Presentation Wrap-up

Last Thursday I gave a presentation for the WRLC (Washington Research Library Consortium) Spring Forum on audio preservation (digitization and digital preservation). I talked about the program I have worked on at the CUA Archives for the School of Music audio recordings, presenting a practical approach for digitization on a tight budget, doing what you can with what you have. I got a lot of great feedback, encouragement, and tips for the next steps. It's great to know I'm on the right track with this project!

The best part about this presentation is that it gave me a chance to reflect back on almost one year of progress on the project (I started working on it after the ARSC conference last year). Updates are available in the presentation.

The presentation slides and a video of all three presentations and the discussion panel will be available through the WRLC website, link to be posted soon.

It's Cool To See It In Print...

Spending Time With Tech Specs

I have not been actively posting the during the last week, not because I haven't done much in the way of archiving, but because I've been more social than a/v archivist.

I'm still working on audio metadata technical locations for the metadata specs the archives decided on, and I have been getting some great questions on processing and preservation specifics from students. I've had some recent moving image archive questions, which have me digging through the current specs for moving image archiving (what has changed in the last few months?!). In my leisure time, I've been working on amateur website development for archivists, which I hope will be a big hit at the SAA conference. I've gotten some good responses on the new a/v website, which is really encouraging for my own web development goals. Unfortunately, I have not had too much leisure time because I have been using my organizational skills to move; I didn't even take the time to plug in my external drive and back up my computer this week!

Issues In The Reel World

I spent the majority of today working on my audio reel set-up and transferred the first reel using the new set-up, the Mac, and Logic Express. It was also the first reel I had worked on that was recorded at 3 3/4. I thought everything was good to go (3 3/4 button depressed and everything) and when I started the digital transfer, I heard a chipmunk instead of a soprano! After messing with settings on the computer (because I thought I took care of everything on the hardware end), I finally listened to the recording through the reel player and discovered it wasn't doing what it was supposed to be doing. A colleague then found a great site for me, obsolete media, which has a manual for my reel player! After searching discovering that I had to remove a post sheath, and then not-so-gently coaxing a sheath off of a post that had not been removed in over decade, I got everything running again, the soprano started singing, and the digitization was running.

End of story? Not quite.

We got Logic Express for the great metadata it creates and allows. All of the administrative metadata is there, but I'm having trouble finding the menu to input descriptive metadata. There's always tomorrow!

Discovering Hidden Treasures

In exchange for setting up my audio machines, I have been helping the Music Library Tech uncover information about the Emerson Meyers Electronic Music Studio at CUA, his special project.

I was able to find some photos of the studio at different points in our university photo collection, and have discovered some Emerson Meyers acetate discs while one of my practicum student assistants catalogs the School of Music audio recordings. Unfortunately, we don't have the correct playback equipment. I'm hoping to discover some reels so I can listen to (and digitize) his music. I'm still learning a lot about Emerson Meyers, but I'm discovering that he was a large force in the genre of early electronic music (one of my favorite genres). My goal is to find more information while going through the School of Music audio visual records to repay the technician for what he has done for me, but I'm quickly becoming interested in this project, too!

Back to the Grind...

I'm back at work after a week of being snowbound! I'm trying to get back to all my researchers with requests, and trying to finish up this audio policy which I'm now calling "guidelines and procedures" because that seems a bit more accurate. The good news is that I'll have a lot of time to finish my projects today because Metro is doing what they do best--failing--and I might be stuck here a while after the work day is done. I just love DC.

I've Been Thinking...

I've been thinking that I should get together a poster session or something on what I've been doing on the audio digitization process at CUA for the SAA poster presentations. I mean, what I'm doing isn't new--there are plenty of music libraries and archives that have had audio preservation and digitization programs running for a while--but what I'm doing is unique in that it's basically designing and running the program. I've made necessary connections at the university and in the field who are my technical consultants, I'm using students to do processing, and my bosses have to approve of the program I'm implementing, but it's basically me.

That's pretty freaking awesome, and a notable innovation. Fully utilizing modern technologies (in creative ways) has allowed me to create this program from nearly nothing. Other than the expense of the computer (which needed updating anyway), the expense of iLogic Express (software), and the expense of one book, I've accomplished what I've done so far using free resources and my connections. The audio equipment I'm using was all located at the university, and also free. Soon, I will be asking about $500 for a mixer and analog to digital converter so I can have a professional audio setup so multiple formats can be digitized in-house. I attended a CCAHA workshop on a/v digitization in October and was given the estimate of $50,000 for an audio digitization program, with several people working towards establishing it. By the end of setting this up, I hope to have had the Archives spend less than $3,000. I bring in more money a year for photo digitization requests.

If I can get a poster presentation together, archivists will know how easy establishing an audio program is. SAA needs support all record types.

