Washington Rural Heritage header
Metadata Documentation
- Metadata GuidelinesMetadata fields and guidelines for Washington Rural Heritage.
- Metadata OverviewOverview of metadata fields for Washington Rural Heritage.
- Dating PhotosTips for identifying the dates of photographs.
- Editing Metadata in Project ClientInstructions for editing metadata of items uploaded to Washington Rural Heritage using CONTENTdm Project Client.
- WRH Uniform Copyright NotesText that may be used in the copyright notes field to help explain copyright status.
WRH Metadata Information
Metadata can and should be collected at multiple steps during the digitization process. Basic information about items or collections should be gathered during the planning phase. Preliminary metadata, such as file name, title, and description, including attributes of the physical item that may not be evident in the digital surrogate, should be recorded for individual items as part of the digitization process. Further metadata can be added at the time of upload. Finally, metadata is not always final once materials have been posted. Members of the public may contact libraries with additional information about items. Metadata standards continue to change and libraries may revisit metadata from previous projects to ensure it meets current standards and best practices.
Contributing institutions are responsible for determining the copyright status of materials they contribute to Washington Rural Heritage. In addition to the documentation at left, the resources below may be helpful in understanding copyright law and how to apply it to digitized materials.
Copyright at Cornell Libraries: Copyright Term and the Public Domain, Cornell University Libraries, https://guides.library.cornell.edu/copyright/publicdomain.
Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, Peter Hirtle, Emily Hudson, Andrew Kenyon, https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/14142/Hirtle-Copyright_final_RGB_lowres-cover1.pdf;jsessionid=B0F326769F05FD173F0DC7E488A681AE?sequence=2.
Copyright Tools, American Library Association, https://librarycopyright.net/resources/fairuse/index.php.
All audio and video files submitted for inclusion should include transcripts. Hand written materials may also include transcripts where appropriate. Transcripts for typed materials can be generated during upload.
Audio and video transcripts should include the names of the speakers and time stamps every 2-5 minutes. We suggest using the Smithsonian Archives of American Art style guide listed below, however, other style guides are acceptable. We strongly encourage organizations to provide oral history transcripts to interviewees for review before submitting them for inclusion on Washington Rural Heritage. AI tools may be helpful in creating draft transcripts, but these should be edited for accuracy.
Oral History Transcripts: Style Guides
Smithsonian American Archives of Art, Oral History Program Style Guide, https://www.aaa.si.edu/documentation/oral-history-program-style-guide.
Baylor University Institute for Oral History, Style Guide: A Quick Reference for Editing Oral History Transcripts, 2018, https://library.web.baylor.edu/sites/g/files/ecbvkj1806/files/2025-01/style_guide_may_2018.pdf.
Columbia University Center for Oral History Research, Oral History Transcription Style Guide, 2022, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/575a10ba27d4bd5d7300a207/t/621cf621281bcd63d23a3dde/1646065186028/CCOHR+Transcript+Style+Guide+2022.pdf.