There are comprehensive solutions...

One of the recent postings cautioned against using a "prefab key word
list for a unique photo collection." Actually, there are many people
employed by the Library of Congress and The Getty who spend their
days solving this problem for us by figuring out what terms to use
for "things" in visual materials, including photographs.


Both the Library of Congress "Thesaurus for Graphic Materials" (LCTGM
II) and the Getty's Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) are truly
remarkable tools for providing subject access for visual materials.
Both have, in the past year or two, been published in greatly revised
new editions and without hesitation I will profess with undying
enthusiasm, both of these "controlled vocabulary" sources are labor
saving, profound, easy to use, well considered and absolutely the
right thing to be using.


The primary consideration for all of us to think about is the fact
that, as we go online with Internet, Web or remote access to share
data with a global public, we need to all be using the same words for
the "things" and concepts in images. If we all spend our time making
up our own vocabularies, I will never know what is in someone elses
collection. Somebody once exclaimed, "What do you call it, a spittoon
or a cuspidor?" From the LCTGM II:

Spittoons
UF        Cuspidors
BT        Containers
          Furnishings
RT        Smokeless tobacco

UF=Use for; BT-Broader Term; RT=Related Term

For the isms, the LC Subject Heading also does a great job, providing
a subject and proper noun authority for "things that aren't things,"
Like particular groups of American Indians. Specific Islands and
other locations.


These resources are relatively inexpensive, and more and more
available online, either loadable on a PC or available on a
searchable web site (LC).


The primary gain is that in a few years, we will be able to do
worldwide global searches on particular terms and experience
bountiful returns because we are all talking the same language
(vocabulary.)


We have been using the solution of all three controlled vocabularies
(LCTGM, AAT, LCSH) for the past four years of our digital imaging
project and it is austounding how much more accessible collection
materials are. To be able to find disperate materials from all areas
of an institutions collections by a simple key word search is
absolutely heartening. It really makes it feel that our professional
efforts are creating real progress.

I would encourage anyone doing image cataloging to have a look at the
Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic Materials and Getty's Art
and Architecture Thesaurus. Both are extremely valuable tools at a
time when we can all begin to work together in the same
direction--the future, by the way.

For what it is worth...

Robert MacKimmie
Curatorial Director of Photography
California Historical Society, San Francisco
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