What steps to takewhen AV is yet to become a priority
for your organisation
Somaya Langley
Digital Preservation Specialist – Policy and Planning (Polonsky Fellow),Cambridge University Library

Digital Preservation at Oxford and Cambridge (DPOC)• Collaboration between Bodleian Libraries, Oxford & Cambridge
University Library• Research project (2.5 years), finishing December 2018
• Outreach & Training, Policy & Planning, Technical Fellows

A lot of skills (but still not enough)
Skills, knowledge & experience

Qualifications

New skills we had to develop

data management
digital content creation and production
digital forensics
digital humanities & media arts
online delivery system development
programming languages
project management (waterfall & agile)
policy development
broadcast (radio)risk management
archive management
records management
information legislation
information systems
event management and production
supporting & managing digitisation programmescollections management
communication skills
systems integration
still image digitisation (incl. photography)
international digital preservation networks
knowledge of digital preservation systems
grant writing
library/archive metadata standards
web archiving
publishing research articles

Museum Studies
Archival Science
Records ManagementCommunicationsPhotography
Multimedia
ComputingInformation Science
Information Systems Admin
Music
Digital Preservation (Train-the-Trainer)

maturity modellingbusiness case development
research data management
quantitative research methods(survey construction and statisticalanalysis)
advocacy

Still missing
Moving image (film and video) specialist/engineer
Audio digitisation technician/engineer
Conservator (audiovisual carriers)

High-level collection profiling (digital content)
Class
1

Description
Digital archives of significant individuals or institutions

2

Type
Born-digital personal andcorporate records
Born-digital university records

3

Research outputs

Research data, research publications, electronic and digitisedtheses, scholarly digital editions, supplementary research
relating to digitised content and associated materials

4

Published born-digital content

Web archives, eBooks, born-digital maps, born-digital music,
ephemera, published born-digital content on carriers andcopies of electronic subscription materials (archival and/oraccess copies, as permitted by agreements) etc.

5

Digitised content

Digitised image content: Two-dimensional (2D) photography
and three-dimensional (3D) imaging etc.

6In-house created content

Selected records of the University (including CUL)

Digitised audiovisual content: Moving image (film and video)
and sound recordings etc.
Photography and videography of events and lectures, photos ofconservation treatments etc.

But what about AV…
Class
1

Description
Digital archives of significant individuals or institutions

2

Type
Born-digital personal andcorporate records
Born-digital university records

3

Research outputs

Research data, research publications, electronic and digitisedtheses, scholarly digital editions, supplementary research
relating to digitised content and associated materials

4

Published born-digital content

Web archives, eBooks, born-digital maps, born-digital music,ephemera, published born-digital content on carriers andcopies of electronic subscription materials (archival and/oraccess copies, as permitted by agreements) etc.

5

Digitised content

Digitised image content: Two-dimensional (2D) photography
and three-dimensional (3D) imaging etc.

6In-house created content

Selected records of the University (including CUL)

Digitised audiovisual content: Moving image (film and video)
and sound recordings etc. + digital/analogue AV (on carriers)
Photography and videography of events and lectures, photos ofconservation treatments etc.

Classes 1 & 2 – born-digital records

Carriers, Cambridge University Library. Photo: Somaya Langley

Class 3 – research outputs

Aijakko Mitiq: drum songs [Video file]. (.wav video file)

Video Screen Capture still of the Kymata Atlas Surface Viewer

Class 5 – digitised content

Royal Commonwealth Society collection

Class 6 – in-house created content

Lines of Thought, exhibition video still (2016), Cambridge University Libraryhttps://youtu.be/ic8jl2yHpGc

Class 7 – digital (and analogue) audiovisual content

Vickers Archive, Cambridge University Library. Photos: Somaya LangleyPriorities (and case studies)Class
122TypeBorn-digital personal andcorporate records
Born-digital university records

3Research outputs

4

Published born-digital content

36

Digitised content

In-house created content

Selected records of the University of Cambridge
Research data, research publications, electronic and digitisedtheses, scholarly digital editions, supplementary research
relating to digitised content and associated materials

15Description
Digital archives of significant individuals or institutions

Web archives, eBooks, born-digital maps, born-digital music,
ephemera, published born-digital content on carriers andcopies of electronic subscription materials (archival and/oraccess copies, as permitted by agreements) etc.
Digitised image content: Two-dimensional (2D) photography
and three-dimensional (3D) imaging etc.
Digitised audiovisual content: Moving image (film and video)
and sound recordings etc.
Photography and videography of events and lectures, photos ofconservation treatments etc.