Audio Progress

I made some progress (with the HUGE help of the Music Library Tech) today. He was able to re-wire the audio visual area for me, and hook up the reel to reel player again (it has not been hooked up since I received my new Mac). I can't wait to mess around with iLogic Express and the player next week.

The next step is getting an analog to digital converter and mixing board so I can have multiple media plugged in at once (the tech also recommended some of those for me)!

I was also able to finish the first draft of the audio preservation guidelines I'm writing and get some feedback on some edits.

I also heard back from the Library website manager and I have a test site for my audio visual webpage! We made some edits today so it should hopefully be online next week!

And in addition to all of this, I had some photo requests!

I'm just so glad that I made so much progress today because it's a short week--no work tomorrow on account of DC Snowpocolypse (part deux)!

Policy Pondering

I've hit another mental block with this audio policy. I know what best practice standards have been established for digital long-term storage. I know what will be best for the Archives.

I'm having problems justifying using hard drives other than: we already have them, we know how to use them so we won't have to re-train staff, they're becoming less expensive so we can order more, and they provide random access so we should be able to search for individual files.

I'm also having difficulties conceptualizing and writing about a long-term storage and preservation plan. When will we back-up? When should we migrate? How often will we evaluate the system? When will we add additional memory? Who will be involved? Should I get more people involved? When will Robin C. Pike hit her mental capacity?

Does anyone have a current policy for audio preservation at their archive/library/instituion? Are you allowed to share it (because I haven't found any posted online)? Can you send it to me? How many people are involved in audio archiving at your institution? Can anyone give me answers?

In related news, I am looking for a mentorship in audio archiving in the DC area, and have been (unsuccessfully) for a little while. If anyone wants to train me, please let me know.

ARSC, and My Reason For Going To ARSC

It's official! I'm going to ARSC! I just booked my hotel, will be booking my flight soon (go Southwest!), and have nearly finalized my travel grant application (just some last-minute reviewing for the perfectionist in me that always finds one more thing to change).

In between working with my student assistant and my practicum student, I was also able to work on (and pretty much finish) one more section of the Archive's new audio policy. I briefly discussed this policy with my boss and co-workers, and once I have this done (maybe by the end of the week?), I'm also going to approach the Library Director and the Library IT for memory recommendations, and maybe to develop a hard drive memory acquisitions plan. I've recently used a huge amount of memory (as stated in a previous post) transferring digital photos from one campus office, and if we go forward with this audio digitization plan, we need to make sure I don't come that close to maxing out memory.

Friday Productivity!

I started my second practicum student today, who was really excited about the photo collection (which made me super excited). I had her reading background information on Fred J. Maroon, and had her look over his 1990 CUA photo book, as well as browse the collection to visualize series. We discussed this afterwards, and unlike I and the rest of the staff thought, most of the vintage CUA prints are not from his time as a student, but apparently he did for-hire work for the Hartke Players on tour in the 1950s and 1960s, including some of their USO tours! I also covered photographic material handling. I'm going to start her on preventative preservation next Friday, and EAD the following week. She was really enjoying the gorgeous prints!

I guess all the excitement and positive vibes today shocked my brain into action because I was actually able to make sense of my technical information today, and wrote two sections of the Archives Procedural Manual for Audio Preservation today! I also took notes to include in the following three sections. I'm so glad I was able to make progress this week because I hit a wall last week. After I write this procedure, I need to present it to the supervisors, to see of the technical recommendations for the storage are achievable by CUA, and for their approval for implementation. I'm definitely pushing the barrier for the Archives.
(And to think, on Wednesday I was just happy that I was able to get the rogue reels transferred to the Archives...)

Who Owns What?

Archivists in academia:

This is a little story that spans two audio visual archivists, other archivists, two music librarians, some technical people from the university computing center, and one retired music professor. With that many interested parties, it had to be complicated. But if you think about it, there were just a whole lot of people who wanted to preserve the records in various capacities, for various reasons, which is a really good thing.

Anyway, the professor took the reel to reels recorded of his ensemble home when he retired because he felt they were his. (He should have owned copies, but unfortunately, at that time, only one copy was made.) The music librarians heard about this, and tried to get them back for the university, but that didn't work. Then, the professor approached the university computing center for help digitizing the reels, so he could have CDs of them instead because they took up a rather large amount of space. They computing center said "sure!" but they would have to do it in their spare time, which at a small university means they sat there for a while and were almost completely forgotten about. The music librarians told the first audio visual archivist about these reels (when the position was finally created), and the first a/v archivist tried as hard as he could and went nowhere because at that time the archives was not equipped to digitize audio, and the computing center wanted to do it. Then a slight staff change was made, in the computing center and the archives, and the second a/v archivist (me), after two years of work, and working with the music librarians and the computing center had the boxes of reels transferred to the archives, as part of a plan to digitize them!

