Is Catalyst a software?
No. Catalyst is a set of service packages AVPS provides that relate to collection assessments, inventories, and data management. We utilize various softwares and other technological means to collect, analyze, and present information about your media collection, and we can also develop utilities for metadata sharing or file management that are a part of activities in a service package.

I already have a digitization plan or digital collection. Why would I need Catalyst?
Catalyst provides services for analog and digital materials, as well as the development of metadata and selection/implementation of systems that manage both. The shift to digital workflows has created new opportunities and new challenges for the continued usability of assets that requires a proactive, well-planned approach to systems integration and file management.

What is “accompanying visual documentation”?
A number of organizations have started to scan the inserted materials and containers that house audiovisual materials in order to better preserve potentially valuable information written on them that cannot be represented in a database record. This assures that the annotations are maintained in case materials must be rehoused and also provides the ability to visually “browse” assets without pulling them out of storage. Our high-efficiency inventory process augments this idea by using digital photography and other methodologies to document materials. The photographs, associated with their database record, are offered to the client as a deliverable if so desired.

What is a “baseline catalog record”?
One of the challenges in establishing an inventory of audiovisual materials is the inability to view/watch the content, extensive time allocation for playback cataloging if possible, and the lack of identifying annotations on the object. The baseline record is a minimal set of descriptive, technical, and administrative metadata that can be gathered from physical inspection of the asset and that would support the identification of assets and creation of metrics or other information that can be used to plan preservation projects or communicate about one’s collection to administrators, funders, and the public. The exact definition of this varies among organizations and among media types, but the concept is one of “more product, less process” – using efficient means to establish access to materials now and to have a structure that fuller data capture can be appended to over the long term.

Why Digitize?
Because people understand the term better than “Reformat”?

Technical obsolescence and physical decay make reformatting an absolute necessity for the long term use of audiovisual content. The target format for that process has shifted over the years, but, to be certain, that reformatted content faces the same threat of inaccessibility as the original whether it is analog or digital. The target format an organization chooses depends a lot on their resources and the desired use of the content. In some cases this may be analog-to-analog — motion picture film is still a very stable format compared to many audio and video formats. However storage costs, ease of access, use in digital workflows, emerging distribution avenues, and the big question of just how long manufacturers will continue to produce physical media make digitization a serious consideration for reformatting.