Collection Guidelines

Faces of TennCare Collection Guidelines

Purpose

The Faces of TennCare online digital library will consist of digital objects representing photographs created by team member Joon Powell, who holds the copyrights to these images. The photographs represent portraits of Tennesseans whose health insurance was cut by the state government in 2005 and 2006. This is a prototype of a potentially larger project in that we are using approximately twenty-five percent of the photos that were taken; this site could potentially expand to include more photos.

The Faces of TennCare digital library will serve as a communications tool for other healthcare advocacy organizations. Volunteers and staff at an array of historically progressive groups such as the Tennessee Justice Center, Tennessee Health Care Campaign, Tennessee Disability Coalition and others will be able to mine for stories in this digital library, ultimately facilitating increased access and discovery for the allied coalition members.

The Faces of TennCare digital library team includes members Clayton Altom, Jami Awalt, Tara Bergfeld, Cassie Ellis and Joon Powell, each of which are assigned various tasks in the creation and governance of the library (Clayton: create prototype; Jami: metadata; Tara: technology research; Cassie: collection guidelines; Joon: collection content). These tasks overlap and the team works as a whole to implement the project.

These guidelines are meant to help shape the final output of this digital library and will be made available to the team via our team blog for use during implementation and in case of future additions.

Images

Images are born digital. The original TIFF file is considered to be the master file. Derivative images with a resolution of 100 ppi, with a bit depth of 24 bit color, will be made and housed in the online library, powered by Omeka. Omeka does not require the use of a thumbnail image.

File-Naming Conventions

Each digital object will be assigned a unique identifier, following a consistent naming convention. Images are currently named according to the subject’s first and last name: firstname lastname.tif.  Images will be renamed as ftc_001.tif, ftc_002.tif, etc., where ftc = faces of tenncare. The naming convention is designed to be less than 8 characters, to represent the collection while providing a unique identifier for each image, to replace spaces with an underscore (_) and to avoid capitalization. Personal identifiers will not be used in the naming convention to avoid possible surname repetition and to eliminate the need to differentiate between multiple names when the digital object represents more than one person.

Collection Development

Access to the Faces of TennCare digital library will be made available through www.omeka.net, and will be accessible via a permanent link once the digital objects are loaded.

Clayton Altom will be responsible for developing the collection by completing the following tasks: choosing a theme, creating a collection to encompass the digital objects, setting accessibility rights, and uploading images. Tara Bergfeld will be responsible for creating the .csv metadata file and importing the metadata into the collection. The team will review the collection to make sure proper linking of metadata to files has occurred, and to approve the final product.

Metadata

Metadata conventions to be followed are as outlined by team member Jami Awalt in a separate document, which can be accessed via the team blog. Metadata will follow the simple Dublin Core format.

Omeka allows the use of tags to enhance searchability. The digital objects will be tagged with keywords in lieu of adding formal subject headings.

Guiding Principles

Collection guidelines and principles are adapted from those as outlined by CARLI (2007, 3) in its “Digital Collections: Collection Development Policy,” and contain the following for consideration:

• The extent to which the digital version can represent the original; if the full content is not to be included, the usefulness of the digital object must be carefully considered.

• Whether the materials will display well digitally using current, readily available technologies

• File size and network capacity to deliver the digital content to the user with reasonable speed

• Resources available to support collection organization and interface design to support and maintain the digital collection

• Resources available to catalog and provide metadata relating to document identification, provenance, full item description, and technical capture information for each item in the collection