Controlled Vocabulary
The Roberson Project Team decided to build the Locating Slavery’s Legacies database (LSLdb) with Omeka S web platform because of its ability to interconnect or group items of information about memorials or people using controlled vocabularies.
A controlled vocabulary is an organized and preset arrangement of words and phrases that enable content to be indexed. Once indexed, for instance, memorials that are added to the database can be retrieved by browsing or searching the database.
The LSLdb controlled vocabulary is unique to it. We at the Roberson Project worked with the team from Omeka to design its specialized word arrangements, phrases, and menus of drop-boxes to fit the purposes of the database and to insure uniform organization and categorization of its information.
Here is how it works for RESEARCHERS. Using a controlled vocabulary, researchers at different college and university campuses enter information about memorials on their respective campuses or the people they memorialize into the database in the exact same way. That uniformity allows the sets of data about memorials for one campus to “speak the same language” as all the other campuses’ sets of data. That consistency among all campus researchers also allows the database to aggregate or bring together all the information submitted by each individual campus into a single master database.
If everyone follows the guidelines and uses the same words and phrases of the controlled vocabulary, we end up with two different, but interconnected databases: 1) an aggregate database collecting all information from all campuses, and 2) a smaller database for each individual campus’s memorials.
Here is how it works for USERS who discover the LSLdb on the web. They can search for information about memorials in two general ways: 1) across all the campuses, or 2) across an individual campus. They also can narrow their search for all memorials on all campuses or on an individual campus by specifying those
- >erected during an historical period (such as the era of the Lost Cause, from 1890 to 1940),
- >or featuring a particular figure (such as the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee),
- >or made in a specific form or medium (such as a “sculptural item” or “visual work of art”),
- >or honoring a person espousing particular ideas (such as a “defender of racial hierarchies supporting white supremacy”).
To see a full list of our controlled vocabularies including in-depth definitions, please see the LSLdb Data Dictionary. Scroll down further to see highlights of some of our controlled vocabularies that allow for better interconnected research among items.
The memorial context
The memorial context is a controlled vocabulary that is attached to every memorial item that tells the researcher how this memorial meets the scope of our database. In the case of the photography example on the left, this memorial is named after a hoperson who supported the Lost Cause and resisted Civil Rights movements and integration efforts ontheir campus. Therefore the item is tagged as a Lost Cause and anti-Civil Rights memorial. These controlled vocabularies T
Connections
The memorial context is a controlled vocabulary that is attached to every memorial item that tells the researcher how this memorial meets the scope of our database. In the case of the photography example on the left, this memorial is named after a hoperson who supported the Lost Cause and resisted Civil Rights movements and integration efforts ontheir campus. Therefore the item is tagged as a Lost Cause and anti-Civil Rights memorial. These controlled vocabularies Ts
Historical Period
The memorial context is a controlled vocabulary that is attached to every memorial item that tells the researcher how this memorial meets the scope of our database. In the case of the photography example on the left, this memorial is named after a hoperson who supported the Lost Cause and resisted Civil Rights movements and integration efforts ontheir campus. Therefore the item is tagged as a Lost Cause and anti-Civil Rights memorial. These controlled vocabularies
Tags
The memorial context is a controlled vocabulary that is attached to every memorial item that tells the researcher how this memorial meets the scope of our database. In the case of the photography example on the left, this memorial is named after a hoperson who supported the Lost Cause and resisted Civil Rights movements and integration efforts ontheir campus. Therefore the item is tagged as a Lost Cause and anti-Civil Rights memorial. These controlled vocabularies
Memorialized Subject
The memorial context is a controlled vocabulary that is attached to every memorial item that tells the researcher how this memorial meets the scope of our database. In the case of the photography example on the left, this memorial is named after a hoperson who supported the Lost Cause and resisted Civil Rights movements and integration efforts ontheir campus. Therefore the item is tagged as a Lost Cause and anti-Civil Rights memorial. These controlled vocabularies Tt
Learn More About This Subject
The memorial context is a controlled vocabulary that is attached to every memorial item that tells the researcher how this memorial meets the scope of our database. In the case of the photography example on the left, this memorial is named after a hoperson who supported the Lost Cause and resisted Civil Rights movements and integration efforts ontheir campus. Therefore the item is tagged as a Lost Cause and anti-Civil Rights memorial. These controlled vocabularies