A/V Media Preservation Project

Project Management Plan

Introduction

MSU Libraries has a strong tradition of A/V collection, preservation and access. Recent reports from the field highlight a renewed national and international effort to digitally reformat A/V materials before the obstacle of format and hardware obsolescence becomes prohibitively expensive or impossible. Building upon the efforts of early A/V pioneers at MSU Libraries including: building in-library remastering services in the 1980s; significant equipment purchases in support of an NSF grant in the early 2000s; and the continued growth of collections and human expertise in our Special Collections, Digital Media Center, and Vincent Voice Library this project will attempt to 1) inventory library A/V collections, 2) develop strategies and a shared understanding of criteria used to assess and prioritize collections 3) digitally reformat and preserve a pilot collection of audio material, and 4) make recommendations for future actions to expand our current A/V media preservation program.

About this document

The purpose of this document is to interpret the recent nuances, available guidelines, and the current landscape to provide a rubric for future decision-making in support of A/V preservation.

This document extends an original Project Initiation Plan (PIP)that was compiled during a period of investigation and information gathering from 1/20/2012 – 5/7/2012. The deliverables, lessons learned, proposed workflow and other outcomes of the resulting pilot project(6/1/2012 – 2/14/2013)are compiled in this Project Management Plan (PMP) for ease of reference. Input for this document includes:

1)CIC Preservation Officers conference call on 1/20/2012

2)Email correspondence with Michael T. Casey of the Media Preservation Initiative on 2/17/02

3)Conference call with Sherry Byrne and Kathy Arthur of the University of Chicago libraries on 2/20/2012.

4)Email correspondence with Lisa Schmidt, Eric Alstrom & Ed Gildner on 2/24/2012.

5)Initial meeting with John Shaw & Rick Peiffer on 2/24/2012

6)Follow up meeting with John Shaw & Rick Peiffer on 4/31/2012

7)Standing meetings with Peter Berg & Shawn Nicholson

8)The resources listed in the section titled “Resources Consulted”

Participant Summary

Project Lead: / Aaron Collie
Project Advisor: / Peter Berg
Project Stakeholders: / Shawn Nicholson, John Shaw, Rick Peiffer
Division(s): / Special Collections, Preservation & Conservation
Digital Information
Project Start Date: / 01/19/12
Key Contact, Phone # / (517) 884-0867
Last Updated: / 12/3/2018 20:12:25 a12/p12

Table of Contents

Introduction

About this document

Participant Summary

Table of Contents

Project Overview

Outcomes

Scope

Timeline

Background

Vendor Services

In-House Services

Management Plan

Workflow Overview

Analog Preservation & Storage

Digital Preservation & Storage

Digital Format Specifications

AUDIO

IMAGE

VIDEO

Metadata Specifications

Copyright

Access

Resources Consulted

Appendix A – Audio/Visual material in Special Collections, MSS Collection

Appendix B – Draft interview questions

Appendix C – Draft two track priority strategy

Project Overview

Outcomes

Objectives / Success Criteria
Pilot digitally reformatting a test case (Special Collections) / “All hands” debriefing
Inventory library A/V collections / Deliverable (A/V collections inventory)
Develop strategies to monitor and prioritize collections / Shared understanding of strategies and priority
Recommendations for future preservation actions / Deliverable (TBD)

Scope

In Scope / Out of Scope
Special Collections
Vincent Voice Library
Digital and Multimedia Center
Turfgrass Information Center
Fine Arts
Map Library / Branch Libraries
Non-Library units

Timeline

Six month horizon / Projected Outcome
04/30/12 / Gather information
05/31/12 / Discussion of initiation report
06/29/12 / Administrative approval of project outline
07/31/12 / Preparation & negotiation for pilot collection – Special Collections
08/31/12 / Expansion of inventory to other library units
09/28/12 / Review progress, discuss priorities & make recommendations

