This paper describes a study of user queries conducted at two historical photographic collections—the North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the North Carolina State Archives in Raleigh. Patron requests were analyzed in order to determine which types of subject terms and attributes of images are used most often in requests for photographs. Basic categories of terms were created, and the number of requests utilizing each category of term was tallied. It was found that subject terms, both generic and specific, were used far more frequently than any other categories of terms in requests for photographs. Generic subject terms appeared most often in requests, indicating the importance of these terms for indexing. Time and place were the next most commonly used types of terms. In contrast, genre, visual terms, format, and creator/provenance were mentioned relatively infrequently.

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