I am involved in a grant-funded digitization project and disagree with several colleagues who believe the backs of photographs should be scanned because they contain important metadata, such as dates, accession numbers, and subjects.  We all agree this information is important and must be captured, but, in my opinion, that’s the purpose of the metadata fields in the software we’re using.  The writing on the backs was done at some point for administrative and informational purposes, as is often the case in archival collections, but in itself it has no particular historical significance, nor was it intended to be part of the images themselves.  Therefore, as long as the information is recorded in the database and is searchable, I can see no reason for digitizing it.  To me, this is a different case than, say, historical postcards, where you probably would scan both sides because postcards are intentionally two-sided (if that makes any sense) and the writing on the back has an intended connection with the image beyond the functions of metadata.

 

Those of us who share my view are primarily archivists, whereas my dissenting colleagues are artists.  I suspect they are more concerned with the entire physical object and believe that we would somehow be violating its integrity by not digitizing everything.  But for me, it’s the image that is the focus here, and recording the metadata in the proper database fields is sufficient.  I can’t remember coming across collections of digitized images that included the backs, and scanning them seems to me a waste of time, effort, and space.  I’d greatly appreciate it if those of you who are involved with digitization would weigh in with your opinions.  Obviously I have strong views of my own on this, but I want to be fair and make sure there’s not an issue here that I just don’t get.  Thanks.

 

Paul

 

Paul Schlotthauer

Librarian and Archivist

Assistant Professor

Pratt Institute Libraries

200 Willoughby Avenue

Brooklyn, New York 11205

718-636-3686

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