preserving access to multimedia collections

Al Cornish, cornish@wsu.edu

Systems Librarian

Washington State University Libraries

Preserving Access to Multimedia Collections

Preservation example – Early Washington Maps Collection

Master Access - Dynamic Access -StaticFormat TIFF MrSID JPEGViewable/Downloadable No Yes YesSpatial Dimensions 100% of original 100% of original 6-13% of originalSpatial Resolution 600 DPI Multi 72 DPI

Preservation example – Early Washington Maps Collection

• Bit preservation of Master TIFF files:

Online storage (RAID array, with scheduled backups)

Optical media storage (CD-R, DVD-R)

Considering outsourcing options

Preservation support – Networking

The three contributing Early Washington Maps collection libraries (University of Washington, Washington State University, Tacoma Public Library) are actively working with the National Geospatial Digital Archive (NGDA, URL http://www.ngda.org/) to support collection preservation.

Preservation support – Networking

• The National Geospatial Digital Archive (NGDA) is one of eight projects funded through the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP, URL http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/).

• The NGDA host institutions are Stanford University and the University of California-Santa Barbara.

Preservation support – Networking

• Early Washington Maps content will be contributed to the NGDA repository.

• Some issues to be resolved:

NGDA will develop technical specifications for content.

Agreements between host and contributing institutions.

• Example: OCLC/DiMeMa CONTENTdm’s Full Resolution capability

Assists with the storage and archiving of full resolution files.

Formats supported include TIFF and MrSID; JPEG2000 support also available in CONTENTdm.

Preservation support - Software

“Preservation is a collection management, or digital life cycle management, activity with a technology component but also associated policies and procedures.”

Mackenzie Smith, “Exploring Variety in Digital Collections…”, Library Trends, Summer 2005

The Preservation Task

Preservation example – WSU Oral History Project

• Public web site using CONTENTdm (URL http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/oralhistoryproject/)

• Content includes described, streamed audio files in RealAudio format; use of SMIL technology to create synchronized audio/transcript display

• WAV format files serve as the preservation master