Cataloguing & disseminating digital sound archives on
oral history in Jordan

Véronique Ginouvès

► To cite this version:

Véronique Ginouvès. Cataloguing & disseminating digital sound archives on oral history in Jordan. École thématique. Cataloguing & disseminating digital sound archives on oral history in Jordan, Amman, département de la bibliothèque nationale de Jordanie, Jordan. 2019, pp.55. hal-02387825

HAL Id: hal-02387825

https://amu.hal.science/hal-02387825v1

Submitted on 30 Nov 2019

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Distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 - Attribution - International License
Cataloguing & disseminating Digital Sound Archives
on Oral History in Jordan

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دارية أكتبة الوطنية
Department Of The National Library

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GOETHE
INSTITUT

UMIFRE
Unités mixtes des instituts
français de recherche à l'étranger

ifpo
جامعة سفينة
جامعة أدرنة
الجامعة في عمان

INSTITUT
FRANÇAIS
JORDANIE

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لبنان - سفينة - أدرنة
مосكو - سفينة
الاسكنIFIC

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(Aix-Marseille
université)

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Maison méditerranéenne
des sciences de l'homme
UMR 3123

AHU
نosem نوج التمييز

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https://phonotheque.hypotheses.org

Véronique Ginouvès, Phonothèseque MMSH
Please, introduce yourself and tell us about:

- Your studies and your work experiences;

- Your speciality at work;

- What do you know about oral historiy & sound archive? Did you participate in the workshop last year?
# Who I am?

**Véronique Ginouvès** - [veronique.ginouves@univ-amu.fr](mailto:veronique.ginouves@univ-amu.fr)

- Research Engineer at CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research) at Aix-Marseille University, France

- Head of the sound archives at the MMSH : Maison Méditerranéennes des Sciences de l'Homme/Mediterranean Humanities & Social Sciences Center

- Co-Director of a Masters Degree Programme about archival and library professions, including a specialization in the mediation of history and digital humanities.

- Here in Beirut for 3 months to work on the archives of the French institute of the Middle-East (Ifpo)

CNRS Cristal Medal 2016

Scholarly blog : [http://phonotheque.hypotheses.org](http://phonotheque.hypotheses.org)

Twitter : @bagolina

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Maison
méditerranéenne
des sciences
de l'homme

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Aix-Marseille
université

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What is the MMSH sound archive or
« Phonothèque de la MMSH » ?

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MMSH is a research and training
campus for Humanities & Social
Sciences with a focus on
Mediterranean Studies. Its sound
archive center preserves researchers'
archives and disseminates them based
on the principles of Open Science for
sharing and reusing by researchers
and civil society.

8000 hours – 4500 hours online respecting ethical and legal rules: on a data base **Ganoub** http://phonotheque.mmsh.huma-num.fr & a Scholarly blog https://phonotheque.hypotheses.org
The MMSH sound archives content

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The sound archive at Aix was founded in 1979 by scholars specialized in Mediterranean Studies
The aims of the MMSH sound archives

- To preserve the sources documenting research in the field: **the recorded interviews**

- A potential re-use of the recordings for new research.

A new guideline appeared after France's ratification of the **Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage** (1973) supported by UNESCO, which involves the management of the cultural heritage of these archives.
Promoting sound archives

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In France and Europe, academic archivists are striving to reinvigorate public interest in their archival material by promoting engagement through digital tools and multimedia experiences for:

- Secondary analysis by researchers;

- Promotion of the intangible heritage;

- Public awareness & enrichment by stakeholders;

- Reuse by artists.
Incentive practices
lead to new deposits

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The MMSH sound archives set up best practices and rules to receive new sound archives. The center created a complete methodological package from the collection to the dissemination of the sound archives.
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Archives vs libraries
# Libraries and Archives: Differences

