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The Unique Challenges of a Photographic Collection

Marc Boulay Photographic Archivist University of St Andrews. The Unique Challenges of a Photographic Collection. North Street, looking West [St Andrews] Thomas Rodger, ca.1860. Presentation Overview. About our collection What we do Challenges of a photographic collection

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The Unique Challenges of a Photographic Collection

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  1. Marc Boulay Photographic Archivist University of St Andrews The Unique Challenges of aPhotographic Collection North Street, looking West [St Andrews] Thomas Rodger, ca.1860

  2. Presentation Overview • About our collection • What we do • Challenges of a photographic collection • Our aspirations and Emu • A few photographs

  3. 1839 – Photography is invented British French

  4. Photographic History & St Andrews • 1840s – Photography comes to St Andrews • W.H.F. Talbot • Sir David Brewster David Brewster By Thomas Rodger, ca.1854

  5. University of St Andrews Library Photographic Collection • Collection takes shape in 1970s • 700,000 original photographs • 130,000 digital images • 65,000 images online The Sphinx and Great Pyramid. Francis Frith, 1857

  6. Collection Care and Access • Special Collections Department • Facilities, environmental conditions • Staff responsibilities: • Research • Cataloguing • Preventative conservation • Supervision • Education & training • Community resource for consultation, research, viewing • Supporting academic research

  7. Rights and Commercial Use • Rights and permissions as primary income • Existing workflows were slow • Make technology work FOR us • E-commerce • Small staff .... dwindling resources ……….Time to invest!

  8. Why Emu? • Multiple databases needed centralising • Streamlining workflow and infrastructure • Increasing commercial potential • Building on 15 years of research • Required a DAMS solution

  9. Access - Relationships - Knowledge • Cultural heritage is not located IN objects… it results from the EXCHANGE OF IDEAS about them. • Access is crucial • If they don’t know it’s there, what’s the point? • Knowledge is establishing relationships between different types of data and info ….This is why we’ve chosen EMu

  10. The Unique Challenges… • Historically marginalised • No established home • Not museum objects • Not written documents Scott Monument, Edinburgh.1843

  11. Miss Margaret McCandlish. Salted paper print, 1843-1845 McCulloch's Tomb, Greyfriars. Salted paper print, 1843-1845

  12. Sir [Robert] Lambert Playfair. Albumen print, 1865 Unidentified Woman. Albumen print, ca. 1865

  13. Scientific and botanical specimens ca. 1900s

  14. Muybridge…..100 plates…Lost and found!

  15. Photography would do for visual information what the printing press did for the written word

  16. An Inherently Reproducible Medium

  17. Our Hierarchy Using Catalogue Records

  18. How Accession Lots Relate to Catalogue Records

  19. Often Overlooked Key Access Points • Multiple dates ….Capture date / Print date • Multiple authors / creators / assoc. parties …photographer, printer, publisher, sitter / subject • Distinguishing Format / Medium / Dimensions

  20. Digitisation RAF [Leuchars]. George Middlemass Cowie, September 1948

  21. Digitisation and Cataloguing as a Tool …Not an End • Access, dialogue, use and momentum are the objective. • As such…. When considering “Quantity vs Quality --- …Quantity wins!” The perfect shouldn’t get in the way of the possible!

  22. Motorcycle Races, St Andrews. George Middlemass Cowie, July 1936

  23. To conclude… • Please approach us if you’re interested in learning more about what we do • Although still in the development stage, we look forward to joining the EMu community • We’d be very interested in learning how others have dealt with photographs [Lake Como]. Bosetti, Bellagio, ca.1880

  24. Thank You! Footway near Tay Bridge, Dundee. George Allan Little, ca.1969

  25. University of St Andrews LibraryPhotographic Collection Marc Boulay Photographic Archivist mdab@st-andrews.ac.uk Jane Campbell Research Cataloguer and Database Administrator Pamela Cranston Photographic Research and Preservation Officer

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