Generate metadata

Following is a "Cliff Notes" version of the adding metadata process. The detailed description of the process is available.

Download adding metadata (detailed)

Step 0 - select an interview

If the Video History Project Database Chair or designee has not assigned you an interview you can view the list of interviews that need metadata, select an interview and let the Project Database Chair know which interview you have selected so the list can be updated.

View list of interviews needing metadata

Step 1 - know what you are looking for

If you have not already done so you should review the material in the following accordions so you know what you are looking for when you view the interview. Once you understand what the Series and Subject metadata are it is probably a good idea to briefly look at the dictionaries for these two metadata.

Step 2  - get the interview

There are two ways to get the interview you are working:

1. On the ASURA website click on the "Service" menu and select "Video History Interviews. Enter the name of the interviewee in the search box just above the "Apply" button. The search is case sensitive. Click the "Apply" button and on the "Full Inte" link. This will direct you to the interview on the Library's digital repository, named KEEP.
2. Go directly to the Video History Project's collection stored on the Library's digital repository, KEEP. In the "Search" box enter the name of the interviewee, the name is not case sensitive and click on the "Search" button. If the name entered shows up in any of the metadata you will get a list of possible interviews; pick the one for your interviewee.

Step 3 - gathering the metadata material

You gather the metadata by viewing the video, listening for metadata items, e.g., information for the abstract, major topics, especially those associated with ASU. While viewing you need to take notes about what you have heard. and where, i.e., what time location within the interview, the material was presented.  

Step 4 - preparing the metadata

Reviewing your notes, create a Word document that has the Abstract, Table of Contents, along with the Series and Subject metadata values. You may have to go back to the video to clarify some items in your notes. Try to follow the format suggested for the Abstract and Table of Contents.

If you have difficult with the Subject metadata, e.g., cannot decided which major or minor subject area a topic falls into, contact the Video History Database Chair for help. Once you are satisfied send the Word document to the Video History Database Chair. 

Some interviews have been divided into sections or parts. You will need to generate an Abstract and Table of Contents for each of the parts. The Series metadata will not change but there may be overlap for the Subject metadata

Locate Video History Database Chair

The Abstract allows the user to get a quick sense of what is in the interview. It has a fixed organization consisting of two required parts and a third optional part. 

• Part 1 locates the interviewee within the University.
• Part 2 lists the important interview stories, i.e., the stories associated with the interview’s primary Subject metadata values.
• Part 3 is optional and involves adding additional interesting stories to the list of stores presented in Part 2.

The abstract should not be completed until all the Primary Subject metadata values have been established (see Subject metadata below).

The abstract, at a minimum, should contain:

1. Part 1 should include:
   1. the complete name of the interviewee, including a title
   2. the location within the University consistent with the Series metadata selected earlier
   3. the date joining ASU, and
   4. if appropriate and/or known the first full time ASU job
2. Part 2 should include a list of the interview stories that have been assigned Primary Subject Filter values. The format should be something like
   
   
   
   Important stories include: 1) the story title, 2) the story title; etc. until all stories with a Primary Subject Filter have been listed.
3. If space permits and there are additional interesting stories that are not part of the items in Part 2, these stores can be added to the bottom of the list generated in Part 2.

Abstracts should not be too long; something around one to two hundred words.

The Table of Contents (ToC) is perhaps the most useful of all the metadata fields; it lists all the important stories along with the starting time for each story. The ToC format is a two level numbered list , e.g., 1, 1.1, 1.2, 2, 2.1, etc. with the last item in each entry being the start time for the topic/story.

All primary Subject metadata topics should appear someplace in the ToC, preferably as a major topic.

A good ToC has a balance between the number of major topics and the number of stories. It is not always easy to get this balance when the interview is choppy and moves quickly from one topic to another and then back to the first topic.

The repository presentation of the metadata does not support numbered or ordered lists so the standard look would be:

1. Topic 1 @hr.min.sec

1.1 Story 1 @hr.min.sec

1.2 Story 2 @hr.min.sec

2. Topic 2 @hr.min.sec

2.1 Story 1 @hr.min.sec

2.2 Story 2@hr.min.sec

Series metadata is used to define the source of the story to narrow the repository search to only those interviews that meet the source filters. Generally, there are two story filter levels: Primary and Secondary where the secondary filter further narrows the primary filter’s value. Occasionally a tertiary filter can be added. Also, if there are a significant number of stories for two different homes, a second set of Series metadata filters can be added.

The set of approved series metadata values is contined in the Series Metadata Dictionary. The process of selecting Series metadata values involves consulting the Series Metadata Dictionary and selecting appropriate values. If there is not an acceptable value in the dictionary for the interview you will need to contact the Video History Chair to discuss adding new entries to the dictionary.

There are four primary filters: Faculty, Position, Administration and Non-ASU. The secondary values shown under each are the current accepted values.

View Series Metadata Dictionary

Overview

The interviews contain a wide, rich variety of stories. Most interviews contain stories about life before ASU, stories about working at ASU, and some interviews have stories about life after ASU. Most interviews also contain stories that are more personal, often softer and lighter than the main tone of the interview. The totality of stories in an interview defines the interviewee and verifies the reason(s) the interviewee was selected.

Since there are an unlimted number of different types of stories, the Video Histotory Project decided  to concentrate on characterizing ASU related stories. Further to add consistency to the metadata, the project defined a limited set of major topics (primary filter) and a small set of secondary topics (secondary filter) under each of the major topics. The approved major and secondary topics are contained in the Subject Metadata Dictionary.

• The major topics (Primary filters) are general overarching ASU topics, e.g., Campuses;
• The secondary topics (Secondary Filters) narrow the topic down, e.g., Downtown.

The approved major and secondary topics are contained in the Subject Metadata Dictionary. 

View Subject Metadata Dictionary

Selection process

The process of selecting Subject filter metadata values is a repetitive process of reviewing each Primary Filter in the Subject Metadata Dictionary to see if there is a match. The following looping process is continued until all Primary Subject Filters have been reviewed.

1. Getting Started
   
   Select a Primary Filter value in the Subject Metadata Dictionary and read what sort of stores are associated with the filter. Also review the possible Secondary filters.
2. Reviewing Interview
   
   Review the interview to see if it has any stories that would fall under the Primary metadata filter just reviewed.
3. Adding A Primary metadata Subject Filter
   1. If you have appropriate stories add the Primary metadata Filter value to your list of Subject metadata and go to Step 4.
   2. If you don’t have any stories go to Step 5.
4. Selecting Secondary Subject Filters
   
   Review the Secondary Subject Filters in the dictionary associated with the Primary Subject Filter selected in Step 3. Select appropriate Secondary Filter values to add to your Subject metadata list; there may be more than one Secondary filter for the given Primary Filter. If you don’t see an appropriate Secondary Filter contact the Video History Committee Chair for guidance. It is likely a new secondary value will be added to the dictionary.
5. Setting Up to Repeat
   
   Select another Primary Filter and go back to Step 1. This step is repeated until there are no more Primary Subject Filters to review.

Note 1:  If there is not an acceptable seconary topic in the dictionary  you will need to contact the Video History Chair to discuss adding new secondary entries to the dictionary.

Note 2:  While unlikely it is possible that an interview will have no Primary Subject Filter. If this occurs the editor should contact the Video History Committee Chair. It may make sense to add a new Primary Subject Filter to the dictionary.