These examples of photographs from the Springfield (Mass.) Union-News were used to demonstrate certain aspects of indexing newspaper photographs in an electronic archive. This display includes the photograph, cutline, photographer, keyword, and sample free text entries. They were used as part of a presentation at the Archive Program at Visual Edge '98, September 1, 1998, St. Petersburg, Florida.
A sample keyword list and text of the presentation are also available.
Examples | Group Indexing | Extra Credit Indexing | References
Caption: NORTHAMPTON, 3-19-97. Frederick Perry holds a dumbbell bar while under cross examination in Hampshire Superior Court on Wednesday. Mr. Perry testified to hitting Billy Paige with a similar bar while he was at the Perry's Chapman St. home.
Photographer: Matthew Cavanaugh
Keywords: MURDER, TRIAL
Free text: evidence, murder, trial.
Caption: BRIMFIELD, 8-19-98. Left to right, James Keizer, 7, of Brimfield and Adam Coolong, 6, of Brimfield swing at the Brimfield Elementary School playground.
Photographer: Morris J. Kennedy
Keywords: CHILD, PLAYING, SUMMER
Free text: summer, children, kids, swinging, smiling, laughing, having fun.
Caption: WESTFIELD, 8-23-98. Casey A. Rhodes of Mendon Mass. feeds some sheep from her family's farm during the Westfield fair.
Photographer: Juan Pedraza
Keywords: CHILD, FARM, ANIMAL, FESTIVAL
Free text: sheep, feeding, hay
Note: this is a really good candidate for keyword indexing.
Caption: WEST SPRINGFIELD, 8-21-98. New principal of Ashley School, Joseph Bregoli readies his new office at Ashley School. Bregoli was principal of Memorial School before.
Photographer: Chitose Suzuki
Keywords: WORKING, SCHOOL.
Free text: end of summer, moving into new office, unpacking, bookshelves, mess, office.
Note: this is a really good candidate for free text indexing, and a bad candidate for keywording.
Caption: HOLYOKE, 8-5-98. Michelle Lalchandani shows her hand made stained glass mirror refracting roses she used for a wedding theme package in her basement.
Photographer: Chitose Suzuki.
Keywords: CRAFT
Free text: craft, glass, flowers, pride
Note: the word WEDDING is in the cutline when really this picture has nothing to do with weddings. This is one of the dangers of relying only on the cutline for newspaper photograph retrieval.
Caption: SPRINGFIELD, 8-23-98. Peter Bagdigian, left, his twin sister Patricia Buttero, both of Farmington, Conn., and Linda Zarzatian of Hudson, New Hampshire, join hands while dancing to live music during Armenian Fest '98 at St. Mark's Armenian Church in Springfield on Sunday.
Photographer: Christopher Evans.
Keywords: DANCE, ANNUAL, GROUP, FESTIVAL
Free text: twin, line dance, family or relatives, twins.
Caption: 8-19-98. Greeting visitors to the Dataprofits Y2K party was Kelly Scagliarini of Springfield.
Photographer: Chitose Suzuki
Keywords: COMPUTER, MILENNIUM, BUSINESS
Free text: balloons, Y2K
Note: this photograph illustrates the importance of having a flexible keyword list. The idea of Y2K did not exist a few years ago, yet here is a photograph "about" Y2K. Other examples: AIDS, Internet, El Nino, etc. In this case, there is a scope note in the keyword list instructing indexer and searcher to use the combination of COMPUTER and MILLENIUM to describe photographs about Y2K.
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Caption: WESTFIELD, 8-23-98. The Dance group "Girls Inc." from Worcester Mass. dance to the tune of "Men in Black" during the Westfield fair.
Photographer: Juan Pedraza
Keywords: DANCE, CHILD, GROUP
Free text: barefoot, wooden floor, black and white leotards.
Note: would you add a word like ETHNIC or MULTICULTURAL here to indicate that this is a group of children of different racial backgrounds?
Caption: LUDLOW, 8-19-98. Henry Haste, of Ludlow, back, shows Mary Rapska of Ludlow the workings of Windows '95 during a computer class Wednesday at the Senior Center.
Photographer: Dave Roback
Keywords: COMPUTER, TEACHER, ELDERLY
Free text: ergonomics (bad example of....)
Note: would you include something here about the racial breakdown of the couple? Could be used to illustrate a story about computer use among people of different ethnic backgrounds.
Caption: AGAWAM, 8-19-98. Acting governor Paul Cellucci, left, and Attorney General Scott Harshbarger share a laugh Wednesday afternoon during Hampden County Sheriff Michael Ashe's annual clambake at Riverside Park.
Photographer: Don Fontaine
Keywords: POLITICIAN, ANNUAL, SUMMER
Free text: schmoozing, laughing, casual
Note: what about the guy behind Harshbarger's shoulder? Is he someone important? Might he be someday? Think about the person who found the video clip of President Clinton hugging Monica Lewinsky at the rope line. Surely that wasn't indexed; but it probably took several hours of searching through video to find!
