Leveraging Images and Metadata for Fashion and Cultural Research

Corporate Digital Archive Projects

Digital Humanities

#alt-LIS

What is DH?

What is #alt-LIS?

•DH projects• Evolving roles and responsibilities•New venues and careers• Training and support

The Vogue Archive

What is Vogue?

• Monthly document of record, “The Bible” • Fashion history• High society• Fashion in context• Joan Didion, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn,

Susan Sontag, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., William Faulkner, Graham Greene…

Statistics

•2,797 issues•430,600 pages•121,206 articles•448,750 images•320,034 advertisements•2009 – 2011•Enhanced metadata back to 1940

Corporate Structure—EAR

Editorial Assets + Rights

Digital Archive

Physical Archive Library

Legal Tech

Vogue Archive Overview

• Robust digital archive• 1892-present: every article, image, and advertisement• Discover content by:• Browsing by issue date• Searching and faceting on specific terms

• Stunning hi-res visuals• Powerful metadata• Broad communities of users

Users Internal External

Vogue Archive

Digital Archive

Physical Archive

Condé Nast Employees

Researchers + Readers

External UsersIndividualsInstitutions

Libraries and Universities

Advertising + Branding

Fashion Houses

Individual Subscribers

Vogue Readers

Project History: 2009-2011

Preserve

MonetizeShowcase

Institutional Partners + Stakeholders

EAR

Vogue

WGSN

Proquest

Apex

Personnel

Archivists +

Librarians

Tech

Fashion Historians

Project Managers Legal

Analysts

Developers

Scanners

Vogue Staff

Project Objectives

•Elegant and powerful•Next-generation catalogs + OPACS•E-commerce sites•Preserve, showcase, monetize• Intuitive•Brand-compatible

Workflow Overview

CN Digital Archive

CN Physical Archive

External vendor: - Image scans

- OCR- XML conversion

Digital Archive,CN technologists

Vogue Archive

Conversion and QA WorkflowIssues out to vendor

Hi-Res Tiff

JPG

XML

OCR

25 TB Tiffs

-5 TB JPGs

Delivery to Condé Nast for

storage

Ingest XML,

staging

Create thumbnails, deep zoom,

printable images

Image storage on Web Servers

Master XML on

SQL databases

Keyworder + text-mining

Ingest XML, production

Fast Feed Update, data

merge

Vogue Archive Data Store (SQL)

FAST server

Viewer

Taxonomies and OntologiesALL ABOUT METADATA…• OCR• Digital Archive + Fashion Historians

…AND STANDARDIZATION• Hierarchies + flat lists• Industry vocabulary, Vogue usage• Proper terms

Hierarchies

Clothing CoatFit-and-flare

Fit-and-flare = Fit and flare = Hourglass

Clothing Coat Fitted

Clothing Coat Frock Frock = Cutaway Prince Albert, Victorian

Clothing Coat Gabardine Trench, Raincoat, Mac, Mackintosh, Military

Clothing Coat Greatcoat Greatcoat = Watchcoat Military

KEYWORD CATEGORY DESCRIPTOR SYNONYMS SUGGESTED SEARCHES

Front End

Back End

Other CN Digital Archive Projects

CONDÉ NASTPHOTO PORTAL

Agile Project Management

PROD

DEV

Systems Architects

T T T T T

Digital Archive Group

T T T T T

JIRA + CONFLUENCE

The Vogue Archive,Digital Humanities,and #alt-LISOn terms and crossing-borders

What is DH?

What is DH?

DH ProjectsOPEN SYLLABUS PROJECT

Library as Locus for DH Activity

DH in the Private Sector

(James Smithies)

“…narrowing the gap between the commercial and scholarly worlds.”

“…out of the ivory tower and back to an engagement with the ‘real world.”

DH in the Private Sector

Branding

Marketing

“Competing for Attention”(Tom Scheinfeldt)

Funding—Corporate Lessons?“The Best Revenue Models and Funding Sources for Your Digital Resources” (Ithaka S+R and JISC)

Advertising Selling/Licensing Content

Selling/Licensing Platforms + Expertise

Is the Vogue Archive a DH project?• It’s complicated…• YES:

• Digital processing of archival collections• Networked information• Enhanced study and research• Inherently interdisciplinary• Fashion, History, Journalism, Computer Sciences

• Has an essential public-facing application

• NO:• Commissioned and executed in a corporate environment• Subscription-based• Not overtly concerned with humanistic inquiry

Enhanced Data Enhanced Texts

Abstract: Remove "

What is #alt-LIS?

•DH projects• Evolving roles and responsibilities•New venues and careers• Training and support

Sources• Slide 2

• http://southeast2012.thatcamp.org/03/08/alt-lis• Slide 3

• http://whatisdigitalhumanities.com• http://sites.library.northwestern.edu/dh/• http://nowviskie.org/2012/reality-bytes/• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fe2-7mK8j8

• Slide 4• http://southeast2012.thatcamp.org/03/08/alt-lis

• Slide 10• http://www.vogue.com/magazine/article/jackie-kennedy-unscripte

d/#1• Slide 16

• Schematic courtesy of Demetri Vasiadis• Slide 23

• http://whatisdigitalhumanities.com• http://sites.library.northwestern.edu/dh/• http://nowviskie.org/2012/reality-bytes/• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fe2-7mK8j8

• Slide 24• http://whatisdigitalhumanities.com

• Slide 25• Opensyllabusproject.org• Metalab.harvard.edu• Wwp.brown.edu• Omeka.org• Neatline.org• Scalar.usc.edu• Buildinginspector.nypl.org• Maps.nypl.org/warper

• Slide 26• http://nypl.org/collections/labs• http://inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/201

2/dhandthelib/• http://infteam.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2012/02/

23/does-the-library-have-a-role-to-play-in-the-digital-humanities/

• Slide 27• http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/

5/3/000107/000107.html• http://nowviskie.org/2012/too-small-to-fail

/• http://www.foundhistory.org/2010/03/26/

soft-money-is-not-a-four-letter-word/

• Slide 29--Branding• http

://www.foundhistory.org/2009/02/26/brand-name-scholar/

• Slide 30—Funding• http://

www.jisc.ac.uk/reports/the-best-revenue-models-and-funding-sources-for-your-digital-resources

• http://www.foundhistory.org/2010/03/26/soft-money-is-not-a-four-letter-word/

• Slide 34• http://southeast2012.thatcamp.org/03/08/

alt-lis• http://inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/201

2/dhandthelib/