What’s Your Product? New AVPS White Paper On MPLP And Audiovisual Collections
August 1, 2012
I’ve been nibbling around the edges of this topic for a while — and reviewing my thoughts with other people to see if they all taste the hints of vanilla, cassis, leather, and grass — but now I’ve gone off and written a white paper about More Product, Less Process and audiovisual collections: What’s Your Product? Assessing the suitability of a More Product, Less Process methodology for processing audiovisual collections.
It ain’t exactly the great American novel, unless, of course, you feel that fiction is all lies and drives people away from reality and into their hysterical fantasy worlds. Then I’d say you’d really enjoy this paper. Even if you are one of the 27 people supporting the publishing industry these days, I hope you’ll find something worthwhile to think about or argue with me about in the comments below or directly.
— Joshua (M.) Ranger
Abstract:
The widely referenced and adopted More Product, Less Process methodology (MPLP) represents a much needed evolution in the manner of processing archival collections in order to overcome backlogs and resource shortfalls that institutions face. In the case of audiovisual-based collections, however, the ability to plan budgets, timelines, equipment needs, and other preservation plans that unequivocally impact access is directly tied to the documentation of some degree of item-level knowledge about one’s collection. This paper proposes an extension of the MPLP model which is necessitated to properly address the particular needs of audiovisual and other complex media in a way that properly meets archival standards and that assists the archivist in generating their true product: the provision of the three basic services of Findability, Access, and Sustainability regardless of the format, the content, or the tools used.
