1. Subject access to cultural objects A review of challenges and opportunities
Jonathan Furner
Assistant Editor, DDC
OCLC
ALA/ALCTS :: June 25, 2005

2. Jan van Huysum (Dutch, 1682-1749) 1722
Vase of Flowers
Jan van Huysum (Dutch, )
1722
oil on panel
79.4 x 60.9cm
J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, CA)
©2004 J. Paul Getty Trust

3. Description: Still life of drooping flowers spilling onto a ledge, some decaying and being eaten by insects; represents the senses of sight and smell; the decay and broken stems symbolize the transient nature of life, youth, and beauty; the ledge pushed up to the picture plane resembles the ledge seen in posthumous portraits, thus symbolizing death. The crown of thorns flower at the top symbolizes the Passion of Christ.
Subject--Description: still life; Pronkstilleven; botanical; flowers; crown of thorns plant; cyclamen; hyacinth; lilies; narcissus; peonies; primrose; tulips; roses; sweetpeas; violet; insects; caterpillar; bird’s nest; eggs; urn; ledge
Subject--Interpretation: senses; smell; beauty; life; transience; Vanitas; Passion of Christ

4. Untitled Rayograph (Light Patterns)
Man Ray (American, , died in France)
1927
gelatin silver print
25.15 x 29.97cm
J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, CA)
©2004 J. Paul Getty Trust

5. Description: The objects used by Man Ray to create this image are not apparent; the rapid alternation of light and dark on the page stimulates the eye; the stippled spots of black interact with the texture of the paper to activate the surface of the print and suggest positive and negative space.
Subject--Description: non-representational; light; light and dark; texture; spots
Subject--Interpretation: positive and negative space

6. Lincoln on the Battlefield of Antietam, Maryland, October 2, 1862
Alexander Gardner (American, )
1862
albumen print
21.8 x 19.7cm
J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, CA)
©2004 J. Paul Getty Trust

7. Description: President Abraham Lincoln on the Antietam battlefield, with Major Allan Pinkerton, chief of the Secret Service, and Major John McClernand.
Subject--Description: portraits; history/legend; war; army camp; soldier; officer; president; tent; campstool; stovepipe hat
Subject--Identification: Antietam Battlefield (Sharpsburg, Maryland); Battle of Antietam (American Civil War); Union army; Abraham Lincoln (American president, ); Allan Pinkerton (American Secret Service agent, detective, ); John McClernand (American Union General, )

8. Cataloguing Cultural Objects as a tool for subject cataloguers
Aims
practical guidance for subject cataloguers, indexers
intra- and inter-indexer consistency
user–indexer consistency
retrieval effectiveness

9. Cataloguing Cultural Objects as a tool for subject cataloguers
Challenges
what does “subject” mean? -- i.e., what kinds of property of works should be indexed?
what kinds of method should be used to determine the subject(s) of works, and ...
... to select terms that represent those subjects?
what kinds of control should be imposed on the lists of terms from which selection is made, and how should such authority control be implemented?
what metadata elements should be established for recording subject data?

10. Cataloguing Cultural Objects as a tool for subject cataloguers
Predecessors
art-historical theories of iconography/iconology:
Panofsky, van de Waal, van Straten
information-scientific theories of subject indexing:
Layne, Markey, Svenonius
data value standards:
AAT, TGM, ICONCLASS
data structure standards:
CDWA, VRA Core

11. Challenges 1. Kinds of subject
Subjects, objects, images, texts
subjects: e.g., people, things, events, places, concepts
objects (works) [in museums, archives]: e.g., artworks, buildings, artifacts, documents, collections
descriptive cataloguing: what the objects are
subject cataloguing: what subjects the objects are of / about

12. Challenges 1. Kinds of subject, cont’d
images [in visual resource collections]: visual representations of objects, e.g., photographs, slides, digital files
descriptive cataloguing: what the images are; what objects the images are of
subject cataloguing: what subjects the images are about
texts [in libraries]: verbal representations of objects, e.g., books, journal articles
descriptive cataloguing: what the texts are
subject cataloguing: what objects the texts are about; what subjects the texts are about

13. Challenges 1. Kinds of subject, cont’d
Representation
representational (figurative) works
narrative subjects
stories
episodes in stories, i.e., events
non-narrative subjects
people, animals, plants
objects, e.g., buildings
activities; places; periods
[work types: portraits, still lifes, landscapes, genre scenes, architectural drawings ...]

