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I’m rather embarrassed to say that over the long holiday weekend I spent one night rubbing mineral oil into the wooden handles of my silverware and into my wooden cooking utensils. I’m not sure whether I’m more embarrassed of the fact that this was what I chose to do on a night off with the whole city out there waiting for me, or whether it’s because I’m ashamed it took me several months to get around to doing this task.

As the old saw goes, a cobbler’s children go shoeless and a doctor’s wife dies young. After spending all day focused in on proper care and handling, persistence, and preservation treatment, those become the things I want to set aside briefly as I decompress from the workday. And of course we all tend to face the same struggle at home as we do at work of trying to find the resources (time & energy) to take care of everything that needs to be done.

But, rested from a day off and caught up on my Google Procrastinator (read: Google Reader) because the posts had slowed down for the weekend, I finally set out my materials and got to work. It turned out to be rather enjoyable — satisfying to get something done and the wood looks quite nice now.

This could be a quaint little lesson about the joy of doing work, but instead what I was thinking about while oiling was how this set of silverware was one of the first objects I owned that really called for this level of care. Maybe it’s a generational thing, but I feel I grew up (and still live) in a disposables culture. Affordable material objects are not typically designed to last for very long. They are cheap and easy to produce and therefore eminently replaceable. Even higher priced objects like computers, furniture, and cars are thought of as short term, something one will want to update in 2-5 years.**

My great fear is that this kind of attitude has expanded to how people treat media objects. After decades of getting used to mass produced video and audiocassettes, CDs, and DVDs that seem to have no intrinsic value, or thinking about born-digital content and storage as an unending resource do we stop thinking about them as something that needs care and attention? Not saying that everything needs to be prioritized to a preservation level, but might people’s habits in how they treat the widespread, everyday non-archival items creep into how everything is treated?

Preservation and archiving are a series of proactive efforts as well as a mindset. As I find in distance running, it’s not the physical act that is difficult; it is overcoming the mental barriers to get myself out to run that is the hardest part. There are many standards and best practices in place for the what and how of archiving and preservation that are easy enough to access and implement. Perhaps we should begin to consider the mental approach and assessment of our work actions as requiring an equal amount of focus in order to better serve our valued assets.

— Joshua Ranger

**Yes, in audiovisual preservation the content carrier will need to be replaced on a regular schedule, but that doesn’t mean the current instantiation can be mistreated because it won’t be around long term.

Things That Shouldn’t Be Archived #2 — The Year In Review

The eternal conflict is whether these things shouldn’t be archived due to their culture-eroding awfulness or whether they should be archived as a warning to future generations. Perhaps file it under Things Their Creator Wishes Weren’t Archived: The promotional video for Microsoft’s Songsmith, possibly the least essential software of 2009 (if one discounts the majority of the iPhone App Store content):

–2009 has been a hard slog in many sectors. Why did Microsoft have to go and make it even worse?–

It’s like karaoke, but without well-written songs, alcohol, friends, and fun. Oh Yeah!

— Joshua “Jazz Hands” Ranger

Holiday Movies 2009

I reckon ’tis the season and all, but lots of people I run into are talking about their favorite holiday movies right around now. I’ve been noticing more and more the past few years that the pool of these favorites tends to be growing, and at a much faster rate than the production of new “holiday-themed” films.

I remember when films on television were singular events, especially when associated with a certain day. We watched The Wizard of Oz every year because that’s what was showing on Thanksgiving besides football and the Macy’s parade. However, with the expansion of cable and the growth in means of access to home viewing options like DVD and on-demand video there seem to be fewer and fewer points of common reference for such a topic. I don’t know if my nephew got his Oz on this year or if he watched something like Dragonball Z Saves Happy Turkey Day.

This reminds of the several literature professors I had in college who lamented the fact that there was no common reference for speaking about literature anymore, that they could not rely on their students having read any Jane Austen or Moby Dick or having any kind of Biblical literacy. They had to start from scratch in order to teach texts that relied on having knowledge of precedent or contemporary texts.

But culture moves on. Fashion has changed! Is this issue really a problem, or am I just being a Medieval fuddy-duddy? Can the non-canonical exist without reference to and knowledge of the canon? Or is that too limiting to free culture?

I have my own answers to these questions, but I feel they are topics best reserved for discussing over a pitcher of eggnog, for disagreeing just to be able to talk in depth about a topic one loves. And besides, I can’t complain because Hitchcock has always been my holiday/special event go to for movies.

