METRO Selects DHP Collection Assessment Grantees

Congratulations to Brooklyn Museum Libraries and Archives, Lesbian HERStory Archives, and the White Plains Public Library on their selection by the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) to each receive one of the three collection assessment grants being funded by the New York State Documentary Heritage Program.

Is The Product Of Less Process Sufficient For Audiovisual Collections?

Greene and Meissner’s “More Product, Less Process” is both an inspiration to me and one of the banes of my existence. As I’m sure many archivists feel, it’s refreshing to hear an approach to collection processing that is pragmatic and takes into account the realities of the time and personnel required for the work versus what is actually available. In my work I’m often dealing with developing recommendations around workflows, budgets, and other preservation planning needs that need to be reasonable to the individual institution and do-able within the nearer term. Having G&M as a supporting reference point is highly valuable. (That said, by the same token I’m sure that many budget-makers are equally happy to hear that their staff should be doing more with less, as it were.)

Issues of interpretation aside, the glaring problem I have with G&M is that their original article makes no mention of processing film, video, audio, and other complex media objects outside of a few questions in their originating survey. To me, this is a major hole in the logic of their otherwise sound proposition. If they had said, “Our analysis only applies to paper and (generally) photographic collections,” that would be one thing. But for it to be considered standard procedure for “late 20th century” collections is something by which I cannot abide.

To describe paper collections at the folder, box or other higher level and let researchers dig through them to discover items themselves is sensible for the most part. But does that strategy still work when the researcher comes across audiovisual materials that are inaccessible, unlabeled, in too poor of shape to play back, or otherwise facing issues that would prevent a researcher from determining anything about an object outside of apparent format or condition characteristics?

Film can be more fungible in this aspect because of its visual nature – assuming one has space and equipment to wind through or view without projection, and that the film is not too shrunken or solidified into a hockey puck, and that one doesn’t necessarily care about any associated audio track. But where does one start with an unmarked 3/4” U-matic that may not even be a video recording?

The examples could go on, but what I put forth here is that the concept of what the “product” is may not be the same across all situations; it may require adjustment in certain cases. What G&M focus on is the finding aid and moving collections towards access. When dealing with audiovisual materials, accessibility is more often dependent on reformatting or maintaining equipment for the various media types and formats at hand – something not necessarily done or available at collecting institutions.

In this regard, I would propose that the desired product from processing audiovisual materials is not a traditional finding aid, but an item level accounting of the assets – not necessarily at a full descriptive level, and potentially reliant on estimates, but something that at least touches on the technical data points (format, run time, recording standards, etc.) that , combined with a prioritization plan, would help an archive determine their needs for playback or reformatting that would support access.

If the product does not support the basic archival delivery need of access, then the minimalized process does not seem sufficient to even be worth the minimal effort.

— Joshua Ranger

Kara Van Malssen Instructing Digital Preservation For Videotape Workshop

AVPS Senior Consultant Kara Van Malssen will be in Middletown, Connecticut this Friday to conduct a workshop on Digital Preservation for Videotape. Co-sponsored by Independent Media Arts Preservation (IMAP) and the New England Archivists Spring 2012 Meeting, the workshop will review digitization case studies as well as covering the topics:

– Basic digital file creation
– Preservation and access file formats and codecs
– Software
– Storage and trusted digital repositories
– Workflows for digitization, and
– Technical and preservation metadata

IMAP has been providing important resources and training to media collection managers both within and without traditional archives for over 10 years now. This collaboration between NEA and IMAP is a good example of the types of efforts and partnerships our field will have to continue to maintain in order to share knowledge and make sure all collections have an opportunity to be properly cared for. Way to go, and way to go Kara!

AVPS Conducting Preservation Workshops Via METRO/DHP

AudioVisual Preservation Solutions will again be conducting preservation and metadata themed workshops as part of the METRO’s Documentary Heritage Program service offerings. The first day-long class will be Processing Audio and Video Collections on Friday, April 20th. The instructors will include AVPS Senior Consultant Joshua Ranger and Consultant Marian Clarke.

Three more workshops will be offered over the spring and summer, including Using Metadata for Audiovisual Collection Management, Managing File-based Collection for Smaller Institutions, and another session on Processing Audio and Video Collections. This year, two of the classes will be held in Westchester County in order to provide better service to the full METRO membership area. Other instructors will include AVPS Senior Consultant Kara Van Malssen and Consultant Peter Oleksik. Dates and locations to be announced soon. And many thanks to METRO and the New York State Archives for subsidizing these offerings.

Don’t Kill The Carrier Part 2 — The Digital Dilemma Is A Resource Problem Not A Format Problem

I hate digital cameras. I especially hate my digital camera, but that’s probably at least in part because my own camera provides me so many more opportunities to swear at it. I damn it when I miss a shot due to shutter delay or the processing time between pictures. I curse up and down when it keeps insisting on the wrong focal point. I make sailors cringe when my memory of the scene that impelled me to take a photo is not matched, ending up yet again as a flat, poorly framed, uncomposed mess.

These things doubly frustrate me because, not so many years ago when I shot on film with a 30 year old SLR, I took great care with my framing, depth of focus, and subject matter. I knew my camera, knew my film, and, aided by a great developer, was very happy with the outcomes. Even failure was an acceptable part of the process; only a small percentage of photos could be expected to turn out close to okay. How, I wonder, can this digital camera be such a piece of infuriating junk?