<table><thead><tr><td>Archives</td><td>Libraries and Some Special Collections</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Closed stacks – your material will be retrieved for you; storage is secure and humidity controlled</td><td>Open stacks – you can browse and take items off the shelf on your own</td></tr><tr><td>To consult sound archives online you need the rights of all the stakeholders</td><td>To consult a book online you need the rights of the publisher</td></tr><tr><td>Organized by fonds / provenance, often containing individual items of various media, sharing a common origin, or provenance</td><td>Organized by subject containing for a single book</td></tr><tr><td>Group of material is described on a number of different levels: fonds level, series level and item level (hierarchy for context)</td><td>Material is described on an individual level (e.g. catalogue record for a single book)</td></tr><tr><td>You search the finding aid (listing of everything in the fonds) associated with the creator to find relevant records</td><td>You search for materials on your subject using an online catalogue</td></tr></tbody></table>
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# WHAT IS A SOUND ARCHIVE?
# Objective elements

- A unique document: when it is not produced for commercial purposes, it does not refer to any standard or rules making ;

- Recorded on analog or digital media

- The main information that describe it are provided by the individual(s) who have recorded it: the packaging of the box when there is one, the naming of the file attachments.

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Traditional mandate for an Archives is to **acquire, appraise, select, preserve and make available** records of **enduring value** for use, memory, research, or evidence – records include **all media types** from **public and/or private** organizations, families, or persons

Archives as record

* created in the conduct of affairs or projects

* residue of their creator(s) functions or activities

* deemed to have enduring value: information, evidence, legal, historical
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An isolated sound archive is mute
Necessity of
a
hierarchical
description:

the Fonds

= a conceptual whole
that reflects the
process of the
production or
accumulation of
records that share a
common function or
activity and exhibit a
natural unity

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Levels of arrangements in a fonds
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How will you organize the sound archives Fonds of our oral history project?
Necessity
of a
hierarchical
description

# Fonds
Jordanian Oral
Memory Narratives
in the 21st century

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Create the
Fonds
description
form

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What are you going to mention ?
# The Fonds

- Title/Subtitle

- Dates (begining/end)

- Provenance/History of the Fonds

- Sponsors/ Creators

- Medium/Formats

- Language

- Location

- Conditions/restrictions regarding its use

- Keywords (people, locations, periods... mentioned in the whole Fonds)
Don't forget the juridical entity of the project
[corporate name - Main Entry Marc21]

The project would not have been possible without the
cooperation of

- the Institut Francais de Jordanie (IFJ), the French
  **Institute for the Near East** (Ifpo) and the **Goethe-**
  **Institut**

- in partnership with the <u>National Library of Jordan</u> as
  well as

- four Jordanian universities: <u>Mutah University</u>, <u>Yarmouk University</u>, the <u>University of Jordan</u> and <u>Al Hussein Bin Talal University</u>.

- supported by the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC)
Recording an interview to contextualize a Fonds

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What will you ask and how ?
The recording
device

A Digital recording device that
allows the sound recording in
the WAVE format < Waveform
audio format> = minimum
44.1Hzt, 16 bits since 96Hzt/24
bits.

> Re name your files and copy them after an interview

> Never use the original file, use copies

> Check your device in order to
not to interrupt during recording

> Beware of human error
leading to files erasing!

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WAVE : uncompressed audio file format standard for storing audio on PC's with maximum audio quality
Preparing an interview for archival

purposes:

**Taking care of the material aspects**

Be aware of :

- The place of where the interview will be held,

- Its length,

- Your behaviour as an interviewer,

- Take care of surrounding and interfering sounds and noises!
(telephone, outside conversations, pets, open windows...).

