Cynthia R. Miller, Curator of Photography and Prints, The Henry Ford
This session was very basic information. The most interesting thing was the contrast between the MPLP talk the day before and the very time consuming process of researching and identifying individual photographs today. Somewhere there has to be a balance between describing collections enough to provide good access and agonizing over descriptions for every image in out collections.
Main Topic should include details: Who, What, Where, When and Why?
Subject terms will depend on the needs of researchers and the mission and resources of your repository.
She recommended using a controlled vocabulary for consistent search terms. The Library of Congress has subject headings for prints and photographs. The Getty also has an online thesaurus which is better for objects.
The most important thing to keep in mind is what terms the researcher will be searching for. This is the reason that I'm not sure controlled vocabularies are the best method for cataloging. The search term one person might use could be completely different than the search term another researcher might use.
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