Skip to Main Content

Guide to Behind the Veil Digital Collection

Metadata Application

Metadata is a defined as "a set of data that describes and gives information about other data," The Behind the Veil digitization project team attempted to provide as much description to the collection to provide ease of search and discoverability within the collection as possible. This section will describe and define how metadata was applied to the project outcomes.

On the left side of the Behind the Veil digital users will find a menu to facet and narrow selections within the collection. This includes -

Series - Series are subgroups within the collection that are imported from the archival collection's collection guide (found here: https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/behindtheveil). The options under series range from geographic locales where interviews were conducted to administrative and project records

Year - Users can narrow their search by a single year, or a range of years. The bulk of the interviews can be found between 1992-1997 since that is when the oral histories were conducted. Materials outside of that range will likely be photographic slides, which the project team were able to approximate when a photo was taken.

Creator - The creator is defined by who originated the content in the digital collection. Because the Center for Documentary Studies were the sponsors of the Behind the Veil project, they are listed as the creator for all the content in the digital collection. The interviewees are also listed as creators of the interview(s) as they are the source for the recording itself.

Contributor - A contributor is defined as the researcher who recorded the interview, These would have been Behind the Veil project research staff and each would have conducted multiple interviews throughout the duration of the project.

Occupation - Behind the Veil project team members were keen to document the occupation/job of the people interviewed on the recording. The project attempted to capture a diverse group of African American interviewees, from working class to middle class. Occasionally interviewees have more than one occupation listed, providing an examples of the need to have multiple sources of revenue within the community.

Location - Location is defined by where the interview was conducted. There are a number of examples throughout the collection of interviewees being born, raised, or residing in an specific area that is not listed as the location. Group interviews in particular were often conducted at community centers or sites that people traveled to to have their stories captured for the project.

Format - Format is defined by the type of content in the collection. These include a range of media, and kinds of resources in paper form.

Language - The entire collection is in the English language. It is important to remember that there are a number of different dialects found throughout the interviews, particularly due to the geographic diversity of the within the collection. In the interview transcription process, the transcription reflects the spoken word in standardized English language and doesn't incorporate African American Vernacular English (AAVN) or euphemism that belie a geographic location or socioeconomic status. There are some recordings that are difficult to hear due to volume or technical difficulties, these were transcribed as best as possible.

Collecting Area - The John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History & Culture in the David. M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library is the curatorial home for entire Behind the Veil archive.