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I worked on the digital archiving project at the Library of Congress. In that case, it was mostly wire spool recordings, wax cylinders, and LPs, but many of the
by caseysoftware 11y ago
I worked on the digital archiving project at the Library of Congress. In that case, it was mostly wire spool recordings, wax cylinders, and LPs, but many of the same principles apply:
- This media can be fragile. Less so with VHS or Betamax, but it's something to keep in mind.
- It's not usually just a single copy and drop it into an archive. Most of the time, they'll want a super high quality, uncompressed master for long term preservation. This is with the hope that they never have to go back to the physical media.
- Once they have that copy, they create lower quality versions for day to day display, usage, study, etc.
- When you consider the "work" (in the artistic/archival sense, not the effort sense), it's not just the video. Quite often they'll want image scans of the media itself, container, etc. This is because the video itself may have been suffered damage due to physical damage.
- Next, you need to document the whole process down to the brand and settings of every single device. If it's known (or discovered later), that a particular piece of equipment distorts media (plays faster/slower, changes color palettes, etc), you need to know that and potentially correct for it at a later time.
- And finally, don't forget the metadata! A collection isn't useful if someone doesn't capture the who, what, and when. This is often the most painful part because the settings above are often set once and forgotten. This requires manually transcribing information written on the media, watching it, or a variety of other methods. Most libraries farm this out to interns. My new company - Clarify.io - hopes to help with this aspect.
If you're interested more in the mechanics, please feel free to let me know.
- pavel_lishin 11y agoWould you consider doing a reddit AMA? HN doesn't quite seem like the right place/format for it. Although, I'm gonna cut right in line and ask: what's the most interesting thing you've archived? If you're not sure what we'd find interesting, some suggestions are - content, medium and difficulty.
- caseysoftware 11y agoI've considered it before but wasn't sure anyone would care. Now as I'm seeing more of these archiving efforts discussed, I'll consider it. :) For the most interesting thing, I'll share two answers: - First, there were the truly historic pieces of media. Things like Thomas Edison's first motion pictures and reporters' wire spool recordings of D-Day hours after the invasion "ended" were always the most amazing. You read about this stuff, but hearing it is something else entirely. - On the other end of the spectrum, you have to remember that everything that has a registered copyright has been sent to the Library of Congress. That includes porn. My group didn't archive it but the group down the hall had to catalogue it. No, they didn't have private offices. ;)
- weisser 11y agoWow what an interesting coincidence...I just moved to Austin and am working on preserving some extremely historic recordings. Emailing you now!
- pavel_lishin 11y agoCould y'all try to find a way of getting an AMA link back to HN if you end up doing one? This is fascinating stuff.
- weisser 11y agoI'll definitely be doing an AMA about my specific project. I'm not at all an expert in the field but I'll share the story and my experiences.
- caseysoftware 11y agoIf/When it happens, I'll make sure to publicize it via our Twitter account - @ClarifyIO. I can't promise more atm.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago> - Once they have that copy, they create lower quality versions for day to day display, usage, study, etc. I think the Internet Archive's systems do that automatically.
- ris 11y ago"Most of the time, they'll want a super high quality, uncompressed master for long term preservation." Is this really practical for video?
- caseysoftware 11y agoIf the alternative is going back to a known-to-be degrading physical copy, it doesn't matter how practical it is. They'll work to figure out how to do it.