Happy Holidays!

— Joshua Ranger

Top 10 Audio/Visual File Formats Established In The Aughts

10. www.fileinfo.com lists 202 video file formats.

9. They also list 337 audio file formats.

8. These numbers do not take into consideration the different release versions of each format.

7. Nor do they begin to approach the number of variable applications of codexes, settings, and other options.

6. An archivist may run into any one of these permutations some day, and will have to deal with the common, the obscure, and the obsolete equally to figure out how to make them accessible and maintain that accessibility.

5. There is no great joy for the archivist in the continual establishment of new file formats.

4. But you needn’t be caught flat-footed.

3. Having a plan in place for the ingest, monitoring, and migration of digital collections will help you control the process rather than feeling controlled by virtual strings.

2. Be prepared to address What Was? What Now? What Next?

1. And there are great resources to help you establish best practices and manage your digital collection:

• Library of Congress Sustainability of Digital Formats & NDIIPP
• Preserving Access to Digital Information (PADI)
• AES Technical Committee on Archiving, Restoration and Digital Libraries
• And more in our Links page and throughout avpreserve.com.

— Joshua Ranger

AVPS Releases Their 2009 Holiday Card

AudioVisual Preservation Solutions released its fourth annual original greeting card for the 2009 holiday season. The 2009 card features an illustration of the RCA TRK-12, the top of the line model of the first televisions made available to the public. The card commemorates the 70th anniversary of RCA’s public release as well as that of the 1939 World’s Fair in New York where the first televisions were on display.

The 2008 holiday card features a laser-cut illustration representing four frames of film in recognition of the significance of moving image film in our culture.

As in past years, the cards are inspired by the field that we work in and its history. As audiovisual media becomes a more ingrained part of society, we often forget the moments of origin or the amazing advancements they represented. The original art work is created by Stephanie Housley, a New York based artist/designer.

We are pleased to send these greetings to our clients and all of the other members of our community who are dedicated to the preservation of our audiovisual heritage. We are especially delighted to note that we often see the cards posted in the archives we work in long after the holiday season has ended.

To see the 2008 and 2009 holiday cards click here:
https://www.avpreserve.com/uncategorized/avps-holiday-cards-2008-09/

To see the 2006 and 2007 holiday cards click here:
https://www.avpreserve.com/uncategorized/avps-holiday-cards/

Making A Better Good Enough

This past weekend’s Times Sunday Magazine had a list of the top innovations of 2009. An interesting twist here was that these included not only physical / mechanical inventions, but also new concepts or changes in ways of thinking. One that especially caught my eye was the concept of “Good Enough is the New Great” (second down in the G’s). It seemed true enough that, with the huge expansion in available audio and video digital recorders and formats, we’ve gone through a shift in what we consider acceptable a/v quality and that we often care more about having access to information than we do about the aesthetics of the deliverable.

However, I started thinking about this in terms of my own work with audiovisual materials and quickly realized that this is not actually an innovative concept, that archivists have long been working under the rubric of Good Enough. The whole idea of an access copy is itself creating a good enough copy for users. Also, we have always struggled with availability of resources, with the restrictions that original or destination formats have, and with sudden technological shifts that promote obsolescence. Because of these and other factors, our choices in archiving and preservation often end up as The Best Option at the Time, which can sometimes seem like only Good Enough.

We as archivists also know that Good Enough is not a new thing to the wider public. We are the ones who have to deal with maintaining the media that has been created, and part of the reason we are forced into The Best Option is because of how often the media creator has settled for Good Enough or defaulted to Good Enough because they didn’t make proper adjustments to settings, lighting, format options, etc. Sure we prefer to preserve the best quality and longest lasting version of an asset, but we can only work with what we are given and are limited by the destination options available.

But this should not lead to a defeatist attitude; we should continue to take our higher responsibilities and standards seriously. This is why I say we do The Best Option at the Time, not Good Enough, because the ethics and standards of our field should not allow us to settle.

These responsibilities lie in three main areas:

• Research: Get educated in best practices that one should strive to follow. There is more and more research and resource availability that will help one to decide what the Best Options are.
• Maintenance: Keep abreast of changes to standards, practices, format availability, obsolescence, and other factors that will affect the persistence of audiovisual materials or how our work is done.
• Education: Not just our own education, but also the education of others in our organizations and the general public. If they understand what we do and the challenges we face, and if they understand how their actions affect the long term preservation of their creations, our work will have even better Best Options available.

