Glossary

The following list defines terms that appear frequently in these instructions.

Collection:

The set of images selected by a particular organization for King County Snapshots. They are stored in the same CONTENTdm database, although in reality they may have been selected from a number of different collections within the organization.

CONTENTdm:

Digital collection management software suite used for both cataloging and searching collections. A product of DiMeMa, Inc., CONTENTdm is scalable and is optimized for exceptionally large sets of data. It allows searching both individual collections or across multiple collections.

Database:

CONTENTdm unit storing images and metadata for each collection.

Field:

Division within a database that holds a particular set of information, such as the image's Title, its Photographer, etc.

Item:

An image and its associated metadata. May also be referred to as a record.

Keyword:

The word or words you use to search. A keyword may be a person, a place, an event, an object—whatever it is you hope to find images about!

Metadata:

Data about data, also known as catalog information. The images themselves are data—a visual type of historical information. The data about the images, or the metadata, includes Title, Photographer, Date, Subjects, Physical Description of the image (size, color vs. black-and-white), and a host of other fields. See About the cataloging for further information about our cataloging methodology.

Record:

The page containing an image and its associated metadata. May also be referred to as an item.

Results:

The image or images matching your search criteria. Results appear as thumbnails that can be clicked to display the full image and its associated metadata.

Thumbnails:

The small images appearing in your search results set, also known as icons. Click on a thumbnail image or its title (appearing beneath it) to view a larger version of the image and its associated metadata.

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