Before the conference proper begins, AVPS Senior Consultant Kara Van Malssen will be one of the instructors for the day-long PBCore Cataloging Workshop, and later in the week she will Co-Chair both the panel “Archive and the Commons: Why Archives Should Embrace Openness” and the International Outreach Committee meeting. Kara has been a strong advocate for education, international collaboration, and technological innovation in archives; she and her co-panelists look to present some highly informational and entertaining sessions.

Look us up if you’re in Austin for the conference, and keep an eye out for Senior Consultant Joshua Ranger who will be toting around the Official AVPS Audio Reader for some magnetic media fun. We’re looking forward to another great conference, seeing all of our friends and colleagues, and spending time in one of the great American cities.

Kara and John will be presenting about the NYPR Archive’s role in the difficult transition many media companies are facing in the shift from radio/television producers to multi-platform content producers. As the manager of legacy content and the repository for newly produced content, the Archives are at the center of this transition with the responsibility to make sure that assets can be used by producers, editors, hosts, and the public with consistency and quality across those many internal and public-facing platforms. As part of John’s larger discussion about NYPR’s efforts to digitize, preserve, and provide access to their 80+ years of content, Kara will be there to discuss AVPS’ role in developing an Archives-centric collection management tool and metadata exchange mechanisms. These projects are contributing to NYPR’s abilities to integrate content management systems across multiple departments and provide greater access to materials in-house and via their website.

John and Kara join other panelists Steven Anastasi, Vice President Technical Operations and Media Archives at Warner Bros.; Andrea Kalas, VP of Archives at Paramount Pictures, Sean Vilbert, Director of Digital Archives at Paramount Pictures, and Mark Lemmons, CTO at Thought Equity Motion; Steve Davis, VP/COO at Crawford Media Management; Brewster Kahle, Digital Librarian and Founder of Internet Archive; and Sam Gustman Executive Director at USC Digital Repository. Quite a show! Registration is still open online through the 21st of September, so check it out if you’re in town.

The death of film has been predicted and/or declared repeatedly over the years because of the extended slow down of stock and equipment production and the decreasing number of places to have it processed. A recent news article about the end of film print distribution in Hong Kong and Macau has many people thinking that this is the big third act coughing fit that can no longer be dismissed or fully recovered from. The topic has led to an extensive thread* on the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) listserv, producing a collective mind version of the 7 stages of mourning as people are alternatively depressed, angry, unbelieving, and hungry (hey, an archivist’s gotta eat).

A definite undercurrent to the posts is, essentially, “Film is the awesomest! Digital is a stupidhead!” (I simplify, perhaps in too many ways, to cover the large volume of responses.) A good point was made by Leo Enticknap** that the tightly clasped fist holding film to our hearts does not seem to exist in the same way with video, the response to this elicited on the listserv then being, “Well, duh.” It was expressed there (and in many places before) that film is special because one can see the image without a projector and there is magic in the creation of the image, while the invisible electrical pulses and signals of video and audio are empty and unloveable. (Sniff! As am I. As. Am. I.)

This is not true. I have a number of colleagues and friends in the field who love video and audio precisely because it is so mysterious and who find electricity magical. Also, an audio signal is at least as simplepure as the filmic image, representing exactly what occurred in actuality to create and transport sound through the air.

Of course there is no real arguing a point among formats here. –philia is –philia, and there is no logical point/counterpoint discussion and resolution to passion and faith. I think of the anthropologist Clifford Geertz’s writing on sacred objects***. As he states it, in either the spiritual or ethical structure within a culture, “the forms, vehicles, and objects of worship are suffused with an aura of deep moral seriousness” and “that which is set apart as more than mundane is inevitably considered to have far-reaching implications for the direction of human conduct” (126).

I would stress that the reference is not limited to objects of religious worship, but all special objects or symbols (mascots, flags, lucky underwear) that store meaning and importance in the Everyday. As Geertz goes on: “Sacred symbols thus relate an ontology and a cosmology to an aesthetics and a morality: their peculiar power comes from their presumed ability to identify fact with value at the most fundamental level, to give to what is otherwise merely actual, a comprehensive normative import” (127).

For the cinephile or audiophile or philatelophile, their particular sacred object holds a similar rightness and beauty, establishing not an utterly guiding but at least a partial value system dependent on, in Geertz’s terminology, a metaphysical referent or a system that derives from an ontologically based ethic (127). In the field of film preservation, cinephilia has often been a driving force. However, there has been a gnawing concern in the back of mind that the worm will turn…or has turned. It seems that fetishization of the object – the reification of film, video, or whatever carrier – can equally be a detriment to preservation.