Creator, User, Archivist – we’re all in this together. Good Enough is a good enough access standard, but it is not a preservation standard, and as always, we need to be cautious of the former trickling down into the latter.

— Joshua Ranger

Top 10 Media Preservation Related Standards Established In The Aughts

Archivists have to know a lot. Probably a lot more small details than any one person can keep in mind. (Do you have all of the Kodak edge codes memorized?) Standards, guidelines, and best practices provide necessary reference and give a structure to our work that we need. Staying updated on new or changing standards is a requirement of performing our work to the best quality possible — and one needs something to do while waiting for the next season of Mad Men to come out on DVD.

10. ISO 5758:2002, Cinematography — Labelling of containers for motion-picture film and magnetic material

Life would be a lot easier if this standard had been around since the beginning of the production of magnetic materials.

9. ISO 15707, Information and documentation – International Standard Musical Work Code (ISWC)

The ease of tracking works, rights, and licensing as well as improving wider access is dependent on consistent metadata applied by or available to all stakeholders. Perhaps this (and prior, pre-computing efforts) is why music has always seemed easier to find and license than moving images.

8. ISO 12234-2:2007, Electronic still-picture imaging — Removable memory — Part 1

Where would our culture be without the easy dissemination of embarrassing photos on Facebook?

7. AES49-2005: AES standard for audio preservation and restoration – Magnetic tape – Care and handling practices for extended usage

Few people seem to have that visceral love for magnetic tape the way they do for film, but the advances in preservation standards for tape have been equally impressive if not equally trumpeted as for film.

6. ISO 18934:2006, Imaging Materials – Multiple media Archives – Storage Environment

Though there have been many advancements in identifying the correct storage environments for all types of materials, no archival collection is a format island. The reality of the mixed-format collection where there are conflicting standards for ideal storage environments needs a sensible, viable solution for an overall standard that applies to all but the outliers.

5. NISO: A Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections

Often times standards or best practices are playing catch up to establish solutions to long standing problems. The rate of fluctuation around issues regarding digital assets doesn’t allow a wait and see attitude. Preserving digital materials requires proactive efforts to ensure their persistence beyond the immediate future.

4. Sound Directions: Best Practices for Audio Preservation, Mike Casey & Bruce Gordon

Just one of the many great resources to come out of the Sound Directions project. They should probably write a best practices document for how to develop and run funded research projects that is based on their experiences.

3. IASA-TC 03, The Safeguarding of the Audio Heritage: Ethics, Principles and Preservation Strategy & IASA-TC 04, Guidelines on the Production and Preservation of Digital Objects

See description for #1.

2. ANSI/NISO Z39.87 – Data Dictionary – Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images

The basis of the Metadata for Images in XML (MIX) Schema which is a model for good digital collection management. Storage, migration, and access of materials rely in part on standardized, interchangeable metadata.

1. Audiovisual Archiving: Philosophy and Principles, Ray Edmondson & Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS), Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems

Archiving and preservation dictate technical standards and ethical standards. We cannot provide one without taking factors of the other into consideration. Like a 70s supergroup, these documents combine both as individuals and compliment each other as a duo.

— Joshua Ranger

Acceptable Shrinkage

Amidst several news items/rumors this morning that Google was implementing their own URL shrinker I began to think again about some issues that have always bugged me. Like, how exactly does a URL shrinker (like tinyurl) work? And what is the persistence of the usability of that shrunken URL? Most URLs are vaguely human-readable. If I have a link or address that doesn’t work, I can typically figure out if the text got cut off when I copied it or if it somehow got some extra text added to the end or somewhere else. But just the other day I clicked on a shrunken link in a Tweet and it led to a broken links page from the shrink app. The page didn’t tell me what the actual full link was, or how I could fix the break, it just informed me the shrunken link did not exist and maybe I had some extra text in it.

I guess this means the companies that distribute these apps possibly have databases where the original link is associated with the shrunken link, or the shrunken link goes through some sort of decoding process during some routing through their servers. Whatever the case, we are essentially relying on a proprietary encoding format when we use one of these shrinkers. tinyurl claims their encoded URLs are permanent access routes, but should we trust that any more than we trust that file formats, codex and operating systems will persist over time? There is a Firefox add-on that decodes tinyurl-encoded addresses (Greasemonkey), but that is only one encoding system among a growing number.

