The 100 Year Lie And The Lay Of The Shelf
25 February 2014
*Thanks to Kevin Driedger for the inspiration here (and shout out) in his blog post “Time & Media” over at Library Preservation 2.
More Podcast, Less Process Episode 7 Now Available
24 February 2014
Episode #7 of “More Podcast, Less Process”, the archives podcast co-produced by METRO and AVPreserve, is now available for streaming and download. This week’s episode is “humans.txt.mp3 : The Web Archivists Are Present” with guests Alex Thurman (Web Resources Collection Coordinator, Columbia University Libraries) and Lily Pregill (Project Coordinator & Systems Manager, New York Art Resources Consortium). Web archiving and the tools available for doing it have made a lot of advancements of late, but there are still a number of gaps in our capabilities and challenging policy decisions institutions must make when undertaking archiving one’s own website or sites from the web at large. Alex and Lily are leaders within their organizations in overcoming these challenges, and with co-hosts Josh and Jefferson they delve into the many issues faced and solutions derived.
Nine Things To Consider When Assessing Cloud Storage
20 February 2014
When evaluating cloud storage providers, it is dangerous to assume such services are only storage and therefore uncomplicated or that requirements for storage are obvious and therefore inherently met by the service provider. Experience with any technology selection will prove the opposite.
No two services are the same and the variance between services often represents the difference between successful implementation and a failed initiative. Never purchase a service without proper vetting; uninformed decisions risk loss of time, money, and even assets. These nine assessment criteria will help you get started in asking the right questions and making a practical, informed decision on using cloud storage for archival or preservation needs.
New AVPreserve Resource on Assessing Cloud Storage
20 February 2014
AVPreserve Consultant Seth Anderson wrote in a blog post earlier this week about the need for a practical approach to assessing cloud storage and other cloud services for use in an archival or preservation-oriented environment. He points out how “The misinterpretation of cloud services and their operations — and a number of operational hiccups in many service providers’ development of their products — has kept preservation organizations from readily adopting cloud computing,” but that such services must be seriously considered as an alternative for organizations with limited budgets, infrastructure, and support for the storage of digital files at a preservation level.
The Need for a Practical Approach to Assessing Cloud Services for Preservation
18 February 2014
With each new release or update of my iPhone operating system, I am required to revisit and complete the redundant process of “setting up” my phone. The “iPhone Essentials” process includes establishing a Wi-Fi connection, signing into your Apple account, turning on various features, and setting up your iCloud account. iCloud was launched in 2011 and is now a regular feature of most Apple products. It allows users to store contacts, calendars, music, and other data in the cloud and to sync such information between Apple devices. With iCloud, Apple has expedited the establishment of a cloud storage service and infrastructure into a few easy steps: sign in with your account information, choose what you want to store, and sync your data. Many users, myself included, likely take for granted the service offered by Apple; the simple setup and automatic integration of the service allows users not to ignore what, how much, and where their data is used and stored by iCloud.
Three Views Of Digital Preservation
5 February 2014
I worked on a large inventory project with a group of media production units in the Department of Defense a few years ago. We were at one of the storage facilities and a shipment of albums that had been on a base in Spain came in that day. As we were opening one of the couch-sized boxes to get an estimate of what was inside, someone warned us to be careful and not dig around in the box too quickly — you couldn’t be sure what critter had slipped in during years of storage and months of international transport. We laughed at what we thought was some friendly teasing, but he was serious. Scorpions, insects, spiders, reptiles, etc. could have crept in at any time, and we had to watch out.
More Podcast, Less Process Episode 6 Released
30 January 2014
AVPreserve announces the release of episode #6 of “More Podcast, Less Process”, the archives podcast co-produced with METRO. This week’s episode is “Can’t we all just get along? Shared services & institutional collaboration in libraries & archives” with guests Rachel Miller, Melanie Meyers, Lauren Bradley, and Felicity Corkill of the Center for Jewish History. The CJH consists of five partner organizations (American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research) that have banded together to share facilities and services in order support their common goal of providing research and educational resources related to more than 700 years of Jewish history. Our guests discuss the aspects of providing such shared services — the successes and challenges, as well as tips on collaboration. Though CJH presents a special situation of shared institutional goals, their efforts provide a model and guidance for many aspects of working across institutions, across departments, or even across the cubicle wall.
The Preservation Of The Singular Versus The Mass
23 January 2014
The (sorta) recent discovery and restoration of the film interstitials and outtakes for the stage play Too Much Johnson (I refuse to call a jumble of scenes tied to a larger narrative a film) shot by Orson Welles poses the obvious, titular question, how much Johnson is too much?
Enough With The Vinyl Already
17 January 2014
Unlike other dead media, the vinyl LP refuses to fade away, as the story of the vinyl revival assures us. Starting (at my first notice) in Slate and ping-ponging across the pond via Twitter (oh wait, or was that 2007?), the tale has ended up back stateside again on the editorial page of the New York Times. There the story was anew, this time paired with a similar short blurb comparing the use of ebooks and physical books (spoiler alert!: ebooks think they’re all that, but they’re not!).
Fixity V0.3 Released
16 January 2014
Version 0.3 of Fixity, the free fixity monitoring tool developed by AVPreserve, has been officially released for download on our Tools page and via GitHub. Fixity creates a manifest of files stored in directories identified by the user, documenting file names, locations, and checksums. The user can then schedule regular reviews of the directories to monitor for any changes to files that may point to data corruption or loss. Fixity is ideal for monitoring of files in long term storage, complimenting tools such as BagIt that check fixity at points of transition.
This release is a major update, addressing a number of issues related to scheduling, running the utility while a laptop is on battery power, compatibility with both 32-bit and 64-bit systems, and some user interface revisions. A Mac version should be released in the coming weeks. Download the new version of Fixity and keep giving us your feedback so we can continue to improve the tool.