14. Challenges 1. Kinds of subject, cont’d
non-representational works
abstract works
buildings
furniture
decorative arts
“subject” / content =
meaning (symbolic, allegorical, thematic, conceptual)
form, composition
function, purpose, use

15. Challenges 1. Kinds of subject, cont’d
Panofsky’s theory of iconography
3 layers of meaning = 3 layers of iconographical research:
pre-iconographical description
description of primary (natural) subject-matter
knowledge required:
(i) of objects/events
(ii) of history of style: i.e., how objects/events are expressed by certain forms at certain times

16. Challenges 1. Kinds of subject, cont’d
iconographical analysis
analysis of secondary (conventional) subject-matter
knowledge required:
(i) of literary sources of themes/concepts
(ii) of history of types: i.e., how themes/concepts are expressed by certain objects/events at certain times
iconological interpretation
interpretation of intrinsic meaning
(i) “synthetic intuition” of the “essential tendencies” of human mind
(ii) of history of symbols: i.e., how “essential tendencies” are expressed by certain themes/concepts at certain times

17. Challenges 1. Kinds of subject, cont’d
Ofness and aboutness
what is the work of?
generically: description
e.g., “Nude standing woman seen from front, holding dagger in right hand”
specifically: identification
e.g., “The suicide of Lucretia”
what is the work about?
interpretation
e.g., “virtuousness”

18. CCO recommendation #1
subject data should be consistently given for all works, not just for representational ones
(even if those data end up overlapping with the content of other elements, e.g. Work Type)

19. Challenges 2. Subject analysis
Ofness
who? what? where? when?
people, objects/activities, places, times
generic to specific
left to right; top to bottom; foreground to background ...

20. Challenges 2. Subject analysis, cont’d
Aboutness
what is the meaning of the work?
what is expressed by the work?
what do the objects, events, etc., depicted in the work symbolize?
how may the image be interpreted?
what was the intention of the work’s creator?
how has the work been interpreted historically?

21. CCO recommendation #2
take a methodical approach to subject analysis

22. Challenges 3. Term selection
What kinds of terms? How many terms?
factors that can’t help but affect the specificity of indexing:
quality and quantity of available scholarly information about the work
extent of indexer’s knowledge of the work
extent of indexer’s general pre-iconographic knowledge
depth of indexer’s indexing expertise
availability of time; money; human resources; technology at institution’s disposal

23. Challenges 3. Term selection, cont’d
factors that should also affect the specificity of indexing
needs of end-users: expert and non-expert
characteristics of the collection
relative importance of the work
presence of unusual details in the work
institutional policies
number of terms to be assigned per work
method of subject analysis to be used
capabilities of system
e.g., to link NTs to BTs, preferred terms to synonyms and RTs, etc.

24. CCO recommendation #3a
don’t be specific without the support of scholarly evidence
better to be general and accurate than specific and wrong

25. CCO recommendation #3b
use subject terms that have been identified as “preferred” in established authority files (controlled vocabularies)

26. Challenges 4. Authority control
Four kinds of authority file
Personal and Corporate Body Authority
preferred forms of names of real people/bodies (as artists, patrons, subjects of works)
Geographic Place Authority
preferred forms of names of real places

27. Challenges 4. Authority control, cont’d
Concept Authority
preferred forms of genre terms
e.g. “still life,” “landscape”
preferred forms of generic subject terms
objects, materials, activities, agents, properties, styles, periods treated as subjects

28. Challenges 4. Authority control, cont’d
Subject Authority
preferred forms of iconographical terms
proper names, uniform titles, standard labels ...
... of characters, situations, events, themes, works (e.g., buildings) ...
... in historical, mythological, religious, literary contexts

29. Challenges 4. Authority control, cont’d
cf. AAT: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
terms for describing what objects / images are
project began 1980; funded by CLR, NEH, Mellon, then Getty from 1985; sponsored by ARLIS, CAA, SAH, etc.
current: version 3.0-Web, at
cf. ICONCLASS: Iconographic Classification System
terms for describing what objects / images are of / about
1949: van de Waal (U. Leiden) began to develop ideas that led to ICONCLASS
: published in 17 vols.
ICONCLASS Libertas Browser (KNAW, Amsterdam): web-accessible version, at

30. Challenges 4. Authority control, cont’d
Kinds of source of terminology for local authority files
distinguished by structure:
hierarchical vs. non-hierarchical
by object type:
subjects vs. people/places
by scope:
domain-specific vs. interdisciplinary
by purpose:
authority control vs. end-user reference

31. CCO recommendation #4
link the occurrences of subject terms in work records to the authority records for those terms
(in authority files that implement synonym control and hierarchical structure)

