What genre and/or subject authorities are you using?

[Anne Wootton]

Hi everyone,

We're doing an informal survey of the PBCore community as we plan for the next phase of Pop Up Archive. We've read with great interest and feelings of commiseration your various commentaries and gripes about the existing PBCore picklists for genre. We'd love to know: how many of you are actively using the PBCore picklist for genre (documented minimally here), and/or/vs other genre authorities such as EBU Content Genre, Library of Congress Moving Image Genre-Form Guide, Netflix Genres, IPTC NewsCodes genre, Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic Materials (TGM)?

And while we're at it, how about subject authorities? I know WNYC is using the Library of Congress Authorities — anybody else? How about IPTC NewsCodes Subject code, PBS Project Merlin topic taxonomy (pdf), Thesaurus for Graphic Materials, or Wikipedia? We're particularly interested in the potential for linked data authorities like IPTC, or DBPedia (created from Wikipedia entries).

Thanks!

Anne & Bailey

popuparchive.org

[Amanda Raab]

We're using LC Authorities for genre terms: specifically LC Genre-Form Terms first, then LC Subject Headings as genre terms when LCGFT does not have what we need. We doe this to ensure we matching the descriptive terms we're using for our library and physical archival collections, because all of our collections are searchable in via one discovery interface.

Amanda Raab | Catalog and Metadata Librarian
ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME + MUSEUM | Library and Archives
2809 Woodland Ave. | Cleveland, OH  44115
ar...@rockhall.org | 216-515-1932 | fax 216-515-1964
www.rockhall.com/library | Facebook | Twitter

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[Allison Smith]

Hello  -

After much agonizing, the TV media librarian and I decided to use a modified version of the BBC genre terms for our cataloging efforts (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/genres).  We thought the PBCore list too long, unorganized, and flat, and included too many terms we'd probably never use.  The LC genre/form list was similarly long and flat. 

We decided to make our Genre field a hierarchical pick list - rather than linking it to a controlled vocabulary on the web. We wanted to be able to limit the terms to what we'd actually envision using, and to organize them hierarchically in our system, to make it easier for both data entry and resource discovery.  We thought the BBC list, already formed, best matched our particular collection. 

In terms of linking subject authorities, for the record, we are still in the process of designing our system, so nothing I say is tested/foolproof.  In our test system, I have certain PBCore fields linked to TGM, others linked to LCSH, and others linked to GeoNames/Geocodes.  While I would like our data to be searchable as linked open data, I'm not sure if linking to LCSH exclusively accomplishes this (LCSH is part of the linked open data cloud), or, if we need to have the DBpedia URI also (or exclusively) in our record. DBpedia is at the heart of the linked open data network - everything links to it in some way.  

Ideally, I'd like to have our subject and entity fields linked to DBpedia. In addition, I'd like certain information from the DBpedia record to auto-populate specific fields of information in our local authority record (specifically for people and organizations) - but this gets complicated on many levels, and I do question whether or not, this is a good idea.  For starters, it needs to be programmed - secondly, I worry that the information may not be truly authoritative, and this needs to be expressed in the data, and perhaps, refreshed periodically.  

Fun fun - thoughts are welcome on this.  

Allison

Archivist, Wisconsin Public Radio

[JBeiser Pacifica Radio Archives]

Hi Anne & all,
We haven't really incorporated the Genre term yet, but I was planning on just using the PBCore Genre vocabulary & selecting from that a smaller list or terms that really relate to our recordings here at Pacifica.  And for subject authorities we are using LCSH. We just go over to that site when cataloging to find a terms that relate to the recording (when available).

Since our system is brand new, we are still open to suggestions, naturally :).

Thanks for asking!

Best,
Jolene
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Jolene M. Beiser, MA, MLIS
Archivist
Pacifica Radio Archives
3729 Cahuenga Boulevard West
North Hollywood, CA 91604
(818) 506-1077

[Anne Wootton]

Hi everybody,

Thanks for chiming in about this! We appreciate the feedback. We're working on v1.0 of the Pop Up Archive repository and we'll definitely take this into consideration (and probably ping you with more questions/suggestions) as that work progresses.

Allison, it's interesting to hear that you chose the BBC genre list over the PBCore and LOC genre lists — sounds like having hierarchy in the picklist was ultimately most important for you, something we'll keep in mind. We'd definitely love to hear what you decide for subject authorities — I need to do some research on LCSH and DBPedia and where, if at all, they're linked to each other.

Interesting to hear that Rock and Roll Hall of Fame uses LCSH when the LC Genre-Form terms are lacking. And thank you for the Pacifica information, Jolene. We'll surely keep you posted as we learn more.

Thanks again,
Anne

[Jack Brighton]

At WILL we use a pared down set from the pbcore genre list. But not "boat." :)

Sent from my iPhone

[Marcos Sueiro Bal]

We use PBCore *just* so that we can use "boat". Just kidding.

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Marcos Sueiro Bal
Audio Engineer
718.902.7441

[Sylvia Mohn]

At MPR we use a subset from the pbcore genre list. We also do not
use "boat".

For subject authority we use IPTC subject codes, the original set with
3-level hierarchical structure and corresponding numbers.

One thing I like about it is that you can use the numbers as a
classification system, truncating for broader/narrower search. One
thing I don't like is that IPTC is not updating this subject set.
Instead they're expanding their subsequent "media topics", now 5-
levels, which more or less map back to the original terms. Also with
"media topics" there's no meaningful corresponding numbers for the
subjects; the assigned numbers aren't hierarchical.

I wonder who else out there is using IPTC. If you're using IPTC could
you contact me? I'd like to get your feedback on it.

Thanks!

Sylvia Mohn
Audio Archivist, Broadcast Operations
Minnesota Public Radio | American Public Media
(651) 290-1182
sm...@mpr.org

[Bailey Smith]

Hi all,

I just reviewed all the great info from this thread and organized it into a Google spreadsheet of the controlled vocabularies we're all using for Subject and Genre. Anyone with the link has editing privileges, so feel free to add your organization or edit the info in the doc if I made an error. 

I created a sheet for Genre and a sheet for Subject, and I'd love to see people add additional sheets for other elements with CVs.

Enjoy!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Algtupl5jChwdEU5VTVvMWM2M3lSMl9haWZnWGM0cVE&usp=sharing

Cheers,

Bailey

[Marcos Sueiro Bal]

This is great! You may also want to add/survey what institutions are using for "Contributors" and spatial coverage --in fact, any field with @ref.

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[Bailey Smith]

Marcos,

That's a great idea! I'll add new sheets and post this in a new thread.

Bailey