Metadata Schema
Metadata Schema:
Context: Items in this collection have all come from the Centre College archives in Danville, KY, and all images are owned by the institution. Given the extremely complicated nature of the desegregation of white colleges in the South, this is intended to be the first step in a much larger project making materials available online and learning more about how desegregation occurred. It is important to remember this collection only represents a very small part of all the material available, and I am not a scholar of history. This collection is the first step to presenting this archive to the wider world and will eventually join the rest of the material from the archives in a much more focused manner.
Content: This collection centers on the work of President Walter A. Groves, who served as the president of Centre College from 1947-1956. Groves laid vital groundwork in the process of desegregating the school, though it would be officially desegregated under his successor, Thomas Spraegens. Groves wrote numerous letters to presidents of other colleges in Kentucky and beyond, trying to determine how other schools had gone about desegregating. The letters in this collection include responses to Groves’ inquiries and the letters of acknowledgement Groves returned. Another aspect of Groves’ work represented are anonymous surveys from faculty members, seeking their thoughts on desegregating the school. A great deal can be learned about how faculty members of small Southern colleges approached desegregation at this time from this data.
There are two important letters included in this collection from black students requesting admission or application materials to Centre. Although only one response was written by Groves, the requests are extremely important and from this era, therefore included with the rest of the collection. In this same category are several photographs taken in the early 1960s at Centre and in Danville, to add some cultural context in understanding what Centre was like at the time. These photographs are products of their time. This is not to excuse or condone the behavior being depicted, but to say the collection is presented without edit, in an effort to make the information more widely available.
Users: The primary target audience of this collection is current students, faculty, staff, and alumni of Centre College. The history presented is one all people involved in the school need to know about, in an effort to combat the hate rampant in the world today. It is important students know the history of their institution, in part to understand their own role within it. Another very interested audience would be scholars of the history and desegregation of the South. The historically all-White colleges played an important role in the desegregation of higher education in the South and much can be learned from making this material widely available to scholars who might have use for it.
Secondary audiences might include community members, people from other institutions in Kentucky and the South, and anyone who wants to learn more about the efforts made to desegregate traditionally all-white schools in the South. The material presented in this digital collection has far-reaching effects.
Functional Requirements: Users of this digital collection, Paving the Way, will need to be able to:
- Understand historical context of Walter Groves and Centre College through the About page
- Search by keywords
- Browse and search by title
- Browse and search by sender city/state
- Browse and search by sender’s institution
- Browse dates of letters, surveys, photographs
- Browse and search by subject and tag
Partial Metadata Scheme Used for this Digital Library:
| Element Name | Mapped to Dublin Core | Obligation & Cardinality | Vocabulary & Encoding Scheme | Content Guidelines | Example |
| Title | Title | Required; Non-repeatable, 1 |
The name given to the resource. -Letter from [Sender Name] to [Recipient] [Recipient’s Institution if not Centre College] -Memorandum to [Recipient] re: [Subject] on [Date] |
-Letter from President Walter A. Groves to President Leo Eddleman (Georgetown College) -Memorandum to the Board, Oct. 7, 1948 |
|
| Creator (Author or Sender) | Creator | Recommended; repeatable 1-n, as many times as necessary |
LCNAF http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names.html
|
The person who created the resource. -Authored by [Creator Name] -Sent by [Creator Name] |
-Groves, Walter A. (Walter Alexander) -Eddleman, H. Leo |
| Date | Date |
Required; Repeatable 1-n, though typically will occur only once |
W3DTF https://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime
|
The date given on the resource by the Creator. -Typically, only occurs once at the top of the letter, dating when the letter was sent to the Recipient. -Will only ever have year, month, day, no times were ever given. If a resource is encountered where time is stated it can be included following W3DTF. |
1954-10-07 1954-10 1954 |
| Description | Description |
Required; non-repeatable, 1. |
A description of the resource, including brief one or two sentence summary of the contents. -Do not editorialize, restricted to presenting what letter or memo says. |
-Pres. Groves to Pres. Baxter of Williams College, inquiring to the policy of admittance of black students. |
|
| Institution | Location, Coverage Spatial |
Recommended; repeatable 1-n, as needed |
TGN https://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/tgn/
|
The name of the institutions involved in a particular exchange of letters. Is repeatable but will primarily occur twice per record, once for sender and once for recipient. Element name can be further specified by the addition of [Recipient] or [Sender] before the name of institution and its location. Because all correspondence is limited to the United States, TGN can begin at state name. |
-Centre College, Kentucky, Boyle County, Danville -Williams College, Massachusetts, Berkshire County, Williamstown |
| Identifier | Identifier |
Required; non-repeatable, 1, administrative |
The naming convention used to identify files, based on archival records. For this collection all files will follow same format as they were from the same archival record & scanned at same time. |
-CC_2_3_Box_2_013 (item 13) |
|
| Subject | Subject |
Recommended; repeatable, 1-n |
LCSH |
The topic of the resource, using LOC subject headings. LCSH maintains uniformity across collection for ease of use and searchability. |
-College Integration -Universities and colleges—United States—Faculty -Segregation in Education |
| Publisher | Publisher |
Recommended; non-repeatable, 1. |
The name of the publisher of a given newspaper resource. Can refer either to the name of the publication or to the specific person responsible for ownership and publication, if known. |
-The Courier-Journal, Louisville -The Lexington Herald Leader |