Reinventing Archival Methods – Description and Preservation
Brendan Somes30 November 2012
Introduction
DescriptionAudiovisual Preservation
The Archive
380 kilometres294k paper, 28k maps, 18k bound
volumes, 31k AV, 4k photos, 4k microforms42 million items
Description
About 85,000 series; about 47,000 series ‘hold’ the collection
About 9,400 AgenciesAbout 1,000 PersonsAbout 10 million items
Thirty years
Agency (n/e) Series (n/e) Items
1983/84 288/165 1855 N/A
1988/89 152/1472 1748/3957 N/A1997/98 N/A N/A 2,082,466
2002/03 N/A N/A 5,228,380
2011/12 14/36 235/526 10,309,627
Items left to do
Transfers since 2002 fully item enteredSo left to do - Items prior to 2002 –
approximately 30 million items
Queries Items Issued
Digitised Items Viewed
Items Entered
1983/84 3,446 27,205 N/A N/A
1994/95 33,004 45,336 N/A 1,568,158 (95/96)
2002/03 147,790 49,448 110,568 5,228,380 (4,959,078 public)
2006/07 123,734 125,406 1,485,145 7,590,074 (6,922,542 public)
2010/11 84,295 107,608 1,928,552 9,889,479 (8,104,905 public)
Describing Digital Archives
Commonwealth Record Series ModelRecordSearch
Description - Future
Business systems – greater workflow automation, harvesting, crowdsourcing
Agency metadata qualityMediation between users and the archival
intellectual model
Description - Future
Administrative HistoryQuality
MaintenanceMetadata models
Utilisation of existing information (eg records authorities)
Audiovisual Preservation
30 kilometres; 600,000 itemsFilm – 250,000
Video – 100,000Audio – 250,000
Preservation Purpose
To maintain accessibility by copying to new formats and/or storing in appropriate
environmental conditions
Preservation Copying
Transition to digital preservation formatsFirst audio
Second videoThird film (some)
Preservation Formats
Open standardsIndustry standards
Interoperability constraintsLack of open formats for video, film
Preservation Formats
Audio – bwf and flacVideo – jpeg2000
Film – aviAlways – the original
Challenges
ObsolescenceDeterioration
Workflow managementStorage managementPreservation formats
Now and the Future
New AV management systemAV Digital Archive
New Low Temperature Storage
End thoughts
Business systemsThe requirements of the archive
The requirements of the stakeholdersThe requirements of the environment
The requirements of the future
