Describing Medical Visual Materials
Collections for Online Researchers
Timothy Wisniewski, MLIS
Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
http://medicalarchives.jhmi.edu
twisniewski@jhmi.edu
Description and Web Access
Some opening questions
Is archival description of medical visual materials less important
in the context of web access and mass digitization?
If digitized collections allow online users to browse archival materials visually,
should archivists invest less time and resources on describing them?
Is the most valuable source of evidence and information the visual materials themselves?
Through description, which is a form of naming, do archivists encode
visual materials with their own personal and institutional biases?
Describing Collections
Implementing policies
Developing descriptive policies at AMCMA
•Decided that a hybrid approach was required
•Multi-level required to reflect the context of visual materials as parts of
collections
•Item level required for management of digitized items and documentation of
permissions
•Redundancy should be avoided but description should be co-extensive to the
level being described.
•Still and moving images would require different content standards
•Multi-level description would have to accommodate multiple formats
•Everything would need to be mapped to DACS elements
Item-level Description
Photographs
•Graphic Materials - Adopted as content standard.
•Mapped to DACS using MARC coding in GM and MARC to DACS
crosswalk.
•Description is focused on a few core elements.
•Description is co-extensive to the item.
•Redundancy with multi-level description minimized.
•Thumbnails attached to item record.
•Item record linked to collection hierarchy.
•Photographs containing PHI: restrictions noted and metadata only
provided.
Multi-level Description
Photographs
•DACS adopted as content standard, supplemented by GM appendix for
Specific Material Designations.
•Institutional collections arranged according to provenance and original
function.
•Personal papers arranged according to original order if coherent, otherwise
arranged topically/chronologically.
•Legacy collections with mixed/unknown provenance arranged
topically/chronologically.
Two approaches used:
1. Photographic series integrated into finding aids for institutional archives or
personal papers; or
2. Photographic collections described independently.
Item-level Description
Moving images
•AMIM2 - Adopted as content standard.
•Description actually focused at “work” or “expression” level.
•FRBR-esque structure collocates multiple physical manifestations (generations)
of a work into a single record.
•Eases time required to catalog individual manifestations and items
•Reduces number of hits for the same work.
•Allows for documentation of conservation procedures within catalog record.
•Concise guidelines for structuring supplied titles.
•Title guidelines relate completed materials with outtakes and unedited footage.
•Easily mapped to DACS to integrate with existing archival management
software.
•Records link to multi-level finding aids.
•Records can link to online streaming content.
•Stills can be attached to catalog record.
Stills of pre-operative ventriculogram
Multi-level Description
Moving images
•DACS adopted as content standard, supplemented by AMIM2 appendices.
•Useful for describing groups of works originating from same provenance or
function, such as research footage and institutional film collections.
•Administrative/Biographical history provides context for collections.
Two approaches used:
1. Moving image series integrated into finding aids for institutional archives or
personal papers; or
2. Moving image collections described as an independent whole.
Examples of specialist and generalist concepts
reflected in archival medical visual materials:
•Medical conditions and procedures
•Research practices
•Occupations and areas of
specialization
•Medical equipment
•Legal and ethical aspects
•Social and cultural practices
•Politics
•Religion
•Groups of people (gender, age,
ethnicity)
•Geographic locations
Subject Description
Concept analysis
•Time periods
•Named individuals
•Organizations
•Events
•Works of art
•Buildings
•Interiors
•Moving image genres and forms
•Graphic genres and forms
•Photographic processes
•Dynamic concepts with medical/nonmedical aspects
Subject Description
Vocabularies
Moving Image Genre-Form Guide (MIGFG)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/mopic/miggen.html
•Developed by Library of Congress.
•Rigid structure, connects genre terms with form subdivisions.
•“Idiosyncratic and unpredictable” (Yee, 2001) in choice of grammatical forms.
•Tendency toward singular forms.
•Lack of granularity for non-narrative genres.
•Somewhat biased toward theatrical films and television.
•“Medical (non-fiction)”, “Documentary”, and “Educational” only appropriate genre
terms for medical films.
Subject Description
Vocabularies
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)
http://www.loc.gov/cds/classweb/
http://authorities.loc.gov/
•Developed for cataloging materials at LOC, therefore very diverse and comprehensive.
•Good for general and non-medical subjects.
•Many subjects can be coded as genre/form terms.
•Contains many medical occupation/specialist terms.
•Concatenated structure good for capturing dynamic concepts.
•Widely adopted
•Proposal process for new terms via SACO.
Subject Description
Vocabularies
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html
•Maintained by National Library of Medicine.