- Check your technical setup (electric plugs, taking notes, ...)
Recording sound

- Quality of the recording device and the microphone,

- Quality of the act of recording sound (orientation of the microphone, mastery of the recording device, verification of levels),

- Quality of the recording format,

- Quality of sound card,

- Staying alert for sound disturbances during the interview,

- Staying alert for electric charge on the recording device (battery or transformer)

- Systematic transfer of digital files and verification of their integrity as soon as possible after the end of each interview.
Always ask permission to record

By asking your interviewee for her/his permission to record, you change the status of her/his words: you transform private speech (between the witness and you) into a public one, potentially audible by a third party, and thus, usable, quotable.
Some ethical rules

- Never record without a person's knowledge,

- Explain the context and objective of the survey to the interviewee,

- Interrupt the recording if she/he asks for it,

- Ask for permission to take photographs,

- Never disclose the discussion with the interviewee to her/his acquaintances,

- Sign the necessary agreement for the recordings, just like those used for images.
The introductory announcement
for the interview

The introductory announcement identifies the file and avoids
any kind of attribution error.

It indicates:

— the name of the interviewee,

— the name of the interviewer (her/his details, role, job),

— the date and time of the interview

— the place of the interview

— the purpose of the interview, and its framework (heritage survey for a deposit in an archive).
Create the Sub-Serie / Collection description form

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What are you going to mention ?
# The Collection or Sub-Serie

- Title/Subtitle

- Dates (begining/end)

- Provenance/History of the collection

- Creators different of the Fonds

- Medium/Formats if different of the fonds

- Language if different from the Fonds

- Keywords (people, locations, periods... specific for the collection)
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Listening to an
interview with
Hala Hamed
Mohamed Allawi
and Mohammed
Ibrahim
Mubaideen

What are you going to mention ?
Abu Tarek interview in 15 metadata elements of Dublin Core
(1)

<table><tr><td>Title</td><td>A name given to the resource</td></tr><tr><td>Type</td><td>The nature or genre of the resource</td></tr><tr><td>Contributor</td><td>An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource</td></tr><tr><td>Creator</td><td>An entity primarily responsible for making the resource</td></tr><tr><td>Date</td><td>A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource : YYYY-MM-DD</td></tr><tr><td>Coverage</td><td>The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant</td></tr><tr><td>Format</td><td>The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource</td></tr><tr><td>Language</td><td>language of the resource</td></tr><tr><td>Rights</td><td>Information about rights held in and over the resource</td></tr></table>
Abu Tarek interview in 15 metadata elements of Dublin Core (2)

<table><tr><td>Description</td><td>A description of the resource (abstract)</td></tr><tr><td>Subject</td><td>The topic of the resource</td></tr><tr><td>Publisher</td><td>An entity responsible for making the resource available</td></tr><tr><td>Relation</td><td>A related resource</td></tr><tr><td>identifier</td><td>An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context</td></tr><tr><td>Source</td><td>A related resource from which the described resource is derived</td></tr></table>
# VIAF: Virtual International Authority File

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Merlo, Laurent 1928-....

Merlo, Laurent, 1928-2002

Merlo, Laurent

ID VIAF46872539 (Personne)
permalien://viaf.org/viaf/46872539
ISNI : 0000 0000 3132 9811

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## Formes retenues

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200 | ta Merlo tb Laurent tf 1928-....

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100 1 0 ta Merlo, Laurent

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100 1 _ ta Merlo, Laurent _td 1928-...

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100 1 _ ta Merlo, Laurent, _td 1928-2002

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<figure><img src="image_38.png" /><figcaption>ISNI: International Standard
Name Identifier - ISO 27729</figcaption></figure>
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Organize your
sound files:
open Audacity
## How to name a file ?

* Don't make file names too long, since long file names do not work well with all types of software.

* Special characters such as `~!@#$%^&*()';<>?,[]{}' »| should be avoided.

* Versioning if needed: V1, V2

* Do not use spaces. Some software will not recognize file names with spaces, and file names with spaces must be enclosed in quotes when using the command line. Other options include: dashes e.g. file-name.xxx

* Use underscore between names elements

* Use lowercase
Digital preservation strategies
for the unpublished sound
archives

Many digital preservation strategies
have been proposed. There is no
single and ideal strategy is fitting all
data types, situations or institutions.