Reformatting is a fact of audiovisual preservation. The carrier will not persist and the content needs to be migrated to an accessible format. Scratch that. The carrier will not persist and the business model that produces that carrier will not persist. However, we cannot, we will not let go of that original object. First of all, out of fear, fear of going down in history as that person who decided that nitrate films should be thrown in the Pacific or early television materials should be thrown in the Hudson River. Second of all, the reason is… fear, fear of losing the object. Reformatting is trending towards the digital realm and, to many, digital files are even less real or graspable than video signals. Geertz states that, while theoretically possible, no culture has established an “autonomous value system” independent of symbols and objects (127). However, conceptually, this is what digital preservation can seem to be requiring us to do.

The reconceptualization necessary here will happen over time, gradually, the birth of digital neither as hard nor fast as the death of film. What will be a bigger problem to face is what do we do with all of the physical materials once they have reached a state of advanced/absolute obsolescence and/or decay. One of the promises of digital media is cheap (and increasingly cheaper) storage (though initial cost outlay does not make it seem so). Physical storage is not getting cheaper, and costs will keep rising as organizations reformat and store their originals away. In the very near future (if not already), organizations will start asking hard questions: If we have a preservation master (with backups, stored in separate locations), and a mezzanine copy, and an access copy, why are we paying to store 15,000 tapes we cannot play internally, would cost us X number of dollars to have played by someone else, and may have decayed beyond the quality of our preservation master? At what point do we say, “Enough. We’re moving ahead with what we determined was our best option”?

Tough decision. Not mine nor anyone else’s to make for someone other, but, still, a decision we all can discuss and, hopefully, establish a reasonable set of outcomes and considerations that can inform the choices one must make. Preservation is not a single act, but a series of decisions and implications that follow the embodiment of content from object to object.

Maybe, then, as with the burial of Torahs and other sacred objects in Judaism, there needs to be some sort of ritual disposal, something that acknowledges the limitations of physicality and something that lets us say we shepherded these materials as best we could through their lifecycle so that their essence shall persist.

— Joshua Ranger

*Started by David Croswaith, [AMIA-L] Re: It’s the Beginning of the End for 35mm as Worldwide D-Cinema Roll-out Accelerates, Mon, 8 Aug 2011 14:20:01 -0700
**[AMIA-L] Reply: It’s the Beginning of the End for 35mm as Worldwide D-Cinema Roll-out Accelerates, Wed, 10 Aug 2011 11:33:39 +0100
***Geertz, Clifford. The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books. New York, 1973.

This presentation by Chris Lacinak covers the why, what and how of embedded metadata, focusing on WAVE audio files. It also reviews initial findings from an ARSC Technical Committee study, spearheaded by Chris, analyzing the interchange and persistence of embedded metadata across audio software applications that are regularly used in the creation of audio files in production and archival settings. Finally, Chris walks through BWF MetaEdit, a groundbreaking free and open-source tool commissioned by the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative and developed by AudioVisual Preservation Solutions in 2010.

Background:

On World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 2009, AVPS announced the Your Archive Deserves Advocacy! initiative (http://www.avpreserve.com/avpsresources/about-yada/), an effort focused on promoting the people and stories behind archives as well as providing resources that support advocacy. As part of the YADA! initiative, and in celebration of World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 2010, AVPS is funding three separate scholarship awards to help offset the cost of attending Foundation Center training classes. The Foundation Center is a national nonprofit service organization whose mission is to strengthen the nonprofit sector by providing information and resources that enable improved knowledge and access to philanthropic organizations. Their in-person and web-based workshops offer guidance and resources to help organizations obtain grants and other funding opportunities. The Foundation Center has regional centers for resources and training in Atlanta, Cleveland, New York, San Francisco, and Washington DC. For more information on the Foundation Center and the classes they offer, visit foundationcenter.org.

How does Fundraising Relate to Advocacy?

The activities involved in caring for audiovisual collections extend well beyond daily efforts such as arrangement, cataloging, reformatting, and providing access. These other activities involve an equally extensive set of endeavors that can roughly be defined as advocacy, including:

• - acquisition of funding
• - communication with administration and other organizational departments
• - public promotion and outreach
• - planning
• - community involvement, and more

Becoming an effective advocate for archival collections means becoming a proactive participant in the management and planning of all aspects of their preservation and long-term maintenance. This includes the ability to articulate the importance, needs, and goals of the collection to a broad audience, including potential funders.