This may seem like a tiny issue, but shrunken URLs are an ingrained part of the functionality of the shortened forms of communication we are using more and more nowadays (texts, Tweets, instant messaging, short emails). If they do not persist, then the fullness of our communication does not persist. Some people may question if these forms of communication are worth saving, but this is an issue beyond just what belongs accessioned into an archive; this is about maintaining our personal histories. The image of pulling out a stack of old letters tied up in a ribbon or an old photo album is something that will be increasingly rare for one’s own memorabilia. Opening files on a thumb drive or from a storage system will be what we are doing (unless you really want to print out all of those Tweets and texts…).

Just as we must be with all of the image/text/video/audio file formats and codexes out there, we must also be aware of the encoding/decoding/tagging cycle that occurs in all aspects of materials we produce and receive. It seems tedious or uptight or unimportant, especially because we have such easy access to our stuff right now and can’t imagine when we won’t. But then again, it would seem difficult to misplace 22 million e-mails until it actually happens. And that’s no small problem.

— Joshua Ranger

Things That Shouldn’t Be Archived #1

How can I say “Happy Holidays” with this song around? Orrin Hatch, what have you wrought?

Tablet Magazine has Orrin Hatch write Hanukkah song…

— Joshua Ranger

Starting From Scratched

A few months ago a friend told me she had heard that you could fix a scratched DVD with toothpaste. There weren’t many details beyond that, but she assumed it meant you just rubbed some toothpaste over any scratches on the disc and that would fill them in somehow. Of course my mind jumped to trying to figure out how this might work, as well as to what the short term / long term degradation issues might be — not really to the DVD but more to the player. I don’t know if DVDs are that great of a format for thinking so long term about, but I really didn’t think it was a good idea to stick a toothpaste coated disc into a DVD player.

This was the same person whose father lost a number of paperclips in his computers disc drive while trying to poke around to make it run faster, so I wasn’t so sure about her technological reliability. That is until I saw this Wired Wiki post the other day on How to Fix a Scratched CD. There it was, tips not only on using (abrasive) toothpaste to polish out scratches on an optical disc, but also anti-glare spray, Brasso metal polish, wax or something called Meguire’s Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner which is for automotive use.

It sounds crazy, and normally something like this would send me off mumbling about archivally sound practices and how kids just don’t respect things anymore and grumble grumble grumble, but this time I didn’t have that same reaction. Maybe it’s because it’s hard to care about the piles and piles of commercially produced discs out there. Even without being loofahed, they aren’t going to last all that long.

Or maybe it’s because I’ve seen enough ad hoc or re-purposed tools being used in archives and on collections that these things don’t phase me anymore (audio engineers sometimes seem part mad scientist). Maybe these make-dos are not the best thing for the media, but the simple fact is that many of the tools we need to do our work have not been created or are no longer being produced. Cleverness and inventiveness are necessary traits of the archivist / preservationist, and who knows when some out of left field solution might be the correct one.

Or maybe it’s because these kinds of solutions, while dealing with digital content, are actually more about physical process. They are about solving the ways that physical degradation like scratches impede the mechanisms of disc reading.

That last must be it, because what bothers me about the wiki on “how to fix a scratched CD”  is the cavalier attitude about file formats and blindly trusting computers & digital distribution.

The authors conclude that “you don’t have to worry about scratching your MP3 like you can a compact disc,” as if that means you don’t have to worry about other issues with digital media. And they suppose that, “If you lose your music, chances are, in the future, your music store will replenish the music you bought from them for you at little or no cost,” which is a rather optimistic outlook that commercial media providers will suddenly turn so altruistic.

The kicker seems to be that they recommend using Error Correction when importing particularly damaged materials to something like iTunes as MP3. As our own Dave Rice has shown, digital file transfer and transcoding are particularly fraught areas in maintaining a persistent object. The audio of an error corrected CD may sound fine, but reformulating the digital makeup of a file is the same as reformulating its physical structure. Even though you cannot always see the results as you can with a physical object, the changes have occurred and should be taken with the same consideration as how you physically handle an asset or what kind of image storage/transfer decisions you make.

We’re moving toward the Cloud, but that doesn’t mean we should let our conceptual hold of our media become ethereal as well. You don’t have to understand every smidgen of code (that’s the technical term for a piece of code, isn’t it?), but working in a world where archives are becoming more digi-centric does require that you understand how file formats work and what their transfer and transformation mean. It seems like starting all over once again, but its better than accessioning 40 boxes of minty fresh smelling discs.

— Joshua Ranger

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