Caption: NORTHAMPTON, 8-19-98. Douglas Williams, of Northampton, installing drywall in an office of the detective bureau at the Northampton Police Department.
Photographer: Bob Stern
Keywords: INTERIOR, CONSTRUCTION, POLICE
Free text: ladder, office
Note: the next three pictures are all in some way "about" police. This one takes place inside a police station; the next is police officers in action, and the third is a police sketch. All three pictures could have the word POLICE in the keyword field. But only one is really about police activity. And if you look carefully, that picture - the next one - is the only one that doesn't have the word police in the cutline.
Caption: SPRINGFIELD, 7-29-98. Officer Frederick Peck, left, and Officer Jayme Sharpe, right, at a traffic stop on Pine Street in Springfield.
Photographer: Dave Roback
Keywords: POLICE, ARREST?
Free text: police in uniform; police car; daylight
Note: this is the only one of three police shots that is really "about" police work and the word POLICE is not in the cutline - another example of why relying on the cutline for electronic searching isn't foolproof. Also be careful not to assume that this is an ARREST. If it's not an arrest, how else would this be defined in the keyword field?
Caption: 2-11-98. A Northampton Police Department sketch of a man wanted for questioning regarding a robbery that occurred on 2-3-98 in Northampton.
Keywords: POLICE, DRAWING, ROBBERY
Free text: suspect, police sketch
Note: With just this cutline, we don't know who this suspect is or might be; we also don't know who the robbery victim is. Without that information, this sketch becomes virtually useless except as an illustration of a generic police sketch.
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Caption: HADLEY, 8-19-98. Eleanor Rytuba and her grandson Alex Rytuba, 5, both of Hadley, picking tomatoes at Rytuba farms along Bay Road in Hadley.
Photographer: Bob Stern
Keywords: FARM, SUMMER
Free text: tomatoes, relatives, grandparents, grandchildren
Caption: SPRINGFIELD, 7-24-98. EMS rushes a child to the Bay State Medical Center from the med flight at the bay State Medical Center.
Photographer: Chitose Suzuki
Keywords: MEDICAL, EMERGENCY
Free text: drowning victim, helicopter, medical
Notes: It's hard to index this picture from the photographer's cutline, because there is no identifying information. The child was a drowning victim; it happened quickly, and the photographer didn't get the name of the child. But we don't have the name of the child, either, so without much further research, this photograph won't end up with other photographs of this child's drowning.
Caption: SPRINGFIELD, 8-17-98. Springfield residents opposed to a needle exchange program stage a protest before the Springfield City Council.
Photographer: Christopher Evans
Keywords: DEMONSTRATION, AIDS
Free text: needle exchange, signs, crowd
Notes: Would you really use AIDS as a keyword here? The photograph needs more identification than just DEMONSTRATION, but needle exchange isn't only about AIDS. Another question: does it matter, when indexing DEMONSTRATIONS, which side of the issue the demonstration supports?
Caption: WESTFIELD, 8-18-98. Henry (the juggler) Lappen of Amherst performs at the annual Westfield Boys & Girls library summer reading program's ice cream party at Stanley Park.
Photographer: Don Treeger
Keywords: PARK, PLAYING, CHILD, ANNUAL, CROWD
Free text: juggling, lots of children, colorful
Notes: While this is a event sponsored by the local library, it doesn't happen at a library and isn't "about" a library, so that keyword isn't used. The word can be retrieved from the cutline. Other important aspects of the picture include juggling, which is captured with the keyword PLAYING; the word "juggler" is in the cutline. Keywords don't address the notion that there are quite a few children in this photograph.
Caption: NORTHAMPTON, 5-3-97. Marchers in the Pride Day march in downtown Northampton.
Photographer: Charles Abel
Keywords: PARADE, RAIN, HOMOSEXUAL
Free text: marching, gay pride, lesbians, mothers, umbrellas, colorful
Notes: The contrast of colorful umbrellas and rain during a parade is not done justice with keywords, nor is the idea of women - mothers? - marching with their children. Still keyword indexing is useful here, in case someone needed photographs of parades taking place in the rain.
Examples | Group Indexing | Extra Credit Indexing | References | Home
Two sources for keywording help on the Internet are:
The (Chicago) TRIBUNE COMPANY PHOTO ARCHIVING TASK FORCE, posted to http://www.ibiblio.org/slanews/conferences/sla1998/tribusage.html, JULY, 1995. Provides a detailed list of photo keywords which are *very* helpful. Other examples of newspaper photograph keywords are also available at the Special Libraries Association/News Division web site at http://www.ibiblio.org/slanews/conferences/sla1998/photokeywords.html.
The Library of Congress has prepared a throrough Thesaurus for Graphic Materials which is available both on the web and in hard copy. ISBN: 0-8444-0889-1. This is a *tremendous* resource in the general field of photograph indexing.
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All images © Springfield Union-News and Sunday Republican. May not be reused.
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Last Updated: 04/9/2001
Carolyn Edds
ufriverat@gmail.com