The Scholarship:

Three applicants per year will receive registration to onsite or online Foundation Center classes plus actual travel cost reimbursement, up to $1000 total combined per award. Calls for submissions will take place in the spring through the auspices of the AMIA Awards and Scholarship Committee and awards will be announced in the fall.

Look for the announcement in the spring, and thank you to the AMIA Awards and Scholarship Committee and the AMIA Board for their help in this and continued support of education in archiving and preservation.

The Organizations:

AudioVisual Preservation Solutions
http://www.avpreserve.com
facebook.com/AVPreserve
twitter.com/AVPreserve

Association of Moving Image Archivists
http://www.amianet.org
twitter.com/AMIAnet

]]> http://www.avpreserve.com/news/avps-funds-new-amia-scholarship-to-honor-world-day-for-audiovisual-heritage/feed/ 0 http://www.avpreserve.com/news/avps-amiaiasa-2010/ http://www.avpreserve.com/news/avps-amiaiasa-2010/#comments Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:45:01 +0000 Josh http://www.avpreserve.com/?p=2742 Charles Wilson Peale, John Wanamaker, Boyz II Men… The groundwork for Philly Cool has been slowly built up over the centuries; now AMIA is bringing that destiny to fruition. The Association of Moving Image Archivists annual conference will be held at the historic Loews Philadelphia Hotel, November 2-6, 2010. In celebration of AMIA’s 20th anniversary and in acknowledgement of the worldwide import of audiovisual preservation needs, this year’s conference will be held jointly with the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives annual conference. Collaboration, integrable standards, and open communication among practitioners of the array of careers that relate to archiving and preservation are becoming necessary activities for doing our work well, especially in the face of the growing need for digital preservation. The joint AMIA/IASA Conference will provide the perfect opportunity to begin dialogs and develop the relationships that will contribute to the future success of the field.

In support of this significant opportunity, AudioVisual Preservation Solutions will be chairing or presenting on a number of panels for both AMIA and IASA.

Moving to a Digital Asset Management Environment: A Case Study on Fresh Air

Chair: Dave Rice – AudioVisual Preservation Solutions

Speakers: Julian Herzfeld – WHYY
Daniel Pisarski – TelVue Corporation

Embedded Metadata: A Look Inside Issues and Tools

Speakers: Chris Lacinak – AudioVisual Preservation Solutions
Dave Rice – AudioVisual Preservation Solutions
George Blood – George Blood Audio

Wrappers and Codecs: A Survey of Selection Strategies

Chair: Chris Lacinak – AudioVisual Preservation Solutions

Speakers: Carl Fleischhauer – Library of Congress
Isaiah Beard – Rutgers University
Hannah Frost – Stanford University

Tech MD: Is There a Doctor in the House?

Chairs: Chris Lacinak – AudioVisual Preservation Solutions
David Rice – AudioVisual Preservation Solutions

Speakers: Hannah Frost – Stanford University
Kate Murray – National Archives and Records Administration

Digital Audio Interstitial Errors: Raising Awareness and Developing New Methodologies for Detection

Speaker: Chris Lacinak – AudioVisual Preservation Solutions

Funding Outside of the Box

Chair: Kara Van Malssen – New York University

Speakers: Chris Lacinak – AudioVisual Preservation Solutions
Dirk Van Dall – Broadway Video Digital Media

Transcoding 101: The Mechanics and Application of Digital Video Conversion Within the Archive

Chairs: Dave Rice – AudioVisual Preservation Solutions
Angelo Sacerdote – Bay Area Video Coalition

Speakers: Skip Elsheimer – AV Geeks

For the description of these and other conference panels as well conference registration information, visit http://www.amiaconference.com/. We’ll see you at the top of the stairs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art!

]]> http://www.avpreserve.com/news/avps-amiaiasa-2010/feed/ 0 http://www.avpreserve.com/papers-and-presentations/association-of-moving-image-archivists-amia-2009-accessioning-managing-born-digital-video/ http://www.avpreserve.com/papers-and-presentations/association-of-moving-image-archivists-amia-2009-accessioning-managing-born-digital-video/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:30:43 +0000 Chris http://www.avpreserve.com/?p=1439 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.
]]> http://www.avpreserve.com/papers-and-presentations/association-of-moving-image-archivists-amia-2009-accessioning-managing-born-digital-video/feed/ 0 http://www.avpreserve.com/blog/amia-conference-2009/ http://www.avpreserve.com/blog/amia-conference-2009/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:39:52 +0000 Josh http://www.avpreserve.com/?p=1390 ]]> I’m very excited to be off to the 2009 AMIA Conference in St Louis — not just because of the conference, but also because I’m looking forward to being in St Louis (though maybe not looking forward to how many times I’ll have to hear people singing “Meet Me in St Louis”…). Raised on the west coast and living on the east coast, I’ve always had the sense that I could never live in the midwest because I wouldn’t be able to live that far away from an ocean.

