This is a review of the metadata for an item in the New York Public Library’s digital collections: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/5e66b3e8-b1a4-d471-e040-e00a180654d7
What features of the item does the metadata describe?
- Its title: Radio Corporation of America (RCA) – Bud Abbott (in costume as Father Time), Lou Costello (in costume as baby), and Grover Whalen with Bulova Talking Clock
- Names: New York World’s Fair (1939-1940 : New York, N.Y.) (Creator)
- Its location: NY World’s Fair Collection, 1939-40
- Dates/Origin: When it was created (within a decade; i.e. 1935-1945)
- Library Locations: Archives and Manuscript Division, along with physical shelf locator
- Topics: Three overall broad topics: Exhibits; NY World’s Fair; Radio Corporation of America
- Type of resource: Still image
- Languages: English
- Identifiers: NYPL catalog number; MSS unit ID; Universal Unique ID (UUID)
- Rights statement: Copyright undetermined
- Item Timeline of Events: When created (approx.), when digitized, when “found by you”
What features does it not describe?
- Birth/death dates of people portrayed in the image
- Biographical identifiers for the people in the image (although some information is provided on the scan of the reverse of the image)
- Name (Creator) attributes the image to the World’s Fair but no to its photographer or source
What questions does the metadata allow you to ask?
- You can search by:
- Name of individuals in the image
- Physical items in the image (A search by “clock radio” produced this image; although not a “direct hit,” it was of interest in the history of “talking radios”)
- Type of media
- When image was created (broadly within a decade)
- Location
- Three types of catalog numbers (NYPL; NYPL’s MS #; UUID)
- Rights
- Topics (although somewhat limited; search by “film comedians” did not produce this image)
What questions does it not allow you to ask?
- Searching was limited to 3 broad topics.