Subject Access Content
Access Points
Internet memes are inherently digital materials, and SIDAM exists in a solely digital capacity. Because of this, access to our collection will be online. Our organization will create a free website through which users will access the collection.
Users will mainly use keyword searching to find the specific memes or types of memes they are looking for. One of the most complicated aspects of the access point was deciding what to use as the primary access point. Traditional organization systems use Creator as the primary access point, and occasionally Title is used. Memes frequently have no acknowledged creator, and many of the images used to create memes are also untitled. Because of this, SIDAM decided that Subject 1 will be the primary access point on the website.
In addition to keywords, users will be able to access the images in the collection by searching creator, title, subject, dates, and source.
Controlled Vocabulary
SIDAM decided that a controlled vocabulary was the best way to provide consistent access to the materials in the collection. A team of three professionals will collaborate to choose primary terms for the collection. This team will also identify terms the primary term will be used for, broader and narrower topics, and related topics.
In this way, if a user searches for a term that is not one of our primary terms, the search will still return all possible relevant resources in order of relevance to the search. Users will also be able to expand or narrow their search based on the broader, narrower, and related topics.
Primary term: president
Use for: POTUS, prez, president of the United States
Broader topics: U.S. government, federal government, United States of America
Narrower topics: Bill Clinton, Barack Obama
Related topics: White House, Washington D.C., Senate, Congress
Example of Controlled Vocabulary
Tagging
After the initial launch of the website, user-generated tagging will be added. Tagging is a feature that has been becoming more and more prominent in recent years, and SIDAM chose to implement tagging so that our users can improve the archive and help each other find images more easily.
After some consideration of how to implement the tagging feature, SIDAM decided to use a system similar to that of LibraryThing, in which users can make any two tags equivalent to help prevent repetitions of tags like “president of the united states” and “POTUS.” Using a system like this would prevent the need for SIDAM to oversee the tagging, as users would correct and improve the tags on their own.
Plans for the Future
SIDAM will continue to work to be on the cutting edge of digital memes. In addition to implementing some of the most up-to-date systems for tagging, our organization is working on innovative ways of searching for an image. We are in the primary phases of developing a program that would enable a user to sketch the image they are searching for and use that in their search.
In addition, we are developing an advanced color-matching system in which the user will be able to click on a specific color and the search program will find all images that feature that color, in order of the color’s prominence. These two features, when fully developed and implemented, will combine with more traditional search methods to create a powerful search engine that will enable any user to find the images they are looking for, regardless of their prior knowledge about the work.
Sources
- Smith, G. (2008). Tagging: Emerging Trends. Bulletin Of The American Society For Information Science & Technology, 34(6), 14-17.
- Taylor, A. G., & Joudrey, D. (2009). The Organization of Information (3rd ed.). Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
- Jespersen, H. P., & Jespersen, J. K. (2004). The Problem Of Subject Access To Visual Materials. Journal Of Educational Media & Library Sciences, 42(1), 37-48.
