DIGITALIZATION
OF AUDIOVISUAL COLLECTIONS: ISSUES IMPORTANT TO MANAGE THE CHANGE TO A NEW
TECHNOLOGY.
Paper presented at II CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL DE ARCHIVOS DIGITALES:" Conectando los saberes de las bibliotecas, archivos, museos y galerias para la preservacion digital"(Programa UNAM DGAPA PAPIIT -IN022016)
Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Unidad Morelia 8, 9 y 10 de noviembre de 2017.
Tutoriales.Lunes 6 de noviembre 2017.Lugar: Aula interactiva.
INTRODUCTION
The report
presented is only a fictional report. Let us face some facts. The task for a
new head of a local audiovisual collection is to set up a plan for a total
digitalization of the collection of the archive. The new head of the archive is
a young man. He has finished his technical education from an important Mexican
university. He has no experience in working in a library, or an archive or
taking part in television and radio productions. Making movies are also an
unknown subject for the young man who is eager in making a professional career
in the new field of media work. The management of the company has decided to
invest new technology in the company.
The board of the company has given the director permission to make preparations
for the new change but a budget has to be presented the board before any
actions takes place. The cost of the introduction of the new technology must be
accepted by the board. The title of the report is: “ Digitalization of
audiovisual collections ,production and transmission “.
THE YOUNG
MAN AND THE OLD LIBRARIAN NEED TO TALK TOGETHER
The young
man need to be supported by a consultant in the field of archiving. He has
called me to assist him in setting up a preliminary plan and budget for the
work. I have worked in the business since 1970. I think I can give him some
realistic advices to avoid some difficulties.
THE
PRELIMINARY PLAN
The working
group
First of
all we have to get as much information as possible about the archives which we
are going the work with. THE FICTIONAL ARCHIVE which we have to study is a
local television and radio company situated in the city of Morelia in Mexico.
The company is an old one. The transmission of television and radio programmes
of the company have taken place from 1970 to 2017.
THE MEMBERS
OF THE WORKING GROUP
We set up a
working group consisting of people who have worked for the company for many
years in different departments of the company. The aim of the working group is to
collect as much facts about the archive as possible. On the agenda for the
working group is: What types of videotapes are stored in archive. Does the archive
keep films - and what kinds of films are kept? What is the correct number the
videotapes kept? What about the quality of the videotapes? We need to evaluate
the technical standard of the videotapes. Does the archive store tapes and films
after transmission only? – or does the archive keep films and tapes for viewing
only? What has been the main task for the archive since 1970? What about
reusing of radio and television programmes for the local people? What about an
access policy of the archive? Who has the right to make use of the archive –
only the staff of the company or any citizen of the city of Morelia or any
citizen of Mexico? The standard of the staff of the archive must be evaluated.
What kind of education has been required to get a job: Degree in librarianship,
education for universities or colleges, or any person who knows some of television and radio productions, are
qualified for working in the archive? Is the archive regarded by the management
of the company as a place to put employed who the management does not know what
to do with?
For the new
head of the audiovisual archive it is important to know all about
catalogization routines and detailed description of how to make a good
registration of the programmes. It is not a surprise that some archives have
worked with card catalogues all the time. All registrations of the content of
the programmes have been done by using typewriters. The budget for the archive
so far must be studied.
SUBJECTS
FOR FURTHER STUDIES: THE PRESENT SITUATION AND THE FUTURE PLANNING
THE
FICTIONAL ARCHIVE which is the object for the report, has not
been changed for many years. The main reason for the lack of up-dating of the
standard of the archive was the lack of interest for archiving of the
programmes by the management of the company. Besides the management was of the
opinion that the programmes transmitted had no life after transmission.
THE
FICTIONAL ARCHIVE has taken care of those programmes forwarded the archives
after a selection of which programme had a right to kept for eternity.
Let us take
a look at the selected programmes and technical materials:
-Videotape:
2000, 2 inch tapes kept after transmission as an original tape of the
programme. No copies kept.
-Videotapes:
5000, 1 inch tapes kept after transmission. No copies kept.
-Films:
2000 film programmes kept. Standard: 16 mm. Sound and film are kept in separate
boxes. No copies made.