But then I recall that the thing which drove me to getting an SLR in the first place was a similar frustration with the pictures I was getting with the no-frills point-and-shoot I had for many years. When the only tool you have is a point-and-shoot, everything looks like a snapshot.

So really I have three choices here (unless the real problem is just anger management issues that need resolved): 1) go back to film, 2) shell out for a digital SLR and really learn how to use it, or 3) just accept my crummy camera and deal with it. Two of those options involve an increased outlay of cash and effort, and, well, Game of Thrones just came out on DVD.

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In my experience, most people who have been drawn into the archiving and preservation/conservation fields enjoy many outside creative pursuits, whether related to one’s area of focus (film-making, writing, sewing, etc.) or well outside one’s realm (cooking, dance, macrame, etc.). This makes perfect sense, especially in audiovisual preservation where a traditional route into the field has been transitioning from making to care-taking. However, I also strongly feel that the activities and decision points of archiving/preservation are creative acts themselves, requiring at least as much knowledge and skill as the creation of the works under our care.

This is none too controversial a thought within our bubble, but, for those unfamiliar with what and how we do, it perhaps sounds a bit laughable — the same way that people who have never taught may really believe that those who cannot do teach. In both cases, as well as in other fields like editing, the breadth of stylistic and technical knowledge required to shepherd so many and such varied works/minds through growth and persistence is massive.

In thinking about those who deal with more hands-on conservation work, just consider the number of materials, color processes, formats, format characteristics, presentation methods, chemicals, etc. that must be worked with, not to mention the ability to interpret and properly represent various historic and individual styles. However this work must necessarily be accompanied by a degree of humility or dedication to works and artists, stances that, as a result, can keep us pinned to obscurity or lack of awareness from the outside.

For people who purposefully choose a career that can often entail long hours of solitude in windowless rooms and basements, such obscurity is not necessarily a bad thing — though it can contribute to the difficulties we have with lack of support, the need for constant advocacy around the importance of the work, and, ultimately, the limited resources most organizations deal with.

A lack of resources is one of the true dilemmas of the digital age. Just like the utility and transportation infrastructure of the nation, the infrastructure of institution is in need of serious overhaul in order to address the existing and pending influx of digitized and born-digital materials. Equipment, facilities, servers, policies, utilities, guidelines, metadata generation, know-how… Not just financial resources, but also human resources, knowledge resources, and reservoirs of determination to start projects and get things done.

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Not to say we lack the internal resources (or ability to attain them) needed to manage digital collection, but we have to admit that technological shifts are forcing many of us to retrain our brains in ways that are difficult or discomforting. Especially for those ashamed of the amount of time spent listening to Bob Seeger on classic rock radio (okay — I’m sure that’s just me), a creative spirit rails against the idea of being hedged in by numbers. Not wanting to be just another one. One is the loneliest. Havoc-causing love potions. Revolutions. Numbers suggest a lack of uniqueness, intangibility, and a lack of nuance. And the way we have traditionally spoken about digital files is as numbers: 1s and 0s piling up with no sense of aesthetic order or individuality.

At the same time, numbers are how things get done. How much stuff do you have? How much storage space? How many FTE to process? How many users? How much money?

Administrators and funders demand quantifications that fly in the face of what we consider the special qualities of collections. And files seem to act the same way — they have no care for content, just for processing, movement, and dull persistence of those 1s and 0s.

But this is a bit of a canard. No object expresses emotion or forms a reciprocal relationship with us. Such things are easier to believe with physical, tactile materials that act/react in discernable, predictable ways, but their mere materiality makes the conceits no more true. In truth, our jobs are half about the persistence of objects — whether physical or digital — and half about the dull persistence of advocacy, continually communicating the importance of our work and the need for funding and resources.

In truth, one of the prime resources we have and that we need to access in order to address the “digital dilemma” is ourselves — the creativity and learnedness and curiosity (and persistence) we can and must tap into.

In truth, many colleagues have been working very hard in the area of digital preservation. They have been working hard for many years and have made great strides that we are beginning to see the results of. The Academy’s Digital Dilemma II ends with the declaration that the time for studies and reports is over. Convenient though it is to state and declare the final word, the report is correct. The time for broad overview studies is over — it actually has been over for many years. But I guess it was easy to miss because there was that new season of Buffy coming out on DVD.

— Joshua Ranger

AVPS Moves Office Location

AudioVisual Preservation Solutions has moved offices from 350 7th Avenue, Suite 1603 to 350 7th Avenue, Suite…1605! Though an indistinguishable move in terms of our GPS trackers, the relocation reflects our expanding team and client base. 2012 is shaping up to be an exciting year already with lots of great projects under way, a number of conferences we’ll be presenting at or attending, and a bevy of new services we’re offering around digital preservation, data management, digital asset utilization, and inventory and collection assessment. Of course we wouldn’t be here without all of our great clients we’ve worked with in the past and continue to collaborate with to tackle the challenges of archiving and preservation. We look forward to the continued building of relationships and solutions, so whether you’re in the virtual or real neighborhood, come up and see us some time.