Re: [ARSCLIST] basic question from a newbie

["Morman, Ed" <EMorman@xxxxxxx>]

Scott:

Thanks for your thoughts.  We will certainly consider them as we develop
an action plan for this material.

Ed

Edward T. Morman, MSLS, PhD
Director, Jacobus tenBroek Library
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND JERNIGAN INSTITUTE
1800 Johnson Street
Baltimore MD 21230
410.659.9314 x2225
410.6595129 (fax)
-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Scott D. Smith
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 12:23 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] basic question from a newbie

Ed,

I would strongly second all the points that Richard brought up.

I would also point out that it is critical to include relevant  
metadata at the time the source materials are digitized.

In general, most archives are moving their collection resources to an  
online environment, either internet or intranet based. Without a  
cohesive system of metadata and keyword coding, it is impossible to  
move assets into an online system.

I would strongly urge that you review the requirements that you will  
have for access before embarking on a large scale digitizing program.  
It is relatively easy to deal with the metadata issues during  
ingest-much more difficult to go back and re-visit it later.

Scott D. Smith
Chicago Audio Works, Inc.

Quoting "Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> Dear Ed,
>
> The general direction of large collection archiving is to store
> everything in managed servers with off-site backup. We can call that
> many things, including "digital repository" and "trusted digital
> archive".
>
> For a collection of your size, the options for disk-based or
tape-based
> off-site backup are both viable. The primary storage would be a robust
> disk drive system.
>
> Selecting collection management software is a big hurdle and I have no
> recommendations in that area.
>
> IASA standards state that a minimum of 48,000 samples per second
should
> be used when digitizing and most of us adhere to the 24-bit
> recommendation as well. As IASA says, "some material would benefit
from
> higher sample rates". This would be high-quality music and drama
> recordings, not "announce booth" or small-studio readings.
>
> I think the consensus is that the material which is already digitized
> at other sample rates and bit depths (as long as they are very common
> ones like 44,100 samples per second and 16 bits (CD and some DAT))
> should be ingested into the digital repository in their native format.
> This may invite differing opinions.
>
> Storing the material as WAV files in the digital repository is also
the
> accepted standard. MP3 and other compressed files may be generated at
> the same time in order to provide lower-bit-rate access copies.
>
> I have some hopefully useful information at www.richardhess.com/notes/
> and you can read about the tape digitization and restoration work I do
> at www.richardhess.com/tape/
>
> There are lists of resources on the ARSC web site ( www.arsc-aurio.org
> ). One of the most useful resources is the IASA TC-04 document
> (available from IASA), at least for the technical side of audio
> digitization.
>
> In order to help you go through the collection and prioritize
> sub-portions, the FACET tool from Indiana University is quite useful
as
> it helps to identify and quantify risks to the collection. That, and
> the documents from the Sound Directions project are available here:
> http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/projects/sounddirections/
>
> Many of us here can answer specific questions. We each have our own
> areas of experience.
>
> A few of my "soapbox" items are:
>   - Get as good a playback as possible -- this is the last time the
> tape will be played
>   - Don't destroy/dispose of the original analog tapes
>   - Just because person A can't play the tape doesn't mean person B
> can't as well.
>
> A note on the last point: the hard disk drive I ranted about here a
few
> weeks ago was unrecoverable both by CBL and DriveSavers. Most likely
> because of a well-intentioned, but ill-advised opening of the drive by
> a computer "consultant" prior to sending it to CBL. If you're not sure
> of the recovery method and you think something is wrong in any media,
> don't "guess" and don't take steps that may make the situation worse.
>
> My summary paper of tape degradation factors was recently published in
> the ARSC Journal and now is online at
>
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/history/HESS_Tape_Degradation_ARSC_Journ
al_39-2.pdf
>
> Good luck with a worthwhile and exciting project!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Richard
>
> At 04:25 PM 2009-01-05, Morman, Ed wrote:
>> Dear experts on recorded sound preservation,
>>
>>
>>
>> The National Federation of the Blind owns thousands, if not tens of
>> thousands, of hours of sound recordings that we need to preserve in
the
>> most efficient way, while still having ready access to them.  All of
our
>> current recording is done digitally, and stored on MAM-A professional
>> grade gold CDs.  Our collections extend back to the 1950s and include
>> reel-to-reel and cassette masters, as well as digital audio tape and
>> other digitized recordings on CDs.  Much of the digitization of the
>> older material was done haphazardly.
>>
>>
>>
>> As you can imagine, the sound archives are quite important to an
>> organization of blind people.  We would like retrospectively to
insure
>> that all our recordings are digitized professionally and stored in a
>> little space as possible given concerns for preservation.
>>
>>
>>
>> We recently joined ARSC, and I signed up for this listserv in order
to
>> learn from folks in the sound preservation enterprise.
>>
>>
>>
>> Any advice you can provide will be much appreciated!
>>
>>
>>
>> I thank you in advance.
>>
>>
>>
>> Ed Morman
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Edward T. Morman, MSLS, PhD
>>
>> Director, Jacobus tenBroek Library
>>
>> NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND JERNIGAN INSTITUTE
>>
>> 1800 Johnson Street
>>
>> Baltimore MD 21230
>>
>> 410.659.9314 x2225
>>
>> 410.6595129 (fax)
>>
>>
>
> Richard L. Hess                   email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Aurora, Ontario, Canada       (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX
> Detailed contact information:
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
> Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.