- Photos:
500 photos kept. No copies kept.
- Sound
reels: 2000 radio programmes kept. No copies kept.
- Viewing
tapes. VHS. 1000 copies kept.
THE
FICTIONAL ARCHIVE and documents of the programmes were stored. A program report
made of every programme transmitted from
1970 has been kept in the archive.
The
required standard of the storage of videotapes, films and sound recordings is:
No changes in temperature and humidity of the rooms where the materials are
stored.
Recommendations
for storage of video tapes: Temperature: 16 C +/- 2, (50-60 F) and relative
humidity: 30% -40%.
Recommendations
for storage of films used daily: Temperature: 21 C ( 70F) and relative
humidity: 25% - 60%. Recommended standard for colour master material: -5 C (23F)
and relative humidity: 15%- 30%.
In general
lower temperature of storage of films will slow the fading process of the film.
ACCESS
POLICY OF THE FICTIONAL ARCHIVE
THE
FICTIONAL ARCHIVE was set up to assist those who were making new radio and television
programmes. The main object for the production was the inhabitants of the state
of Michoacan in central Mexico. The city of Morelia was the market for the
programmes only. An exception was the daily news transmitted in both the radio
and the television making the people of the state of Michoacan aware of
international issues and conflicts.
Access to
the collections was made by contacting the librarians working for the company.
A list of wanted shots or transmitted programmes was handed to the reference
librarian. The producer took a personal contact with the reference librarian
about the wanted materials and the plan for the production. Old films and tapes
were brought up from the storage room for viewing. In some cases the films had
to be viewed by using a cutting table. Copies of the selected shots were made
at the department for editing and copying of excerpts of programmes.
THE
FICTIONAL ARCHIVE was organized like many other television and radio archives
set up in companies worldwide.
The
research work was done by the librarians only because the old card catalogue
was still in use. Gradually all information written on the cards were copied to
a computer were a so-called “ free text system “ was introduced. The librarian
could search on the text of the cards where any word could be a target for the
research.
The result
of the work done by the reference librarian depended on how much facts and
information written on the cards. If the content of the report of the
programmes was limited to some persons only, you could only find the persons
registered.
THE
FICTIONAL ARCHIVE did not care about the need for information given to the
majority of the Mexican population. No. The people of the state of Michoacan
was the main object for the information stored in the archive.
SELECTION
POLICY OF CONTENT OF AUDIOVISUAL ARCHIVES
The
management of THE FICTIONAL ARCHIVE had decided that not every programme
transmitted should be kept in the archives. The policy of selection of
programmes was taken from the official policy of public libraries where the
librarians made a book selection of the collections and about what kind of
books should be bought for the library. Because copies were made of every book
published, the library did not need to buy every published book. Television and
radio archives made one copy of the transmitted programme only. The traditional
selection policy introduced from libraries to television and radio companies
resulted in wiping of too many good programmes.
DIGITALIZATION
OF THE COLLECTIONS: DECISION MADE BY THE MANAGEMENT OF THE COMPANY
The report
of the work done daily must be evaluated by the working group. The group must
know all about the archive. Then the group must get information about the new
possibilities introduced by the policy of digitalization. The old aims, tasks,
equipments, staff education, access policy and selection policy must be changed
because the new up-dating technology created a long list of new possibilities.
It does not make sense changing the work of the archive without taking advance
of the new possibilities of digitalization.
MORELIA AND
THE STATE OF MICHOACAN ARE PUT ON THE INTERNATIONAL MAP.
THE
FICTIONAL ARCHIVE is not a local information center anymore. The whole world
might get an interest in getting information about what is going on in the
state of Michoacan. You do not have any more local secrets.
NEW WAY OF WORKING AFTER INTRODUCTION OF DIGITALIZATION OF AUDIOVISUAL ARCHIVES.
SELECTION
POLICY ABOLISHED
“ … I may
disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right
to say it…”. Quotation: The French philosopher Francois Voltaire (1694-1778).
Official
statements made by any citizen of any country must be based on correct archival
facts stored in libraries, state archives, national archives and television and
radio archives. Digitalization is a new technology only perfect made for the
modern democratic society.
