Snapshots of USF History - Updated!

CSF Francisline cheerleaders in formation
Over the past month my student worker, Jojo, and intern, Madison, have been busy, busy, busy! I tasked them with creating original metadata (information about information) for over 600 images, which depict events, people, and places from the University’s past. These images were added to the Sharing Our Past, A Visual History online collection.

This project was achieved through a number of steps; the first included digitizing the physical photographs. This was completed at the beginning of 2015. Over December 2015 and January 2016, I looked over all the images to see which ones would be selected for the online collection. This is known as “appraisal” and done at least twice to determine which images should be included based on their historical significance to the institution. Reasons images might not be included in the collection are:
  1. Redundant/duplicate material
  2. Photographs which are blurry and/or of poor quality
  3. Material that is the physical and/or intellectual property of another agency or individual (copyright infringement)
  4. Sensitive items that contain social security numbers or other information (health, educational) that is protected through federal legislation designed to safeguard the privacy of individuals

For our purpose, only the first two rules applied in the selection process. The next step was to upload the files into our digital collection management software, ContentDM Project Client. This software allowed us to add all the original metadata for each of the images, based on our metadata template. In the Sharing Our Past collection there are 11 metadata fields within the template: Title, Description, Subject, Date, Language, Type, Format, Rights, Publisher, Collection, and Identifier.

Screenshot of ContentDM Project Client
Jojo and Madison used a prepared Excel spreadsheet to help them fill in all the information, such as, names and dates, but needed to use their research skills to fill in any blanks. This included looking through the CSF yearbooks, Interlude, Encounter, and the main USF website. Once the metadata was added I checked their work and made any necessary changes, like spelling mistakes or formatting issues.

After the upload to the CARLI servers, the images were approved and indexed into the current collection, then made available on the finished website. A majority of the photographs were from the 1980s, and feature commencement ceremonies, men’s and women’s athletics, and general student life at USF.

Concept art for proposed baseball stadium, Gillespie Field



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