Background

The preservation of recorded audio and visual media is a responsibility shared by a community of stakeholders including but not limited to producers, academics, libraries, archives, studios, artists, museums and more. Since the earliest methods of recording audio and visual material—whether sacred, scientific, artistic, communicative or simply interesting[1]—we have pursed the desire to preserve our audio and visual heritage. However, unlike art and writing, carriers of captured images have only existed since 1826, carriers of moving images since the 1830s, and carriers of audio since 1877. This presents a unique opportunity in that the entire body of recorded audio and visual media has been produced in the last 186 years—and the vast majority was produced within the last century. A number of recent reports have emphasized the opportunity at hand[2]. These reports and guidelines have acted as a call to action for the primary stakeholders that support the preservation of audio and visual material to marshal resources in a global effort to acquire, preserve, and provide access to our captured audio and visual heritage before it is too late. The Council on Library and Information Resources expertly explains the double peril our collections face in the 2006 report on Capturing Analog Sound for Digital Preservation: Report of a Roundtable Discussion of Best Practices for Transferring Analog Discs and Tapes:

Our audio heritage is fragile because it depends on technologies and media that are constantly improving and are thus constantly replaced and unsupported by newer generations of hardware and software. Our continued ability to hear recorded sound will depend, first and foremost, on technologies that capture audio signal on obsolete formats—such as wire recordings, cylinders, instantaneous lacquer discs—and migrate or reformat them onto current technologies. To ensure that the recorded sounds of the past century are available for study and pleasure by future generations, we must not only preserve the media on which they were recorded but also guarantee that we have the hardware to play back the recordings, an understanding of the media, and the expertise to extract the best-possible sounds from antique recordings of all types. That said, the formidable technical challenges are merely the proximate cause of the fragility of these recordings. The ultimate challenge to providing access now and in the future is political and organizational: As a society, we must find the will and the resources to define this problem as a priority and to address the problems that technology poses. (p. v)

There is, of course, a fundamental argument for media preservation that has been widely adopted among cultural heritage organizations, as evidenced by our extant collections and the collection development policies that support those collections. However, the obstacle described above and referred to in the wider literature as the “window of opportunity” for preservation of material at risk of format or hardware obsolescence highlights a nuance that may be the impetus for the resurgence of A/V preservation programs across the globe.

Media archives have reached a critical point in their history. Rapidly advancing obsolescence, combined with degradation of carriers and multiplied by large numbers of archival recordings, forces a race against time to preserve important holdings. (MPITF, p. 1)

As a profession, libraries are fortunately positioned to answer this call to preserve audio and visual materials within our collection due to:

  • our professional obligation to share and learn from the best practices of our peers;
  • our successes and recognition for digital reformatting of valued collections (digitization);
  • and, our tradition of A/V preservation as a component of our shared organizational mission.

Vendor Services

Vendor / Vendor Site
American Video Transfer /
Archival Sound Labs / Cutting Corporation /
ATR Services, Inc /
Cineric /
Color Lab /
Creative Audio Works /
Digital Conversion Solutions /
Digital Media Commons /
George Blood, L.P. /
Graham Newton Audio Restoration /
Restoration Audio /
Lansing Video Productions /
Nauck's Vintage Records /
Richard L. Hess /
Scene Savers /
Screen Time Images Inc. /
SoundSaver /
Specs Bros /
The Audio Archive, Inc. /
The MediaPreserve /

In-House Services

MSU Libraries is well positioned to renew internal A/V digitization efforts. The Digital and Multimedia Center (DMC) has assembled a robust infrastructure in support of past grant work started in the early 2000s. This infrastructure was once used to support approximately 90 hours per week of audio digitization, and has since been used as needed on a “per project” basis. Video digitization infrastructure also exists, but the focus of this report will be on audio preservation. The current infrastructure for audio digitization currently can support the following formats:

  • Analog cassettes
  • ¼ inch open real
  • DAT
  • Phonograph records
  • Edison cylinder
  • Wire recordings
  • 8 track

Consultation with DMC suggested a minimum of 20 hours per week to transition from a per-project level of audio digitization to a dedicated program for audio digitization. These staffing suggestions are considered to be estimates, and do not take into account managerial overhead.