The working
group of THE FICTIONAL ARCHIVE had made a profound investigation about the present
way of working with archival footage. The group suggested keeping a copy of
every transmitted radio and television programme transmitted to the population
of Michoacan.No more wiping of tapes was the main content of the decision made.
It was a need for more programmes to be reused as programmes and a need for
making an active use of excerpts from transmitted programmes.
NO
CENSORSHIP- NO MORE WIPING OF INFORMATION
The working
group decided to evaluate the work of the archive with reference to the
democratic traditions of the State of Michoacan: Free exchange of official
information for the inhabitants of the state, freedom of speech and freedom of
expression. If there is no free exchange of official information for the
inhabitants of the state, the selected content of the archives must be
evaluated as a limited source available. Academic studies are depending on
access to information stored in audiovisual archives. If the government of the
state wanted to select the information forwarded the archives, the value of the
content of the archives is reduced for academic studies.
When the total transport of the collections
consisting of videotapes, films and sound recordings to files, the need for the
old materials was not a demand any more. The work was time consuming and
expensive because every videotape and film had to be evaluated from a technical
point of view by professional technicians.
THE FUTURE
OF THE ORIGINALS-THE LEGAL DEPOSIT OF ORIGINALS FROM AUDIOVISUAL ARCHIVES
On the
agenda on most of the international conferences the issue of the future of the
old collections is an important issue. The experts differ about what to do with
the original tapes and films. From a technical point of view the decision to
wipe and destroy the original films and videotapes made sense for persons who
have worked with technical facilities only. The content of the materials is
preserved and kept on files forwarded to the National Library for being kept
without any wiping dates. There is another problem too connected to the old
material: Lack of technical equipment required for further coping of the
content and viewing of the tapes. Two inch videotape recorders are not easy to
buy anymore.
EVERY OLD
FILM IS UNIQUE ND ORIGINAL
“
…Broadcasting archive: These contain primarily an inventory of selected radio
and television programmes and commercial recordings… as a source for
broadcasting and production purposes…collections may also include “ raw “
material ( not transmitted material) , such as interviews and sound effects…”
The source: Audiovisual Archiving: Philosophy and Principles by Ray Edmonson,
Paris, 2004.
After the
introduction of the Legal Deposit Law the policy of selection of transmitted
programmes was not an official policy for the broadcasting companies anymore
because copies had to be forwarded the national archive annually.
My
recommendation as a consultant for the young and new Head of the archive is to
keep the old materials as long as possible because the original videotapes and
films have a technical value as originals. The sound and the pictures are often
made better when you transport the content to the files. The original sound
will be improved to keep up with the required standard for new productions.
After
having completed the transport from tapes to files, the next decision is to
make the National Library understand the importance of keeping original
materials of all kinds for future studies. Nobody is asking questions about
destroying the original official documents or books published when the Spanish
found a settlement in 1541 with the name of Valladolid. Written papers and
documents published after the Mexican War of Independence are not an object for
destruction even if few make use of the original documents.
In 1991, the
City of Morelia was declared a UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE for its
well-preserved colonial buildings and layout of the historic center.
Preservation of old transmitted materials stored in audiovisual archives in
Morelia must be treated in the same way as the old colonial buildings and
books. The visual history of Morelia is also important for next generation to
know – not only buildings.
LIBRARIANS
AND THE FUTURE: IS THE INTRODUCTION OF DIGITALIZATION THE END OF THE OLD
TRADITIONAL LIBRARIANS?
“ …
Librarians are just like search engines, except they smile and talk to me and
they don’t give me paid for advertising when they are trying to help. And they
have actual hearts…”
The British
novelist and writer: Matt Haig. February 9, 2013.
Librarians
who have been educated to work in public libraries, university libraries and
private book collections have been worried about the future work. The main
question received from librarians educated from a traditional library school
is: What is the new requirement for librarians who want to work in audiovisual
archives? Do we have a job at all after the introduction of digitalization of
the collections?
