Challenges of Building and Maintaining an Image Database: a use case based on the Digital Research Archive for Byzantium (DiFAB)

Abstract

Due to the complex nature of archival images, it is an ongoing challenge to establish a metadata architecture and metadata standards that are easy to navigate and take into consideration future requirements. This contribution will present a use case in the humanities based on the Digital Research Archive for Byzantium (DiFAB) at the University of Vienna. Tracing one monument and its photographic documentation, this paper will highlight some issues concerning metadata for images of material culture, such as: various analog and digital forms of documentation; available thesauri – including problems of historical geography, multilingualism, and culturally specific terminologies –; and the importance of both precise and imprecise dating for cultural historians and their research archives.

Keywords

• digital archive
• metadata standards
• image database
• digital humanities
• controlled vocabulary