What are the current options for the
sound archives ?
# Preservation strategies for the unpublished sound archives

* ✓ Bit-stream copying

* ✓ Durable/persistent media

* ✓ Preservation on the long term

**Remember:** in the field of the sound archives we have to be careful to preserve all the sound players devices to listen to the archives (analog tapes and digital recorders).
Bit-stream copying

Is more commonly known as “backing up
your data” and refer to the process of making
an exact duplicate of a digital object.

Though a necessary component of all digital
preservation strategies, bit-stream copying in
itself is not a long-term maintenance technique,
since it deals only with the question of data loss
due to hardware and media failure whether
resulting from normal malfunction and decay,
malicious or natural disaster.
Bit-stream copying is often combined with remote storage so that the original and the copy are not subject to the same disastrous event. The digital information is copied from one long-term storage medium to another of the same type, with no change.

Bit-stream copying should be considered the **minimum maintenance strategy** for even the most lightly valued, ephemeral data.

## Copying on durable/persistent media

May reduce the need for refreshing, and help diminish losses from media deterioration, as do careful handling, controlled temperature and humidity and proper storage
Preservation on the long term

Migration is a set of organized tasks
designed to achieve the periodic transfer
for example one generation of computer
technology to a subsequent generation.
The purpose of migration is to preserve the
integrity of digital objects.

The reference model is <u>OAIS</u> Open Archival
Information System.
We choose WAVE because we are sure that this
format is always valid, or we have to do a migration.

Migration theoretically goes beyond addressing
viability by including the conversion of data to avoid
obsolescence not only of the physical storage
medium, but of the encoding and format of the
data. However, the impact of migration has not
been widely tested...

In each case, the aim is to enhance the span life of
digital documents while maintaining their
authenticity and integrity through copying and the
use of multiple storage locations (3 copies is the
rule).
WAVE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave

**WAVE**, short for Waveform audio format, is an uncompressed audio file format standard for storing audio on PC's with maximum audio quality.

First, the sampling rate standard for the preservation was the same than the CD-quality audio : 44.1 kHz/16 bits stereo

*Now it require 48khz minimum and 96khz is preferred with bit depth 24 bits minimum*
Use a data management plan

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Stanford | LIBRARIES

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About

Libraries

Using the libraries

Collections

Research support

Ask us

Home » Research Support » Data Management Services » Data management plans

# Data management plans

Data Management
Services

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Data management plans

DMPTool

Specific guidance

Share and preserve
research data

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Data best practices

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## About data management plans (DMPs)

A data management plan (DMP) is a written document that describes the data you expect to acquire or generate during the course of a research project, how you will manage, describe, analyze, and store those data, and what mechanisms you will use at the end of your project to share and preserve your data.

You may have already considered some or all of these issues with regard to your research project, but writing them down helps you formalize the process, identify weaknesses in your plan, and provide you with a record of what you intend(ed) to do.

Data management is best addressed in the early stages of a research project, but it is never too late to develop a data management plan.
Take care of the FAIR principles

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FINDABLE

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ACCESSIBLE

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INTER-
OPERABLE

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REUSABLE

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## Risks:

- Media failure

- Hardware failure

- Human failure

- Obsolescence

- Cyber attack

- Organisational failure
To disseminate, promote, preserve and
reuse archives you have to clear legal and
ethical issues...

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-For the Metadata

-For the contents
WHO OWNS THE
SOUND ARCHIVES
RECORDED IN THE
FIELD?
AN OLD QUESTION, A
NEW PARADIGM

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Who owns
the sound
archives
recorded
in the
field?

* Those who fund its production?

* The researcher who created the project?

* The technicians who have recorded the archive?

* The witnesses?

* Those who are cited in the interviews?

* The communities where the documents were created?

* The institution where the sound is archived?

* The website that hosts the data?