My personal
experience working as the head of television archive for 30 years dealing with
recruitments of the staff of archive
contenting old films, old and new sound recordings, television and radio
programmes stored on different types of tapes and different films, is that a
radical change of demands of the staff is not necessary. The main reason is
that any traditional educated librarians are not trained to deal with the
materials stored in audiovisual archives. The audiovisual archives do not store
many shelves of books. The librarians had to get the new education on the spot
working in the archive by adopting new technology changes more or less
annually.
THE
STANDARD EQUIPEMENT OF THE STAFF OF AUDIOVISUAL ARCHIVES
Those
librarians who are addict working with books and papers only –I am addiction to
books myself –should not ask for work in archives where tapes and films and
sound recordings are the main working tools. It is important that you are
interested in learning about the new materials. The librarians must show a
positive approach to new technical equipments which are a must for the work in
the archives. The time when the management decided to put any uneducated
employed in the archives is out of date. The new media librarians must learn to
deal with old viewing cassettes, viewing tables and dealing with new files.
Anyway I recommend employment of persons with Degree in Librarianship and
persons with an academic education. When the management has made a final
decision to digitalize the total audiovisual collections, the consequence of
the decision is that the standard of the staff must be updated too. Training
programmes for the members of the staff dealing
with new files and new equipments are necessary. Above all: Part time
employment of the staff is not recommended policy because annually the staff
has to attend new technical training.
MEDIA
LIBRARIANS –WHAT TO DO AFTER DIGITALIZATION?
Video tapes
with transmission standard, video tapes used for viewing programmes only, 16 mm
films and sound recordings, old viewing tables, are history after the total
digitalization of the collections. Sorry, but that is the true and brutal
working situations. The content is stored on files.
When tapes
were the only original source for documentation of the content of the
programmes, the media librarians had to view every transmitted programme for
descriptions of the content. It was important to get as much facts about the
content of the programme due to the demand of quick access to different scenes
and shots to be used in a new television programmes. The work was time
consuming for the librarians who had not taken part in making of the programme.
New technology means that the work described is history after the
digitalization of the materials. How to make the description of the content of
the programmes when the librarians were told to stop the work?
METADATA: A
NEW TECHNICAL WORD ONLY?
The
metadata of every document is decided by the producers of the programmes at an
early stage of the work. Metadata is only the same facts you find on the first
page of every book where titles, copyright owners, pages, publishing dates,
subtitles, name of the writer and a list of photos used. The producers who also
have made the programmes, are the best qualified persons to make a detailed
description of the content of the programmes. During the work all information
connected to the programmes will be moved to archival system controlled by the
staff of the audiovisual archive. After the transmission of the programmes, all
facts connected to the products are transported automatically to the archive
where future research work will be done by the librarians. Besides the media
librarian who is working close to new productions can up-date missing facts. It
is also important to make it possible for people who know the content of the
programme to up-date the facts presented. Names spelled wrong or missing
information about the names of cars or planes or guns or sites used in the
programmes can be up-dated by people.
Journalists
working for a radio station or a television corporation can do the research
work from home or from the office because all documents are accessible for the
producers or the journalists. My experience is that many journalists want the
media librarians to do the research work for him.
MASS PRODUCTIONS
OF RADIO AND TELEVISION PROGRAMMES AND STORAGE POLICY OF THE PRODUCTS
“… Archives
are not free to publicly exhibit or exploit material in their collections
without the agreement of the relevant copyright holders…”.Quotation from:
Audiovisual Archiving: Philosophy and Principles by Ray Edmondson. Paris. 2004.
Page 59.
THE LEGAL
DEPOST LAW
“…The
purpose of the act is to ensure that documents containing generally available
information are deposited in national collections, so that these records of
cultural and social life may be preserved and made available as source material
for purposes of research and documentation…”
The source:
Act relating to the legal deposit of generally available documents.No.32 of
June 1989.With regulations. The Norwegian Library of Norway, June 1997.
Those
countries who have introduced a national legal deposit law of all transmitted
and published documents including all radio programmes and television
programmes, are facing a catalogue problem. How to deal with the high number of
documents forwarded the national archive?
