some semantic meaning. For example. RL10001-CS-0001 is the first audiocassette inventoried for collection RL10001 (the Jazz Loft Project). - Accession Number (DC_Description)
The number given the materials as a group upon entering the archives. - Subseries (DC_Description)
This is a field I use if I’m processing the materials into subseries as I’m inventorying. Oftentimes I don’t use this until I’m preparing the metadata for ingest into ArchivesSpace. - Title (DC_Title)
This is derived from the container note or label on the item, not from a review of the actual content. - Date (DC_Date_created)
As a rule of thumb, the date of the creation of content, not the item or carrier itself. We use the ISO standard for dates, YYYY-MM-DD. - Format (DC_Format)
We name our formats based on LC or Getty authorities. Click here for a list of what we use and their abbreviations (for creating our Item Unique IDs). - Content note (DC_Description)
A brief description of the materials if we have it. This would go beyond what we’re providing for the title, and could be anything from a track list provided on a tape box to the result of playing back a video. - Duration (DC_Extent)
We rarely capture this during the initial inventory phase, as duration is generally difficult to know until a full playback is performed, and often this step is avoided until the digitization phase, to avoid damaging the item. - isFormatOf (DC_Relation_isFormatOf)
This is used to describe the item’s relationship to an inventory item that is a former generation of the content, such as a master copy. In this field we place the Item Unique ID of that master copy. - hasFormat (DC_Relation_hasFormat)
This is used to describe the item’s relationship to an inventory item that is a subsequent generation of the content, such as a use copy. In this field we place the Item Unique ID of that use copy. - Container 1 type (DC not applicable)
Location information for the type of container containing the item. This information will depend on the type of holdings designations and systems you use at your institution. At the Rubenstein, this conforms to the needs of ArchivesSpace, so, for instance, if we have a box of videocassettes, this value would simply be “Box.” - Container 1 number (DC not applicable)
Location information for the type of container containing the item. This information will depend on the type of holdings designations and systems you use at your institution. At the Rubenstein, this conforms to the needs of ArchivesSpace, so, for instance, if we have a box of videocassettes, this value would simply be a sequential number applied to the box. - Container 2 type (DC not applicable)
This is a designation of the general type of media format. This information will depend on the type of holdings designations and systems you use at your institution. At the Rubenstein, this conforms to the needs of ArchivesSpace, so, for instance, if we have a box of videocassettes, this value would simply be “video-cassette” (whether it’s a VHS or Umatic or Betacam doesn’t matter). - Container 2 number (DC_Identifier)
Simply a repeat of the Item Unique Identifier. Again, although we can map this to the DC_Identifier field, this is dependent on the system your institution uses. - Preservation note (DC_Description)
Really a catch-all note for describing condition or other unusual factors about the item.
