Descriptive Metadata: An Analysis of British Pathé Newsreel Collections from World War Two

Abstract

AbstractBritish Pathé is considered to be the finest newsreel archive in existence, a treasure trove unrivalled in historical and cultural significance, containing 85,000 short film clips totalling 3,500 hours of footage (predominately shot in grainy black and white with later works in colour) of major events, notable figures, fashion, travel, sports and culture, and is particularly strong in its coverage of the First and Second World Wars. In 2002, the process began to convert the film negatives into high-resolution digital files and upload them onto a computer database. A digital asset management system was utilized to host the archive and provide search abilities. One of the initial problems when converting the film negatives to digital files was a lack of detailed information. To combat this, the adoption of a better descriptive metadata scheme, using clearer, simpler keywords would make the site more user-friendly and easier to access. By comparing, sorting and categorizing a limited number of archival footage files from World War II on the British Pathé website, specifically “D-Day: 70th Anniversary Collection,” to create a statistical analysis of current descriptive metadata, a picture will emerge as to the user-friendly environment of the website. By using graphs, diagrams and stills, a deduction can be made as to whether the current keywords are well served or need improvement.ss