32. Challenges 5. Record structure
Metadata element sets
cf. CDWA: Categories for the Description of Works of Art
ed. Baca, Harpring
funded by Getty, NEH, CAA
2000: version 2.0; on web at
cf. VRA Core Categories
ed. Lanzi, Whiteside
2002: version 3.0; on web at

33. Challenges 5. Record structure, cont’d
Subject metadata elements recommended by CCO
Description [free-text; non-repeatable]
Subject [required; controlled; repeatable]
Extent
for designating the part of the work to which the subject terms are applicable
Subject Type
for distinguishing between description, identification, interpretation

34. CCO recommendation #5
implement separate subject elements for display and for retrieval

35. Statue of Hercules (Lansdowne Herakles)
Unknown Roman sculptor; after the School of Polykleitos
about 125 CE
marble
height: 193.5cm
J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, CA)
©2004 J. Paul Getty Trust.

36. Description: Herakles standing in contrapposto, holding his attributes, the skin of the Nemean lion and a club. This statue was found in Tivoli ca. 1790, in the ruins of Hadrian’s villa; it was in the collection of the Marquess of Lansdowne until It is related in appearance to works attributed to 4th-century BCE Greek sculptors; however, the work has an eclectic style that is purely Roman.
Subject--Description: religion/mythology; human figure; male; nude; lion skin; club
Subject--Identification: Hercules (Greek/Roman hero); Nemean Lion

37. Example of a Subject Authority record
Subject Names: Hercules (preferred); Herakles; Heracles; Ercole; Hercule; Hércules
Hierarchical Position: Classical mythology--Greek heroic legends--Story of Hercules--Hercules
Indexing Terms: Greek hero; king; strength; fortitude; perseverance; Argos; Thebes
Note: Probably based on an actual historical figure, a king of ancient Argos. The legendary figure was the son of Zeus and Alcmene ...
Related Subjects: Labors of Hercules; Love Affairs of Hercules; Zeus (Greek god); Alcmene (Greek heroine); Hera (Greek goddess)
Dates: Story developed in Argos, but was taken over at early date by Thebes; literary sources are late, though earlier texts may be surmised. Earliest: Latest: 9999
Sources: ICONCLASS Grant, Michael and John Hazel. Gods and Mortals in Classical Mythology. Springfield, MA: G & C Merriam Company, Page: 212 ff.

38. Opportunities integrity and longevity of data
consistent, reliable access to data
exchange, sharing, reuse of data
interoperability of systems
easy migration of data to new systems
communication, cooperation, collaboration

39. Some residual questions
should indexers be expected to do iconographical research to index aboutness?
should cultural-historical questions about a work’s unintended meanings be answered by indexers?
how may future users’ needs be predicted?
what role for general knowledge-organization schemes?

40. DDC Class Iconography
for texts about the treatment of specific subjects in visual art (and for collections of images of specific subjects)
Human figures
Nature and still life
Architectural subjects and cityscapes
Symbolism and allegory
Mythology and legend
Religion
Other specific subjects

41. DDC Class 704.9 Iconography, cont’d
Drawing other subjects
Add to base number the numbers following in –
Collections of drawings by subject (Iconography)
Add to base number the numbers following in –
Photography of specific subjects
Add to base number the numbers following in –
779 Photographs
Add to base number 779 the numbers following in –

42. DDC Table 3C. Notation to Be Added Where Instructed [at]. 700. 4, 791
for texts about ...
Special topics in the arts
Arts displaying specific qualities of style, mood, viewpoint
Add to base number the numbers following —1 in notation 11–18 from Table 3C ...
700.42–.48 Arts dealing with specific themes and subjects
Add to base number the numbers following —3 in notation 32–38 from Table 3C ...
Motion pictures, radio, television

43. DDC Table 3C, cont’d Notation to Be Added Where Instructed [at]. 700
—3 Arts ... dealing with specific themes and subjects
—32 Places
—33 Times
—35 Humanity
—36 Physical and natural phenomena
—37 The supernatural, mythological, legendary
—38 Philosophic and abstract themes

44. DDC Table 3C, cont’d Notation to Be Added Where Instructed [at]. 700
—1 Arts ... displaying specific qualities of style, mood, viewpoint
—11 Nontraditional viewpoints
—12 Realism and naturalism
—13 Idealism
—14 Classicism and romanticism
—15 Symbolism, allegory, fantasy, myth
—16 Tragedy and horror
—17 Comedy
—18 Irony

45. Thank You. Questions?
Jonathan Furner
(202)