LARGE SCALE
VIDEO MIGRATION
The nation
archives have to store all original formats including: 2 inch tapes, 1 inch
tapes, U-matic tapes, VHS cassettes, S-VHS cassettes, Betacam SP tapes and any
other formats used by television companies,and different original film formats
too. How to manage the digitalization of hundreds of thousands of hours of
audiovisual material per year? Video content can only be played on specific equipments.
The lifetime of the original videotapes is an unsure matter. We do not know for
how many years the tapes will last? We only know that it is important to
transfer the content of the tapes to new tapes after having tested the quality
of the tapes. The videos are under threat not only due to the physical and
chemical instability of the media, but also because the playing equipments are
not available in the marked any more.
It is not
my intention to advocate for a certain company or a system to handle the issues
mentioned. But systems are available on the market already. I recommend studies
of the work done by Library of Congress in USA and the done by Scandinavian
national archives.
In the
field of preserving audiovisual archives, different companies can do the work
of digitalization of more than 500,000 hours of audiovisual archives.
Transferring the video content to a medium with better reliability and life
span is a task for national archives and also for different television
archives.
The main
challenge with reference to the material transferred is the final decision of
how much detailed facts about the content of the programmes should be
transferred?
What about
the description of the content of the picture? Media librarians have viewed the
programmes making a detailed description including: Correct names of the
persons involved in the programme, the content of the conversations, the sites
where the programme was made, correct spelling of names and sites, different
shots and scenes, all technical information necessary to know, about the
weather, the seasons, copy the climate and special comments made by the persons
involved and above all: The title of the songs and artists involved.
Definitions
of the materials deposited:
-Medium: A
means of storing information,
-document:
One or more identical copies of a medium by which information is stored for
subsequent reading, listening, showing or transmission,
-publisher:
Any person who at his own expense produces or arranges for production of a
document in order to make it available to public,
-Producer:
Any person who produces copies of a document for a publisher,
-Importer:
Any person who at his own expense brings into the country a document published
abroad in order to make it available to public in the country,
A document
is made available to the public when copies of the document are offered for
sale, hire or loan , or when the
document is distributed in other ways outside the private domain,
-Information
contained in the document is made available outside the private domain by means
of presentation, showing, broadcasting, on-line transmission, and the like.
-So far the
demands of the legal deposit of a country.
CONTENT
DESCRIPTIONS OF PROGRAMMES STORED –AN UNNECESSARY BUSINESS?
The
question was asked at the EUSCREEN XL Conference in Rome, Italy, October 30-31,
2014. I attended the conference. The question was asked by a British
businessman, Roger Felber. He has been in the business, as CEO of media,
manufacturing and financial service companies for nearly 40 years. His group
had purchased BRITISH PATHE newsreels. Roger Felber wanted to make money
selling archival footage selected from the films bought. He did not make it
selling stock footage because the collections bought had too few information
about the films cataloged. Experts who knew about the content of the films had
to be hired to view all the films making a detailed content description of the
programmes. The work was time consuming but necessary for future research work.
So far, the hard and expensive experience made by a businessman and not by the
management of the archive or the librarians. Roger Felber took part in an opening panel discussion on
October 30, 2014, in Rome, Italy.
THE FINAL
MEETING BETWEEN THE YOUNG HEAD OF THE ARCHIVE AND THE OLD CONSULTANT OF
AUDIOVISUAL ARCHIVE- THE FINAL DECISION HAS TO BE TAKEN
The young
librarian is worried. He has got a lot of information about how to make
preparations for a change in technology and strategy for his collections.
Therefore new questions are asked by him concerning the advantages of
digitalization and above all: The disadvantages of digitalization of the
collections. Why is it so important to go for digitalization of films, tapes,
documents and papers?
Some of the
advantages of digitalization: The main keywords about the advantages of
digitalization are: Copying, automation, auto-cheching, searching, access,
speed of copying, quality, space requirement and future migrations of the
collections.
The source:
Memory of the world. General guidelines to safeguard documentary heritage.
UNESCO, 1995.
COPYING :
No loss of quality by making new copies of digital information. The same
storage format or another digital format is used.
AUTOMATION:
The documents are represented by a string of binary numbers making it possible
to automate the process of copying. No need for human checking of the fidelity
of the copies.