Yay!

This raises a larger issue many university archivists face that with certain faculty and staff--they do not technically own the records, the university and department does. I totally understand where they're coming from, because this is their work, or they helped create it, but it would do a lot more good if the records were preserved in a centralized location for the future members of the department and other researchers to use them (the university archives). I know this problem spans across universities, and it is our job as university archivists to make sure the legacy of the university lasts forever and is not lost. I was wondering how other university archivists have talked to these faculty and accessioned the records? Do you have a hard time getting the original records from them? Do you ever get the records from them?

I Hate To Show My Age But...

I hate to show my age, but writing a long policy determining the procedures and standards for in-house audio digitization and digital preservation pretty much sucks.

I had a brain-crash around 3:30 today. It's kind of like an HD crash, but for you.

Okay, I'm done.

In all seriousness, though, this is what IASA and the team who wrote Sound Directions have done, and I'm trying to par down both of those essential resources into terms and procedures that my assistant or another archivist could understand. I'm only using those two resources instead of the entire list because, well, all of that list overwhelms me. I wrote something similar for a grad school practicum (a preservation and cataloging manual for a small cultural society), that ended up being about 40 pages (single-spaced), plus appendices.

At this point, I'm ready to adopt everything without modification and call it a day. But I know I can't. I don't have a team of 25. Does anyone want to help?

More Multi-tasking

I spent a large portion of the day training my practicum student. I started her on the acetate discs from the School of Music. We went over Dublin Core, Library of Congress subject headings, degredation signs of acetate discs, and re-housing. I sort of felt bad diving in so soon, especially because she had so many questions, and I hope I answered all of them. The first time I had to do that sort of thing, practically, I had already done it in class, and I've been around acetates from my grandparents' collection since I was a child. She asked a lot of good questions, and I hope I did a decent job explaining things today.

I also reviewed folder-level processing for photograph collections with my part-time assistant. I've been having her read Roe, and I have finally found a decent example of organization within the large collection I'm having her work on (after I spent so much time in the unprocessed sections last week). My next concern for this project is this: limited to an EAD finding aid, how do I accurately organize and describe digital folders of digital photos that have been taken by the day or week, without moving the photos around. I know the most effective way to do this would not use EAD, but Dspace, or another database system, but that is not an option--what has been established as a standard at the Archives is what will be used.

I have ordered supplies for several projects over the last two days, and will have to continue that tomorrow.

The rest of my day was spent trying to validate the A/V website pages. I'm having problems with and

tags that somehow appeared on some pages when I edited the pages in a WYSIWYG view. I don't know coding proficiently enough to write an entire page in code, but now I'm paying for my shortcuts. Or rather, I will continue to pay tomorrow...

Audio Project Process

Both of my practicum students start next week--one on Monday, one on Friday. But other than teaching them about archives, I think my week will be back to normal--minimal photo requests and focusing on the School of Music audio project.

The "database" is ready. I have arranged for the transferral of the last eight boxes of reels to the Archives for Thursday, and I also have the a music technician who works at the Music Library coming over to help me set up the reel player, and examine my equipment on Thursday. On Monday or Tuesday I am going to start writing the in-house procedures manual for the standards I have chosen and the steps I have decided to take in the preservation/digitization process. I have yet to order re-housing supplies, but the discs have been re-housed, and some formats (like the cassettes) shouldn't need re-housed, so I will have my students start with those.

The team of people who worked on the Sound Directions project and wrote the manual did a great job. This is going to be a great test of how one person can emulate and adapt that process for a small institution (but not a small project).

I am documenting everything. Someone should be able to learn from my insanity.

Teaching Archivists

The School of Library and Information Science at CUA offers a class with a practicum experience in a local institution. I met with my first practicum student (of two students) today to discuss her project. She will be working on the School of Music audio recordings inventory (for at least two formats), will compile a departmental history, and will be learning how to spot deterioration, and how to perform basic preventative preservation.

I meet with my second practicum student tomorrow. She will be processing a photograph collection (Fred J. Maroon Photograph Collection, a CUA Alumni and famous photographer), learning processing rules, and photographic preservation, handling, and storage.

Lucky?

Ask and you shall receive? Not to be overly religious (especially since I work at Catholic University), but this morning my questions about the BEXT chunk were answered via the ARSC listserv. Thank you William McQuay, Supervising Audio Engineer from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology!

However, even though I now have access to an explanation of the BWF (Broadcast Wave Format) and the BEXT chunk, that doesn't mean I will be able to create/edit/play BWFs on my computer...

