igital audio and digitised film can also be compressed, but there are particular issues – and an interesting (well, for some) history – for video, so I will emphasise video. The general principles apply to any signal (including audio and scanned film), but not to files and digital data in general.
The focus of this paper is on the integration of audio resources with other content types in digital libraries. As a case study, we will present the most recent initiative of the Biblioteca Europea di Informazione e Cultura (BEIC), an Italian institution that pursues educational and instructional goals through the realization and management of a multimedia, free access, open shelf library. A new audio section will be added to the already-existing digital archive, allowing users to listen to about 1000 classical recordings in a multi-platform and cross-browser manner.
MediaConch is an extensible, open source software project consisting of an implementation checker, policy checker, reporter, and fixer that targets preservation-level audiovisual files (specifically Matroska, Linear Pulse Code Modulation (LPCM) and FF Video Codec 1 (FFV1)) for use in memory institutions, providing detailed and batch-level conformance checking via an adaptable and flexible application program interface accessible by the command line, a graphical user interface, or a web-based shell.
The process of debating the principles which underpin the work of sound preservation, and then discussing, codifying and documenting the practices that we as professional sound archivists use and recommend, is to necessarily identify the strengths and weaknesses in our everyday work.When the first version/edition of TC-04 Guidelines in the Production and Preservation of Digital Audio Objects was completed and printed in 2004 there was, in spite of our pride in that previous publication, little doubt amongst the IASA Technical Committee that a second edition would be necessary to address tho
In an increasingly digital environment, members of IASA and the archival community at large have been asking how to safeguard the audiovisual heritage. The Technical Committee of the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) has prepared these general guidelines to help meet these requests.
Commissioned for and sponsored by the National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress. Copublished by the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, the Council on Library and Information Resources, and The Library of Congress
The ARSC Guide to Audio Preservation is a practical introduction to caring for and preserving audio collections. It is aimed at individuals and institutions that have recorded sound collections but lack the expertise in one or more areas to preserve them.
The annual IDPF Digital Book conference took place this week in New York, as part of the BookExpo America trade show for the publishing industry. You can count on two topics being discussed at any book publishing conference: Amazon and DRM. IDPF Digital Book 2015 was no exception. One particular panel featured writers from leading book industry trade magazines, and the moderator was Joe Wikert, a well-respected digital publishing executive who is an outspoken opponent of DRM. The discussion turned to the pros and cons of “walled gardens” such as Amazon’s Kindle ecosystem.
MoMA Digital Repository Manager, Ben Fino-Radin, demonstrates Binder, a new system for managing the preservation of digital collections, designed and built by MoMA and Artefactual Systems.
YouTube video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TelwvLkt-84
Background
http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2015/04/14/momas-digital-art-vault
ecently on Inside/Out, we heard from Assistant Media Conservator Peter Oleksik about MoMA’s efforts to preserve and digitize its collection of analog video art, amassed over the course of four decades. The heroic undertaking of digitizing over 4,000 videotapes was absolutely critical for preservation and access purposes. However, when we digitize analog videotape, we have just begun a new chapter in the artwork’s life, one that is rife with grave challenges and risks that are unique to digital materials.
In the last Great Bear article we quoted sage advice from the International Association of Audiovisual Archivists: ‘Optimal preservation measures are always a compromise between many, often conflicting parameters.’ [1]
While this statement is true in general for many different multi-format collections, the issue of compromise and conflicting parameters becomes especially apparent with the preservation of digitized and born-digital video. The reasons for this are complex, and we shall outline why below.