The Data Standards Committee of the Visual Resources Association (1997) stated that users may also find the need to supplement the Core with additional elements for a fuller description of the work or visual document. In this application, KSU's Fashion Museum curators suggested additional elements based on VRA Core Categories. These elements were tested in 42 records. A large scale testing of fashion items and other types of three-dimensional objects is necessary before suggestions might be forwarded to the VRA Core Data Standards Committee. However, it would be useful to share these ideas here. The suggested additional elements include the following:
(1) "SECONDARY MATERIALS" for trimmings (lace, beads, ribbon), or for the secondary materials of fine and decorative arts, such as frames, mounts, pedestals, upholstery, etc.;
(2) "PROVENANCE" for the history of the object's ownership;
(3) "CITATIONS" for published references or pictures of the object; and
(4) "CONSERVATION" for a history of the object's condition and repairs.
(5) "STRUCTURE" for terms related to the structure of an object. For example, for a dress there could be neckline, sleeve shape, waist placement, skirt width and length. Theoretically, these analytical-level terms for STRUCTURE would be useful to people who consider searching these features. At least two problems remain, however. First, for different kinds of objects, e.g., a man's suit or a painting, important components of the structure would be different. There exists no standard or popularly accepted reference tool that guides or suggests such analyses. Neither is there a thesaurus that could control the use of terms. In addition to time-consuming work, the problem of inconsistency from cataloger to cataloger would remain. Second, information about the structure usually can be found in a note field. Assuming the NOTES field is searchable, the STRUCTURE field would become redundant. In this case, the search would be based on uncontrolled keywords.
As Marshall (1998) indicated, the activity of creating metadata is not straightforward; there are always collection elements with missing attributes, descriptive strategies that fall outside of the selected standard, and new ways of accessing and using the collection that stretch the affordances offered by the recorded metadata. In Appendix C, the sample record shows a working template that has been used in the project's cataloging practice. One may notice additional elements which extend original VRA Core "Work Description Categories". Elements with "A" labels were added by the author, with the consultation of the KSU Museum curators and a research assistant. Also, some details were applied to differentiate a number of fields, especially in NOTES and SUBJECT fields. These modifications do not decrease or limit the compatibility of this collection with other collections that use VRA Core format.