1. Accidental Controlled
Vocabulary Development:
Metadata for Specialized
Circus Imagery
Jim Cunningham
Milner Library
Illinois State University
Session 10: Case Studies in Collaboration within Archival and Special
Collection Environments @ VRA 32
March 15, 2014

2. Which Comes First?
 The reality of the project
 Existing controlled vocabularies
 Concurrent creation of collection and vocabulary

3. How to Do It (Or At Least How I
Did It)
 Gain subject expertise ASAP
 Exploit enthusiasts ruthlessly
 Learn about how your users will act
 Don’t reinvent the wheel if it’s not necessary

4. Implementation: Two Steps
Forward, One Step Back
 Start small then evaluate
 Professional evaluation
 User evaluation
 Big and small revisions

5. Braathen Slide Project
 10,000+ images with varying degrees of metadata
 Circus history community
 Circus World Museum controlled vocabulary

6. Sample Slides
 http://tempest.lib.ilstu.edu/u?/circus,1149
 http://tempest.lib.ilstu.edu/u?/circus,438
 http://tempest.lib.ilstu.edu/u?/circus,2288
 http://tempest.lib.ilstu.edu/u?/circus,3170
 http://tempest.lib.ilstu.edu/u?/circus,2604
 http://tempest.lib.ilstu.edu/u?/circus,88