[ARSCLIST] Library of Congress and SAMMA

[Richard Billeaud <billeaud@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sorry for cross posting



Automated Tape Preservation & Digitization System to be Used

At The Library of Congress



SAMMA to Migrate Library's Audio/Visual Collection

Washington DC - October 1, 2005 - The Library of Congress has contracted to 
use The System for the Automated Migration of Media Archives, or SAMMA, to 
migrate their extensive collection of audio-visual material in preparation 
for their move to the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, 
VA. Over the next several years the Library will use SAMMA to migrate and 
digitize over 500,000 television items and close to 2,000,000 audio 
recordings.

The Library realized that it would take almost one hundred years, and be 
prohibitively expensive to migrate and digitize the audio-visual collections 
manually. To have the material accessible at the Culpeper facility, a more 
practical, cost effective, and efficient method had to be found. In 
examining the alternatives, the Library concluded that Media Matters' 
innovative migration automation system would provide the high quality 
necessary to preserve the recordings while meeting the required cost and 
time restraints.



SAMMA integrates robotic tape handling systems with proprietary tape 
cleaning and signal analysis technologies. SAMMA's expert system supervises 
quality control of each media items' migration. From a thorough examination 
of the physical tape for damage to real-time monitoring of video and audio 
signal parameters as the media item is being migrated, SAMMA ensures that 
magnetic media is migrated with the highest degree of confidence and the 
least amount of human intervention. SAMMA also gathers technical metadata 
throughout the entire migration process, ensuring that the process is 
documented in depth and gathering important metrics about the state of an 
entire collection. The modular, portable system will be installed on-site 
and run 24/7.  The final product is a re-mastered cassette and/or a digital 
file copy of each master tape at preservation quality and the technical 
metadata describing the condition of the media item and the migration 
process.



Upon completion, the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC) of 
the Library of Congress will be the first centralized facility in America 
especially planned and designed for the acquisition, cataloging, storage and 
preservation of the nation's heritage collections of moving images and 
recorded sounds. It is expected to be the largest facility of its kind.



About Media Matters LLC



Media Matters LLC has over a dozen years of expertise with media migration, 
and is dedicated to taking traditional migration strategies into the 21st 
century by researching, developing, and deploying cutting-edge digital media 
technology focused specifically on the needs of archives and the challenges 
of magnetic media.  Working closely with EU's PrestoSpace consortium, and 
other international organizations, Media Matters is developing 
next-generation processes and standards for automated media migration.



For further information:

Contact Richard Billeaud at richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx or Steve Kwartek 
at steve.kwartek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Phone: 212-268-5528 X113