Another question--why don't I pose all of my questions to the ARSC listerv? Or better yet, why isn't there an audio engineer setting up this system, or working here even part-time? I don't want to pollute the listserv, and I'm working on finding a local mentor. The Archives simply doesn't have the money to hire anyone (or buy new equipment for that person to work with). That's not a "bad" thing, it's an inconvenient thing brought on because of the bad economy that I'm adjusting to. What do you do when you have little to work with? Get creative!

Metadata Madness

The post title says it all. I'm trying to create a listing of Dublin Core metadata for the School of Music Audio and I'm getting bogged down by the technical standards mentioned in my reference books. I'm not an audio engineer. What the heck is a "BEXT Chunk," and should I really attempt to edit it with my limited knowledge?

Even the non-technical is making my head spin. Basically, I'm trying to compile a listing of descriptive metadata (and probably some structural) so my student can start creating an inventory. I consulted the CUA music librarian last semester and ran into problems when he thought the test listing I compiled was too technical, and a musican would have difficulty searching for a piece. We also discussed who should be listed as "contributors." The performing ensemble, names of individuals of smaller ensembles, conductors, soloists, composers? When cataloging music records in a library, this is so much simplier--everyone has their own field. Should a composer's full name be listed (as with the name authority field), or should we list only what is written on the recording? Should I expect a non-music student worker to know which Bach wrote a piece? Getting the authorized heading means nothing if it's the wrong one! The only thing I decided upon at that time was that I will end up creating "user teminology" for the end-user display instead of the Dublin Core.

I know I'm over analyzing, but it seems to me (more and more) that this project seems like an MARC project, not a Dublin Core one, but because this is an Archives project...
I am using the Indiana University's Archives of Traditional Music catalog records as my reference, but it isn't stopping my head from spinning fast enough!

Modifying the OAIS

Today I read IASA's Guidelines on the Production...IASA-TC04, Chapter 7: Small Scale Approaches to Digital Storage Systems. This chapter simplified the OAIS (Open Archival Information System), and highlighted the most important aspects and provided cost-efficient recommendations for smaller institutions or small digital collection projects.

As I prepare a workflow for the School of Music audio project, I will have to examine the OAIS, and try to simplify steps. An OAIS consists of:
1) Ingest
2) Access
3) Administration
4) Data Management
5) Preservation Planning
6) Archival Storage

I will not be able to simplify the digitization (ingest), but if I can implement Dspace earlier on (if CUA has continued access and support to the Digital Object Catalog), I might be able to simply access.

Final comment--I was comforted to see that one sub-section in the chapter was titled "Single (or Double) Operator Storage System." I'm not the only a/v digitization team of one!

Project Planning-Audio Digitization

I have been reading Sound Directions: Best Practices for Audio Preservation and IASA's Guidelines on the Production and Preservation of Digital Audio Objects in preparation of planning not only an audio digitization project, but planning audio digitization standards for the CUA Archives.

I became quite overwhelmed from all the technical terms and processes today, so I decided to take a quick step ahead and do some project planning, based on logical steps taken while developing a normal digitization plan (names have been eliminated for privacy). Am I missing anything, at least in the preliminary stages? Anything I won't discover while doing the rest of my reading?

Project Plan for the School of Music Audio Digitization Program

People Involved:
Robin C. Pike, Audio Visual Archivist
Audio Visual Archivist’s student assistant
Possible practicum students or other student workers
Head Archivist and Associate Archivist, supervisors
Music Librarians
Other technical support staff?

1) PRELIMINARY:

a. Inventory A/V Equipment
i. Student Assistant creates inventory and shelflist
ii. I update Shelflist database

b. Set up equipment to MAC
i. Consult music librarians
ii. Reel player is priority
iii. Might need new analog to digital convertor
iv. Set up other audio equipment and possibly VHS/Beta, later

c. Organize Audio Materials
i. Work with Music Library and CPIT to accession rest of collection
ii. Research standards for cataloging audio
iii. Create cataloging schema
iv. Order re-housing supplies
v. Process Collection
- Student Assistant and student workers create inventory
-- Student workers note preservation concerns
- Re-house collection
- Student Assistant and student workers research and write history of the Music Department; consult with Music Librarians
- Student Assistant and other student workers create rest of finding aid parts

d. Research Digitization and Digital Preservation
i. ARSC sources, namely Sound Directions and IASA Guidelines book
ii. Set in-house standards and methods
iii. Order and set up preservation formats

2) ACTIONS

a. Preservation
i. Preservation notes from processing used
ii. Preserve materials as preparation for digitization

b. Digitization
i. Clean and oil machine well, and frequently
ii. Clean materials prior to preservation
iii. Digitize using Audacity or iLogic Express
iv. Save to formats, etc.

3) ONLINE
a. Upload to Web server
i. via WRLC? Omeka? Other?

4) ONGOING PRESERVATION AND DIGITAL PRESERVATION
a. Work with people in charge of Web server
b. Monitor preservation masters, and original