Challenges (too many to get to the end of the list)

funding is still project-based:
unable to transition to programme & BAU
no AV DAMS

no AV engineers/specialists researchers using consumer devices to record AV
research data repository – doesn’t factor in cost of preservation differing retention periods
no EDRMS
no dedicated funding (for digital preservation or AV)
no digital archivists
still consider digital preservation a technical problem lack of policies no in-house AV QC skills
assume archivists and curators can digitise AV
too many other high-priority issues
senior leadership changes missing PSPG
no digital preservation system (yet)no dedicated digital preservation staff
no single acquisition stream
digital literacy is low (after December)(donors get different responses depending on different pathways)
etc…

What we’ve done
Organisational
Infrastructureadvocacy
maturity modelling risk register (#2)
gap analyses
designing training programmeinternational
digital preservation policy
maturity survey
conservation and collection care policy
share my knowledge
support requests (incl. AV)
collection
profiling
digital preservation strategy
communities of practice (incl. AV)
collection surveying
contributing to organisational strategy
briefing paper on the need for AV strategy (in progress)
guest blog posts on AV information sharing
briefings functional requirementsskills surveying

Resources
Frameworkbusiness case for adigital preservation system

Broken record:banging the drum
(repeatedly)

TechnicalInfrastructure

write-blocker
floppy drive
NAS(digitisation workspace)evaluating digitalpreservation systems

AV business case draft(halted)Three-legged stool model for digital preservation

Gather the data – digital preservation survey
NDSA Levels Level 0
Level 1of Digital
Preservation (doesn't exist)
UK

Rest of world UK

Level 2

Rest of world UK

Level 3

Rest of world UK

Level 4

Rest of world UK

Rest of world

Storage andGeographic Location

971011712110316

File Fixity and Data
Integrity

18441438419

113

Information Security

86121645322310Metadata

1097457617219

File Formats

14767515416

112

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.26222

Digital preservation survey (maturity)

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.28129

Digital preservation survey (resourcing)https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.28129

What to do to make sure AV doesn’t fall off the radar?

Embed it in policy• “Audiovisual content contained on both digital and analogue
carriers is also covered by this Policy.” – inaugural Digital
Preservation Policy• “Analogue and digital materials held on carriers such as
optical media, reel and tape etc. are stored inenvironmentally suitable conditions, according tointernational standards…” – Collection care andconservation policy

Establish an AV community of practiceDepartment or Team
Pendlebury Library of MusicRole
Head of Music Collections

University Archives

Archivist, Cambridge University Press

Modern Manuscripts

Archivist, Royal Greenwich Observatory

Digital Initiatives and Strategy

Senior Developer

Office of Scholarly Communications

Repository Manager

Conservation and Collection CareSenior Conservator

Digital Library Unit

Digital Library Coordinator

Digital Content Unit

Senior Photographic Technician

English Faculty Library

Head of Arts and Humanities Libraries

Centre of South Asian Studies Library

South Asian Studies Archivist

Other optionsa)

Piggy-back on other programme(s)(Save our Sounds – British Library)b)

One-off digitisation(Small ‘pot’ of funding or vendorsapproach us)f)

Embed ‘early stage’ AV needs into theDigital Preservation Strategy (in draft)(the need to develop an AV Digitisation
and Preservation Strategy – includingcostings)

g)Insist on gradual skills development &knowledge-sharing(via an AV Community of Practice)c)Transfer to another institution /repatriationd)h)Advocate internally & externally(Announce our issues to the communityi)& if the community cares then…)e)Forget about the analogue carriers
and only focus on born-digitalj)

Do nothing
All of the above?
None of the above (and do somethingelse instead)??

Points (& your suggestions)• Audiovisual has permeated our (digital)
lives - there’s no escape• By 2021, video is estimated to take up
82% of all consumer internet traffic

What action(s) would you suggest?

Centre for South Asian Studies - AV collection items, University of Cambridge. Photo: Somaya Langley

Thank you#dp0c

http://www.dpoc.ac.uk

szl20@cam.ac.uk