Bedouin wedding Jordania songs, recorded by Jean Jenkins and Paul Rovsing Olsen between 1963 and 1975, published in *Music In The World Of Islam : Strings / Flutes and trumpets* (1994). Telemeta CREM database, CNRSMH_E_2003_015_001_001_04.
List the stakeholders to understand how to
respect the property right and ethics rules

* The researcher (scientist, interviewer, student,...)

* The informant (witness, interviewed, performer, musician ...)

* The beneficiaries

* The holders of related rights (sound engineer accompanying the researcher or witness ...)

* Composer, arranger, lyricist of the work performed in the recording

* The individuals mentioned in the recording

* The institution which has set and/or funded the recording

* The institution where the sound is archived

* The depositary

* The librarian/archivist who has catalogued the record

* The communities who were interviewed

* The social network which held the file.
KEEP THE METADATA FREE...

With the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) - a mechanism for repository interoperability – you expose structured metadata via OAI-PMH and Service Providers harvest them.

Dedicate your metatada in the Public Domain:

Creative Commons CC0

“No Rights Reserved”

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It ensures that all metadata aggregated can be published by any
plateform under the same terms and used by anyone for any
purpose without any restrictions.
# WHAT IS AN ORAL HISTORY IDEAL PROJECT?

- Careful attention to copyright and other **legal and ethical issues** and take care of the rights of present users as well as of future users

- Use of high quality audio or video equipment, with **available tools and standard formats** to simplify storage.

- Implement a meticulous structured analysis, using **standards and cataloguing rules** (ISAD-G, EAD, RDF...) with a high level of **contextualisation**.

- Ensure that interviews are available in an archival repository and be vigilant about the **integrity of the collection**.
Thank you for listening and sharing

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Contacts:

Véronique Ginouvès, MMSH – veronique.ginouves@univ-aix.fr

Jean-Christophe Peyssard, Ifpo – jc.peyssard@ifporient.org
# Credits

Slide 1 & recurrent: photo from Hala Hamed Mohamed Allawi, project *Our Memory*

Slide 2: pas d'information sur l'image (reel to reel tape) and Wikipedia, Pittigrilli, 2006

Slide 3: MMSH, 2000, photogr. Pierre Monteil, CC-BY

Slide 7: JC Bouvier & P. Joutard, photogr. V. Ginouvès, 2013, CC-BY.

Slide 9: phonothèque MMSH, , photogr. M. Soubrié, 2016, CC-BY.

Slide 10: Archives de Marceau Gast, photogr Laure Principaud, 2012, CC-BY.

Slide 11, 14, 48: Photo from TBC Tanzania, by Véronique Ginouvès, August-September 2014 & Alexandre Abergel, november 2016, CC-BY

Slide 11: National Library of Lebanon, photogr V. Ginouvès, 2019, CC-BY.

Slide 12, 17, 19: Inspired by the slides of Agatha Barc and Roma Kail, Victoria university library "Archives and Special Collections".

Slide 16: reel ot reel, Phonotheque de la MMSH, V. Ginouvès, 2013, CC-BY.

Slide 23: interviewing Falestin Nalli, Ifpo, photgr. Solen Al Majali, 24 novembre 2019, National Library of Jordan, CC-BY-NC.

Slide 24: Slide 26: Zoom H4, Hens Zimmerman, Wikimedia, 2009, CC-BY.

Slides 48: Fonds Annie-Hélène Dufour, 1993, https://phonotheque.hypotheses.org/24007 CC-BY-NC. Bedouin wedding Jordania songs, recorded by Jean Jenkins and Paul Rovsing Olsen between 1963 and 1975, published in Music In The World Of Islam : Strings / Flutes and trumpets (1994). Telemeta CREM database, CNRSMH_E_2003_015_001_001_04. CC-BY-NC

Slide 55:National archives UK, Hong Kong fisherman's two sons listen to an up-to-date children's story on a very old transistor radio, 1969, No known copyright restrictions.