An example of very detailed item-level description of a pictorial
collection is the Robert B. Honeyman Collection from The Bancroft Library
(UCB):

http://www.oac.cdlib.org:80/dynaweb/virtual/calher/honeyman/

It contains detailed item-level descriptions of works of art. The
description was developed based on various museum and visual resource
standards for description (CDWA, VRA, MARC-VM) and includes detailed
descriptive notes and subject access points.

While detailed description does improve access to the collection itself,
when searched in the context of large collections of other finding aids
(OAC for example), results can be disproportionate in favor of the more
detailed finding aid, which can skew a researcher's view of the results.
Although this does not mean one should not provide detailed item-level
records, it is something to consider.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mary W. Elings
Pictorial Archivist
The Bancroft Library
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
[log in to unmask]
Ph 510-642-8170
Fx 510-642-7589


At 08:46 AM 11/09/2001 +0000, Bob Walser wrote:
>The present discussion of large finding aids is very helpful. I'm
>working on a project that will result in something like 15,000
>item-level entries (most at the <c05> level). For practical
>reasons we plan to do our day-to-day work in chunks of
>the whole using entity references. I'm watching the discussion
>with interest for ideas about delivering our results to users.
>
>Our item-level entries are very detailed - far more detailed than
>any EAD sites I've seen so far. Can anyone direct me to a site
>with very detailed item-level data?
>
>Thanks,
>Bob Walser
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>Robert Young Walser
>The James Madison Carpenter Project
>Office telephone: 1-612-374-4364
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