NPS Focus permits up to 15 images to be added to a single record. The general purpose of permitting multiple images is to keep different angles of the same thing (object/event) together such as a monument photographed from all sides.

The secondary purpose is to keep multiple images together to describe a larger concept such as the progress on a specific project.

Input Guidelines:

• Different angles of the same physical resource or event
• No detailed information about individual images
• Before and After Images / Record for the project not the thing

• Different angles of the same physical resource or event - In general, add multiple images to the same record if:
  1. They are of the same thing and thus will have the same title

  2. they were taken on the same day, in the same place, by the same person

  3. If 1 and 2 above are true, then all images on the record can logically be described with the same Title, Contributor, Publisher, Place, Time, and Subject

• No detailed information about individual images - Sometimes detailed information about images can not be determined such as who took the picture or when, or even exact information about the content of the image.
  1. First determine if the images are worthy of publication when there is so little known about them.

  2. If yes, then combine them onto a record and devise a title that will cover the general content such as, Aerial views of XYZ park taken in 2002 or Firefighter training for NPS staff in the 1990s.

  3. WHAT YOU LOSE when you combine images is specificity in searching and identifying information resources. Records that lack specific subject headings can not be found by browsing. If a search retrieves 10 or more records, the end user is less likely to view a record with a very generic title.

     A poorly described image may soon be a "lost" image. So use caution about combining images on one record that really could be better found by an end user if they had a unique record and title.

• Before and After Images / Record for the project not the thing

  Normally images taken on different dates would be handled on separate records. However in some cases, the images are being assembled to document different aspects of a single project and would not be meaningful if the different stages of the project were separated out onto different records.

  For example, assume the photographer is documenting a project to repair a roof on a park Visitor's Center that takes place over the course of a year. The pictures may be of damage before work begins, the construction work while the roof is being replaced, and the completed new roof. Note that the record is for the project and not the Visitor's Center.

  • Create a title for the project not the building or other physical resource itself (e.g. Repair of roof of Visitor's Center at Jellystone National Park, Feb.-Nov. 2003)

  • The Time coverage should give the range from the first image to the last

  • The record may be edited over the course of the year as images for new phases in the project are added. Add or revise the Title, Contents, Time Coverage and/or other relevant fields as appropriate.

EXAMPLES:

• Title: Restoration of Roulette Stone Wall at Antietam National Battlefield view record
  
  
• Title: Keweenaw's NPS's Historic Union Building view record