  • Minimum: 20 hours / week (e.g. 2 students)
  • Maximum: 90 student hours / week

Audio digitization can begin immediately. Equipment to support basic audio preservation (reel-to-reel & audio cassette) is currently operational and backup machines are accessible. However, because audio digitization is reliant on equipment for playback, it is noted as a possibility for new purchases to support digitization:

  • Refurbish and back up current equipment
  • A stereo deck
  • Phonograph cartridges, styluses, and turntables
  • Phono preamps
  • Larger hard drives
  • Software updates

Management Plan

Workflow Overview

/ 1Collection or item is brought to the attention of a member of the A/V Media Preservation working group:
  • Peter Berg, Associate Director for Special Collections
  • Aaron Collie, Digital Curation Librarian
  • Rick Peiffer, Technologist
  • John Shaw, Head of Digital and Multimedia Center

/ 2Collection or item is assessed by collection manager and member of the A/V Media Preservation working group to determine:
  • Condition, quality, and format
  • Value, coverage, completeness and count
  • Copyright status, risks, and other issues


/ 3The A/V Media Preservation working group obtains a sample of the collection or item.

/ 4The A/V Media Preservation working group examines the sample in order to gather detailed specifications for digitization and preservation of the analog and digital objects.
/ 5If the determination is made to digitally reformat the collection or item a database entry is created [by who?] to track the digitization process.
/ 6Equipment is prepared for digitization based upon the standards, specifications, and detailed parameters set by the A/V Media Preservation working group.
/ 7A digital signal is captured from the analog content under the direction of the Digital and Multimedia Center (DMC) staff.
/ 8During capture, the database record is annotated with observations made from the digitized signal, packaging or other descriptive ephemera supplementary to the collection.
/ 9DMC staff repackages and returns analog items to collection manager. [Conservation?]
/ 10The digital master file is examined for completeness, defects, inconsistencies, and other quality measures by DMC staff.
/ 11The file is saved to DigitalWorking share using the DB# as the filename.
/ 12The file is equalized, mastered, cropped, rotated or otherwise processed to ensure normalization of preservation masters.
/ 13A derivative file is created for dissemination.
/ 14Derivative files and preservation masters are queued for transfer to Archive and DarkArchive storage, respectively.
/ 15Head of DMC reviews progress, notes, preservation master and derivative files to ensure all quality assurance measures have been met or exceeded.
/ 16Metadata Librarian reviews notes, ephemeral records, and relevant information in order to assure compliance with metadata and catalog standards.
/ 17Metadata Librarian creates or updates a catalog record for the items and/or collection.
/ 18Item is status is completed and any final quality control issues are resolved.

Analog Preservation & Storage

  • Analog items and collections will be reviewed by the A/V Media Preservation working group and other pertinent parties to determine preservation risks and to ensure measures are taken to reduce these risks during repackaging, rehousing, and long term storage of items.

Digital Preservation & Storage

  • Digital preservation masters will be stored in the DarkArchivelong term storage environment. This storage infrastructure consists of a RAID6 disk array, a geographically distributed remote backup, and third copy in an offline/offnetwork tape storage.

Digital Format Specifications

AUDIO

Preservation Masters (Archival Quality)
  • File Format = Waveform Audio File Format (.wav)
  • Sampling rate = 96 kHz
  • Bit depth = 24-bit depth
/ Dissemination Derivative (Access Quality)
  • File Format(s) = MPEG-2 Audio Layer III (.mp3)
  • Sampling rate = 44.1 kHz
  • Bit depth = 16-bit depth

IMAGE

Preservation Masters (Archival Quality)
  • File Format(s) = Uncompressed TIFF
  • Resolution (pixel density) = 600ppi
  • Bit Depth = 24bit color, 8bit grayscale
/ Dissemination Derivative (Access Quality)
  • File Format(s) = TIFF, JPEG

VIDEO

Preservation Masters (Archival Quality)
  • File Format(s) = DV-25
  • Sampling Rate = 25Mb/s
/ Dissemination Derivative (Access Quality)
  • File Format(s) = MPEG2, MPEG4

Metadata Specifications

  • Items will be added to the library catalog. Metadata will be recorded during assessment and signal capture.

Copyright

  • The A/V Media Preservation working group will determine copyright status. Items that allow for public serving will be made available via the access system described further in this document. Items that are subject to copyright restrictions will be handled on an ad-hoc basis.

Access

  • Access to digital media will be enabled through the DMCs Vincent Voice Library for audio collections.

