March 31, 2014

Controlled Vocabulary

Natural language can prove to be confusing because some words can be ambiguous or have multiple meanings. A controlled vocabulary is a chosen set of words that removes the confusion and ambiguity by giving users defined usage for these words.

Using a controlled vocabulary removes typing and spelling errors and provides consistency to the way compound groups of words are presented to users. The use of the controlled vocabulary is essential for the workflows for tagging images with key words and displaying groups of images in a digital asset management database.

A controlled vocabulary is created and tailored to describe the events, activities, and people surrounding the organization. The words are used to identify the content or the “aboutness” of your digital photographs, but it can be used to identify all other digital files.

Language to describe the assets housed in the DAM system

Can’t find what you are looking for without a Controlled Vocabulary (Taxonomy)

Menu at a restaurant

Controlled Vocabulary

A Controlled Vocabulary (CV) is the glue that holds a DAM system together. Base Term 2nd tier 3rd tier 4th tier 5th tier

World Places (Continent) (Country) (Province/State) (City)

North America

Canada

Ontario

Kingston

Ottawa

Toronto

Controlled Vocabulary

Woodworking Magazine example Keywords added to table saw by their photographers in love with

tools “Gorgeous”

Controlled Vocabulary -misuse

•The unique controlled vocabulary that we create is unique to each client. •Based on three attributes, physical, organizational, descriptive•Our librarians will review a cross section of the assets to be keyworded (usually 25%) to start with, then as we add metadata to the assets, we uncover more needed.

Controlled Vocabulary

Unique Controlled Vocabulary Creation - Physical

Campus & Area Infrastructure Buildings A. E. Cameron Building (P Building) A. L. Macdonald Building (D Building) A. L. Macdonald Building (D Building) Bernard N. Cain Building (Q Building) Burbidge Building Central Services Building Chase Building Chemical Engineering (F Building) Chemistry Building

Unique Controlled Vocabulary Creation - Organizational

Academic & Research Units

Faculties (Faculty of)

Architecture & Planning

Architecture (School of)

Community Design

Planning (School of)

Arts & Social Sciences

African Studies

Arabic

Canadian Studies

Chinese (Mandarin)

Classics

Contemporary Studies

Costume Studies

Early Modern Studies

Program

English

Environmental Studies

European Studies

Film Studies

Unique Controlled Vocabulary Creation - Distinctive

Descriptive Words

Actions

Architectural Details

Arts & Culture

Body Parts

Clothing

Colours

Documents

Tams

Tartan

Tricolour

•Final Product is a txt file•Can be inserted into many applications•Ease of tagging for users, touch key-wording in lightroom /bridge

•Some clients use a CV as a file server folder structure

•Categories –Embedded data mappingXMP- Hierarchical Subject Asset Bank for auto mapping to multiple categories. Assets are placed into the base category or each hierarchal thread on ingest for easier placement

Controlled Vocabulary