Papers and Presentations
A Primer on Codecs for Moving Image and Sound Archives
10 Recommendations for Codec Selection and Management
The increasing number of digital objects under our guardianship as archivists will require a greater convergence between IT and archival knowledge sets in order to develop effective preservation strategies. One area of great concern for the integrity and persistence of digital audio and video files is the selection of file formats and codecs…Though this is also an area where there is a great lack of certainty and clarity on the issue.
This paper by Chris Lacinak lays out a clear explanation of what codecs are, how they are used, and what their selection and application means to archives. Also provided are 10 recommendations that will help you in the selection and management of codecs in an archival setting.
Collaborations in Conserving Time Based Art Colloquium
It is widely understood that the special challenges of conserving film, video, computer-based, and interactive art demand collaborative efforts—shared responsibility among a wide array of disciplines. Over the past decade, best practices and shared principles about the care of this art have been developed: emulation, migration, variability. But how do these practices actually work in the real world? Co-sponsored by the Hirshhorn Museum and the Lunder Conservation Center, Smithsonian Institution, this colloquium brings together conservators, artists, curators, exhibition designers, and audiovisual specialists in a series of case studies about collaboration, designed to provoke debate about how we have cared for these works thus far.
At the colloquium Chris Lacinak addressed the topic Managing Born-Digital Time-Based Media, covering issues from file format and codec selection to preservation workflows and file management/storage. The link below is to the video of Chris’ talk taken from Part 1 of the livestream of the colloquium.
Digital Audio Interstitial Errors: Raising Awareness and Developing New Methodologies for Detection
AVPS is involved in leading parallel projects within the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative and the Audio Engineering Society on the development of new standards and tools for performance testing of digital audio systems. As part of this work AVPS is proposing a Comparative Analysis tool which departs from existing error detection tools and is particularly well suited to identifying a particular type of error, labeled here as interstitial errors. This paper by Chris Lacinak uncovers one type of error that can occur and discusses the theory behind the comparative analysis methodology and approach to the development of new tools for test and measurement.
5 Tips for Effective Collections Advocacy
Becoming an effective advocate for your collections means becoming a proactive participant in the management and planning of their preservation and long term maintenance. The amount of work to do and the costs can feel overwhelming, but things will never change until you take charge, make a plan, and actively seek the resources you need. Here are 5 tips on how you can start to manage your collections rather than letting your collections manage you.
Digital Tape Preservation Strategy: Preserving Data or Video?
This paper examines preservation philosophies and strategies applied to large scale video collections that are both born-digital and tape-based. Technically and philosophically different approaches may be applied to migrating born-digital, tape-based content with decisions ranging from deck selection and choice of output to specifications of the resulting file. At the core of this is the distinction between migrating digital video as an audiovisual signal versus migrating it as data.
Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) 2009 Accessioning & Managing Born Digital Video
Born Digital File-Based Video recording is pervasive. Tape is not even an option on many new cameras being sold today. This shift has made accessioning and management of file based content and the associated challenges a new reality to archives. This presentation offers insights into the challenges that born digital file-based video brings to your archive and strategies for managing it.
Project Outsourcing: Navigating Through the Client/Vendor Relationship to Achieve Your Project Goals
A guide and checklist to help clients successfully work with vendors
Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) 2009 Strategies for Preserving Born Digital Audio
A presentation focusing on obsolescence monitoring and normalization as strategies for managing born digital audio
Digital Asset Management with Free and Open Tools
David Rice and Mike Castleman represented Democracy Now! at the 2008 AMIA Digital Asset Symposium presenting on the integration of open source technology and Free Software in efforts to record, disseminate, and archive moving image media.
The presentation included references to
Tools for Recording: dvgrab, cron, vidi
Tools for Transcoding and Wrapping: ffmpeg, mplayer, MP4Box, ffmpegX, x246 for Quicktime
Tools for Online Media Accessibility: The Internet Archive, blip.tv, Miro
Tools for Migrating AudioVisual Data from Tape-Based Digital Media: DATXtract and Live Capture Plus
Tools for Backup and LTO Management: Bacula
Metadata Extraction Tools: MediaInfo, getid3, qt_tools
Metadata Standard: PBCore
Joint Technical Symposium (JTS) 2007
A Survey of Current Audiovisual Assessment and Prioritization Projects (Chris Lacinak coordinated this six presentation session for JTS 2007. The speech below is an introduction to the session to offer perspective and context to the topic and presentations)
National Archives (NARA) 21st Annual Preservation Conference:
Managing the Intangible Quality Assessment of the Digital Surrogate
National Recording Preservation Board Written Submission
Written by Chris Lacinak in representation of the Audio Engineering Society and the Association of Moving Image Archivists.
Audio Engineering Society (AES) 121st Convention
Preservation: The Shift from Format to Strategy