Resources Consulted

1Capturing Analog Sound for Digital Preservation: Report of a Roundtable Discussion of Best Practices for Transferring Analog Discs and Tapes. CLIR publication no. 137 (Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Resources and Library of Congress, 2006)

2IASA-TC 03. The Safeguarding of the Audio Heritage: Ethics, Principles and Preservation Strategy. Version 3, December 2005. IASA Technical Committee, Dietrich Schüller, Editor.

3IASA-TC 04. Guidelines on the Production and Preservation of Digital Audio Objects. Kevin Bradley, Editor. Aarhus, Denmark: International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA), 2004.

4[MPITF] Media Preservation Initiative Task Force. Meeting the Challenge of Media Preservation: Strategies and Solutions

5The State of Recorded Sound Preservation in the United States: A National Legacy at Risk in the Digital Age, CLIR publication no. 148 (Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Resources and Library of Congress, 2010), 12, accessed July 1, 2011.

6Sound Directions: Best Practices for Audio Preservation. By Mike Casey and Bruce Gordon.

7Selection criteria of analogue and digital audio contents for transfer to data formats for preservation purposes. Majella Breen, Gila Flam, Isabelle Giannattasio, Per Holst, PioPellizzari, and Dietrich Schüller. Aarhus, Denmark: International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA), 2003

Appendix A – Audio/Visual material in Special Collections, MSS Collection

MMS # / Audio Cassettes / CDs / Video Cassettes (VHS) / Reel to Reel / Misc
Chicano/Latino / 240 / 0 / 70 / 0 / 8 (Sony-advanced me dv cam; Cd-R; 8/16 mm)
196 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 8 Reels Film
208 / 32 / 0 / 33 / 0
209 / 1 / 0 / 6 / 0
210 / 7 / 0 / 1 / 0 / 1 filmstrip
212 / 9 / 0 / 2 / 0 / 1 Voice-O-Graph
222 / 0 / 8 / 21 / 0 / 3 Vinyl
24 camera tapes
8 DAT
225 / 7 / 0 / 0 / 0
228 / 410 / 0 / 162 / 0 / 1 ¾ or 1 inch VHS
240 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 12 LP Records
241 / 4 / 0 / 3 / 0
258 / 0 / 0 / 6 / 0 / 4 Film
260 / 2 / 0 / 0 / 0
282 / 8 / 0 / 0 / 0
284 / 2 / 0 / 0 / 0
285 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
291 / 1 / 0 / 3 / 0 / 1 Film
296 / 4 / 6 / 14 / 0
297 / 165 / 46 / 0 / 17 / 44 Vinyl
303 / 0 / 3 / 0 / 0 / 1 DVD (duplicated in MSS 222)
304 / 0 / 24 / 0 / 0 / 15 Vinyl
17 MasterTapes
313 / 5 / 0 / 5 / 0
323 / 60 / 3 / 35
339 / 20 / 79 / 0 / 0
345 / 2 / 0 / 0 / 0
354 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 0
362 / 38 / 0 / 0 / 0
359 / 45 / 0 / 0 / 0
Totals / 1063 / 79 / 329 / 52 / 149 varying formats

Appendix B – Draft interview questions

  1. What media types do you hold? (Audio, video, film, images)
  2. What format types do you hold? (audio cassettes, VHS tapes, LPs, etc.)

For each format:

  1. How many [format types] do you have?
  2. How many are unique (original masters)?
  3. Are any of the items available on another format?
  4. How many are commercially issued? (commercial CDs, videos, etc.)
  5. How many are not unique but are otherwise rare?
  6. Where is the item stored, and what is its condition?
  1. What do you consider the most important items and/or collections

Appendix C – Draft two track priority strategy

Assessment Criteria / Track 1 – “Low hanging fruit” / Track 2 – “Elevated risk”
Carrier support / Audio Cassette, Reel-to-reel / As identified
Condition assessment / Good condition / Poor condition
Copyright restrictions / No restrictions / Few restrictions / Preservation Copy
Collection value / Highly valuable / Above average or highly valuable

[1]Descriptors from IASA-TC 04. “Guidelines on the Production and Preservation of Digital Audio Objects.” 2004

[2]Notably “The State of Recorded Sound Preservation in the United States: A National Legacy at Risk in the Digital Age.”