AUTO-CHECKING
AND REPAIRING: If errors are detected in a digital carrier it is possible
making corrected copies of the material without human intervention.
SEARCHING:
Both loc al and remote catalogues can be searched by the user. The making of a
web of links from the documents accessed by the user to associate documents in
the same collection. Full text searches can be made too. Similar searching is
devised for both sound recordings and image documents.
ACCESS: The use of large scale robotic stores will
enable the digitized collections to be accessible for 24 hours a day without
the minimum of staffing.
SPEED OF
COPYING: It will be possible to transfer data at a very high speed.
QUALITY: It
is easy to generate a lower quality copy from the higher quality copy when the
work is required.
SPACE
REQUIREMENTS: The result of storage of digitized information on carrier is a
reduction in self space required. No more climatic control of the space
required for the original materials like tapes, films, sound recordings and
papers. It is possible to make a reduction in running costs of the archival
climatic control.
FUTURE
MIGRATION OF THE COLLECTIONS: Collections copied to a digital carrier can take
advantage of the possibilities for automated transfer inherent in a digital
format in case of future migrations.
The young
librarian found the arguments acceptable for the time being. But he is still
worried. What about hidden, secret and forgotten disadvantages that few
consultants want to talk about? What about the costs for the new technology? He
has had budget problems already asking for more staff members to deal with the
increasing numbers of documents forwarded the archive.
Silence is
the best description of the reaction from the old librarian. Talking about
costs is no good talk at all. Anyway the disadvantages of the investments in
new technology had to be clarified before further work done.
SOME OF THE
MAIN DISADVANTAGES OF DIGITALISATION
CAPITAL
COSTS: To buy new equipment is expensive. Skilled operators of the new
equipment are a must if the best results are to be achieved.
STORAGE
REQUIMENTS: The capital cost to build a climatically stable environment for the
carriers is a necessary cost. This means an increase in the energy consumption
of the storage area of the collections.
RUNNING
COSTS: The new digitised collections may require frequent copying resulting in
labour, energy and new carrier costs.
PREPARATION
COSTS: The preparation works for the digitalization includes the ordering and
indexing of the original material and the entry of the textual references into
the data base by specialist staff. The work can be an expensive process. The
manpower for the work is expensive.
What about the original documents after having
finished the work? The question is asked by the young librarian who is not
satisfied with the report presented by the old librarian.
The answer
is: Take care of the original materials. The funding companies of the material
must accept that digitalization is a method of granting more people access to
the information without increasing the danger of damage to the original
document and to avoid high restoration costs of the original material. The
transfer of large numbers of documents will aid preservation by reducing the
pressure on the original documents.
CONCULSION
The young
librarian is not the only person within an audiovisual archive or a
broadcasting company to make the final decision about digitalization of the
collections. The management of the company must agree on a new strategy of the
archive while setting up a budget for the work. Patience, and more patience
might be the correct key word for the future work- an expensive business. The
public demand for more access to information given to the people already will
increase in countries where the political life is dominated by freedom of
speech, freedom of expression, freedom of information and democratic systems.
The
traditional library or archive where the viewing of the collections stored and
the cataloguing of the content of the programmes had to be done within the archives
only, is history.
The
original films, sound recordings, written documents, photos, television- and
radio programmes are no more objects for research work. This means that the
original materials can avoid being damaged. The users of the archives can view
the content of the collections independent of the location of the archives.
It is not
possible to advocate for more access to published information without a
political agreement made by the government of the country or the state. Access
means also making use of films, tapes and documents. Damage of original books,
movies, television and radio programmes might be the result of the new policy
of access. The introduction of digitalization is a tool and method to avoid the
damage of original material and above all: Keep up the high standard of
information for people within a democratic society.
The
introduction of legal deposit law of all published documents is a tool for
future academic studies and for access to information to people. No censorship
of transmitted television and radio programmes and published books and papers.
Wiping of transmitted television and radio programmes is forbidden by law. An
active cooperation with media universities and with historians is a must if the
cultural heritage of any country and of the State of Michoacan shall be
preserved to be reused year by year.
Tedd Urnes
Teddview
Audiovisual Archival Management (TAAM)
October 28,
2017
-
