He Kāhui Whakaahua –A constellation of carte-de-visite images

Reporting on the sharing of a facial recognition project at the National Library

Authors

  • Sheena Tawera

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26686/arch.10363

Keywords:

Māori, Facial recognition, National Library of New Zealand , Photography

Abstract

This reports on the final stage of a collaborative project supported by the National Library's Business Innovation Group. It notes the aim of the facial recognition project was to improve the discoverability of digital images held in the photographic archive. It uses biometric technology to identify 'likeness', with photographs of people were scanned and compared for likely and exact matching images using specialised FR Python software. The article also explores processes across the library, as well as identifying individuals across multiple images, and so enabling metadata and archival descriptions to be enhanced. Uses the digitised copies of carte-de-visite portraits as a trial, focusing particularly on those titled 'Unknown'. Reveals a number of 19th century Māori images taken by Hawkes Bay photographer Samuel Carnell.

Metadata reused from the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa under a CC BY 4.0 license.

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Author Biography

Sheena Tawera

Sheena Tawera is a librarian with the Arrangement and Description team at Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington. She holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences Degree in Māori Development from The University of Waikato, and a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Studies (with merit) from Victoria University of Wellington. She has worked within the library profession since 1994, in a variety of reference, lending services and cataloguing roles. Sheena is of Ngāti Porou and Ngā Puhi (Ngāti Hine) descent.

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Published

2020-01-01

Issue

2020

Section

Articles