•Good for capturing specific medical conditions and procedures.
•Specialist content helps supplement lack of granular genre/form terms.
•Useful for collocating visual materials with related archival materials and professional
literature.
•“Tight” vocabulary; allowable subdivisions limited for each term. Minimizes risk of
inaccurate indexing by non-specialists.
•Widely adopted in medical and academic libraries.
Subject Description
Vocabularies
Unified Medical Language System (UMLS)
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html
•Maintained by National Library of Medicine.
•“Metathesaurus” contains multiple specialized medical vocabularies, including MeSH.
•Intended for use in “interoperable biomedical information systems and services, including
electronic health records”
•License required for use.
•Users listserv, can be techy but users are very helpful.
Subject Description
Vocabularies
Thesaurus for Graphic Materials (TGM)
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/tgm/
•Maintained by Library of Congress.
•Designed for “graphic materials” (e.g. prints, photographs, drawings, etc.)
•Generalist topical and specialist genre/form vocabulary
•Chronological and geographic subdivisions are very useful for general terms.
•Concise implementation guidelines.
•“How would LC index it?” factor, gives examples of headings used in P&P online catalog.
Subject Description
Specific Entry
Cutter’s Rule on Specific Entry
Enter a work under its subject-heading, not under the heading of a class which
includes that subject.
(Cutter, 1904)
Principal of co-extensivity– subject headings should be no more or less specific
than the content boundaries of the work.
Dilemma: Potentially creates a bias toward specialist users. Relevant materials may be missed by
non-specialist users who are unfamiliar with precise medical terminology or subtle distinctions within
broader categories of health conditions, academic subspecialties or medical procedures.
Potential solutions:
•Integrate tree structure of thesauri within ILS or relational database (archival management software).
•Provide detailed instructions for online users.
•Use multiple vocabularies (generalist and specialist).
Subject Description
Using hierarchies
Subject Headings
Photographs
[Russell Williams and nurse performing a thoracentesis]
Photographer unknown.
AMCMA Item no.: 105054
Date: 1939
Names:
Johns Hopkins Hospital--People
(LCNAF/TGM subdivision)
Williams, Russell D. (Local authority)
Procedures:
Paracentesis (MeSH)
Paracentesis--nursing (MeSH)
Thoracic Surgical Procedures (MeSH)*
People:
Nurses--Maryland--Baltimore--1930-1940 (TGM)
Physicians--Maryland--Baltimore--1930-1940 (TGM)
Interiors:
Hospital wards--Maryland--Baltimore--1930-1940 (TGM)
Subject Headings
Photographs
[Nurses serving trays in segregated gynecological ward
at Johns Hopkins Hospital Woman's Clinic]
Photographer unknown.
AMCMA Item no.: 105010
Date: 1939
Names:
Johns Hopkins Hospital--People
Johns Hopkins Hospital--Buildings
Johns Hopkins Hospital. School of Nursing--People
Johns Hopkins Hospital. Woman's Clinic.
People:
Nurses--Maryland--Baltimore--1930-1940 (TGM)
African Americans--Women--Maryland--Baltimore-1930-1940 (TGM)
Social practices:
Segregation--Maryland--Baltimore--1930-1940 (TGM)
Interiors:
Hospital wards--Maryland--Baltimore--1930-1940
(TGM)
Dynamic concepts:
African Americans--Hospital care (LCSH)
Subject Headings
Medical Films
Conditions/Procedures:
Pulmonary Valve Insufficiency--congenital (MeSH)
Aortic Valve--transplantation (MeSH)
Transplantation, Homologous (MeSH)
Genres/Forms:
Instructional films (LCSH, coded as Genre/Form)
Medical (Non-fiction)--Short (MIGFG)
Congenital absence of the pulmonary valve :
Surgical correction with an aortic valve homograft.
Produced by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,
Department of Photography
Surgeon, Clarence S. Weldon, M.D.
AMCMA Item:
Date: 1966
Subject Headings
Moving images
Dynamic concepts:
Animal experimentation--Law and legislation--United States
(LCSH)
Animal experimentation--Moral and ethical aspects (LCSH)
Surgery--research (LCSH)
Conditions:
Tetralogy of Fallot (MeSH)
Genres/Forms:
Sponsored films (LCSH, coded as Genre/Form heading)
Anna, her story.
Produced by Stark-Films.
AMCMA Item:
Date: 1951
Contact:
Timothy Wisniewski, MLIS
Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
http://medicalarchives.jhmi.edu
twisniewski@jhmi.edu