I’m sure that’s just one of those silly, illogical rules I made up at some point, but even if it is true, I’m glad to be visiting the midwest. My first AMIA was Minneapolis in 2004. My first thought upon considering attending was, “Hm. Minnesota in November. Hm.” But it was 2am, I was groggy from working on my thesis for 12 hours straight, and The Pixies were playing in St Paul the week of the conference. I bought my plane and concert tickets and went back to writing.



When I arrived at the conference I was unaffiliated, I knew no one there, and I was staying in a hotel about 2 miles from the conference hotel, which I walked to every morning to save money. Needless to say, I had a fabulous time.

Novice and experienced conference goers spoke to me out of the blue (though wearing my Pixies shirt the day after the conference helped a little), everyone was kind and interested, and the programming from avant garde & restoration screenings to the panels were a revelation to me.

But I was equally grateful for the chance to experience the city. Wandering near and far to find the many museums, happening upon a pho restaurant the night I was feeling under the weather, my early morning trek past the Metrodome in the quiet cold, admiring the industrial brick buildings and classic signage, taking the bus in the dark to St Paul… Every day was something new mixed with the slowly familiar.



Minneapolis in the winter is not what most people associate with “enchanting,” but I was smitten. If I hadn’t have been trying to move to New York or LA I would have been tempted to start looking for work in Minneapolis. The conference is a touchstone for me, but the city and my memories created there are gemstones.



There are often grumblings about the locations the Conference Committee chooses, that they aren’t sunny destinations or don’t always seem to be very happening locales. But just like we talk about every piece of media deserving preservation efforts, so too does every city offer precious experiences to those who take the time to inspect more closely. In my short AMIA experience, the Conference Committee and the members in the host cities have done a wonderful job of selecting and creating access to locations that offer up deep culture & history, and Culture & History. Here’s to another great one!



— Joshua Ranger

]]> http://www.avpreserve.com/blog/amia-conference-2009/feed/ 0 http://www.avpreserve.com/papers-and-presentations/amiadas2008_presentation/ http://www.avpreserve.com/papers-and-presentations/amiadas2008_presentation/#comments Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:31:02 +0000 dave http://www.avpreserve.com/?p=2173 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
]]> http://www.avpreserve.com/papers-and-presentations/amiadas2008_presentation/feed/ 0 http://www.avpreserve.com/news/avps-participating-in-amia-conference-in-st-louis-nov-4-7-2009/ http://www.avpreserve.com/news/avps-participating-in-amia-conference-in-st-louis-nov-4-7-2009/#comments Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:44:18 +0000 admin http://www.avpreserve.com/?p=328 AudioVisual Preservation Solutions is pleased to be contributing to the advancement of archive community knowledge afforded by participation in three panels at the annual conference of the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) being held in St. Louis, Missouri this November.

The three sessions that we will be chairing and presenting at are as follows:

• Harnessing Collective Knowledge: Three Case Studies of New Collaborative Tools

Chris Lacinak (AVPS), Richard Wright (PrestoSpace), Mick Newnham (National Library of Australia)

A discussion and viewing of three new exciting projects – PrestoSpace’s wiki, National Library of Australia’s Mediapedia, and AudioVisual Preservation Solutions’ CEDAR – each of which provides open, collaborative, online resources that harness the expertise within the community through the use of centralized sites.

• Accessioning and Managing File-Based Born Digital Content

Chris Lacinak (AVPS), Grace Lile (WITNESS), Brian Hoffman (NYU), Dirk Van Dall (Broadway Video)


This session brings four experts and two case studies to the table to offer insights into the challenges that born digital file based video brings to your archive and offers strategies for managing it.

• Digitizing 102: Video Digitization Workflows and Challenges

David Rice (AVPS), Angelo Sacerdote (Bay Area Video Coalition), Skip Elsheimer (A/V Geeks LLC)

This session is a primer on the planning process for video digitization projects. It will examine case studies for working with damaged or ‘not-to-spec’ materials, address documentation practices for preservation workflow, and stress how to perform quality control on the process and the results.

Please join us!  We hope to see you there.
For more information about the Annual AMIA Conference:
www.amiaconference.com

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