State Library of Queensland > Our heritage > Picture Queensland > Resources > Guidelines > General Rules for Entering Data

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Guidelines for cataloguing images using the Picture Queensland web form

Guidelines also available as Word document [new window 363 kb].

3. General rules for entering data

3.1 Capitalise
3.2 Full stops
3.3 Dates
3.4 Doubtful information
3.5 Style and comprehension
3.6 Repetition of words
3.7 Culturally sensitive material

3.1 Capitalise:

First word of a title.

First word of each sentence or statement.

Proper names, eg, Sir Samuel Griffith, William Boag; University of Queensland;
Cairns Historical Society.

Geographic names, eg, North Queensland; Longreach; Burnett River; Boundary
Road; Lake Tinaroo.

Letters of an initialism or acronym according to the predominant usage, eg, ALP.
Exceptions:

Terms from Australian Pictorial Thesaurus (APT), except where capitalised in the thesaurus. Enter exactly as displayed.

First word of a subtitle unless it is a proper name.

Some entries are required to be entered in lower case, eg, photographic print in Format. Do not capitalise.

3.2 Full stops:

At the end of each sentence or statement.

At the end of abbreviations, eg, Qld.; Mt. St.

After initials, eg, P. G. Wodehouse. Include a space after the full stop.

Between letters of uncommon acronyms, eg, G.U.O.O.F. Spell the acronym out in parenthesis to make it clear, eg, G.U.O.O.F. (Grand United Order of Odd Fellows).

Exceptions:

At the end of the title statement.
(Note: If a title statement is particularly long and its comprehension would
benefit from the addition of punctuation, including full stops, then add
them.)

Well known acronyms or an acronym pronounced as a word, eg, ALP, CSIRO, ASIO. Leave out full stops between letters in these circumstances. Some acronyms are very familiar and do not require all the letters to be in upper case; only the first letter needs to be capitalised, eg, Anzac, Qantas.

3.3 Dates:

Enter dates in full in Title and Description elements or other elements where free text is used and no other guidelines exist.

For example:

enter 1883/4 as 1883/1884; 1827-9 as 1827-1829; '61 as 1861 or 1961 as the case may be

enter 22-8-1876 as 22 August 1876

If the exact date is unknown give an approximate date. Use the conventions - ? for probable date, and ca. for approximate date. Always use "ca." when referring to dates in the Title element. Do not use the abbreviation c. for approximate date or the full word circa.

For example:

1911? (probable date)

ca. 1868 (approximate date

ca. 1890-1900 (approximate dates/decade)

3.4 Doubtful information:

Unknown person/s:
If the name of a person or persons is unknown, describe them as'unidentified' rather than unknown (someone must have known them at some time), eg, unidentified woman rather than unknown woman. It is possible they will be identified in the future.

Identification doubtful:
It is sometimes better to omit any doubtful information, names, places and dates. If in any doubt at all, follow with a question mark, eg, Residence belonging to the Klinger family?, or, Wearing a long, striped, silk? dress.

3.5 Style and comprehension:

It is important that catalogue records have a professional appearance. They should not have typing and spelling errors and should be grammatically correct. Punctuation should be correctly used as well as spacing associated with punctuation.

Avoid including numerous concepts within a single sentence, either strung together by the word 'and' or by punctuation. Sentences easily lose their clarity if they are too long. They should be coherent and each sentence should flow logically from one to another.

Use clear words and phrases to convey meaning. Avoid using words like 'something', eg, he is holding something. If you are unsure of what is represented in the image, either seek another opinion or leave it out.

Endeavour to inject interest into the description. The Description element is important to describe the resource, but also to engage the user and encourage him/her to explore the database further.

Consult texts such as the Style manual for authors, editors and printers where necessary.

3.6 Repetition of words

Try not to repeat the same words too often in different elements. However, do not consciously try to find alternatives unless you feel they would provide meaningful access points.

Use of the word Queensland.
Sometimes the term Queensland appears to be overused, particularly when it may be in several elements on a record, eg, Title, Coverage, Description, Publisher, Source, etc. However, as the database expands, increasingly images that do not contain Queensland content are being added so it cannot be assumed from the title that all records relate to Queensland. Additionally, in the future all images in Picture Queensland will be accessible via Google and it is important that locations are quickly identified as part of Queensland on the short citations on Google.

Therefore, include Queensland in the Title element where relevant for all Queensland images including images that relate to major towns and cities within Queensland. Use judgement for its use.

3.7 Culturally sensitive materials:

Where the Contributor has significant photographic materials that feature culturally sensitive material, including offensive terminologies, images of deceased people and religious ceremonies, indexers should follow the guidelines below:

Subject headings: Australian Pictorial Thesaurus (APT) [new window http://www.picturethesaurus.gov.au/] is the preferred thesaurus. Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) [new window http://authorities.loc.gov/] will be used by some libraries. (See section 18 - Subjects).

After consultation with the staff from the State Library's Indigenous Library Services Unit, the following subject headings were chosen in order to provide the broadest access to images for users with diverse backgrounds and varying forms of terminology.

For all Aboriginal images, add the following headings:

APT - Aboriginal peoples (Australians)

LCSH - Indigenous peoples--Australia

For Torres Strait Islander images, add:

APT - Torres Strait Islanders

LCSH - Indigenous peoples--Australia

Offensive text:
Sometimes the original information that accompanies photographs may be of an offensive nature such as outdated terms and descriptions. Include the text in the description if it is part of a caption or text accompanying the original. State that it is a caption and place the text in inverted commas.

Special cases:
Discussions between staff from the Picture Queensland team and Indigenous Library Services have decided the following special cases:

Kanakas - If it is part of a caption or accompanying text, then Offensive text (above) applies.

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Last updated: 4th June 2007

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