Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Tough Challenges in Preserving Electronic Works: Moving Images, Websites, and Electronic Art Howard Besser NYU Moving Image Archiving & Preservation Program

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Paradigms Shifts needed OldNew Physical preservation atmospheric cntrlongoing mgmt What to save?artifactidea + ancillary material & documentation CatalogingIndividual work in hand FRBR Later accessArtifact & documentation Restaging, ancillary material & documentation

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Tough Challenges in Preserving Electronic Works: Moving Images, Websites, and Electronic Art - The problems with any type of moving image material How are new works even more problematic? Issues with Digital Preservation Issues with New Works Technical & Conceptual Approaches to solutions Efforts to watch (projects, standards) Paradigm shifts needed Moving Image Preservation Education

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Moving Images are critical to understanding our cultural heritage Both fiction & documentaries shape any time period’s views of the past (Moses & 10 Commandments; Cleopatra; Caesar’s Rome; 1940s urban US; Hitler, Holocaust, WWII; Vietnam War, …) We are shaped by the cultural icons of our childhood (Leave it to Beaver, Lassie, James Bond, police shows, Mickey Mouse, Road Runner, …) We are also shaped by the advertisements, industrial, and educational films of our childhood (Maytag repairman, How to be a good homemaker, …) To understand our time period, people in the future will need to have access to the cultural artifacts of our time (imagine trying to understand 1950s and 1960s gender dynamics without pop cultural views of the family)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 What’s challenging about Moving Image Collections? You can’t browse a collection Many different purposes (documenting events, telling stories) “Published” works have variant forms; upcoming concentration on repurposing Many physical formats (film gauges, video sizes and encoding, digital encoding and compressions)- No format even approaches the stability of non- acidic paper-

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Moving Images are highly unstable, and an enormous # have already disappeared 50% of all titles produced before 1950 have vanished (approximate number as of late 1970s) This reflects full-length features; survival rates are much lower for other types (studio newsreels, shorts, docs, independent, …), and these “orphans” are particularly in peril Fewer than 20% of features from 1920s survive in complete form; survival rates of 1910s is <10% (& none of these are negatives) -Film Preservation 1993: A Study of the Current State of American Film Preservation, Vol 1: Report, June 1993, Report of the Librarian of Congress (

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Some reasons why Moving Images are disappearing Most pre-sound films weren’t saved at all Nitrates hazard Eastmancolor fading Video--changing formats, magnetic particles not adhering to backing, little recognition of importance of saving Who should be responsible for saving works without lucrative financial value

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Hampton Collection (1)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Hampton Collection (2)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Hampton Collection (3)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Hampton Collection (negatives)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Hampton Collection (interviews)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Hampton Collection (exhibits)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Hampton Collection (atmosphere cntrl)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 File Format Issues-

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Various Formats Intermixed (Hampton)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Old Film Formats

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 We’re always reformatting, and dealing with wide variety of formats Nitrate Super8 Cinemascope 3-D Cartridge …

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Conservation & Preservation Operations & Treatments--Analog Ideal temperature & humidity are slightly lower than for paper (and differ for film vs. video) Actual restoration requires historical context research (separate tracks, missing pieces, variant forms) Film –Nitrate stock needs to be kept separate (& eventually reformatted) –Vinegar syndrome is first sign of gas decay Video –When adhesive decays, baking tapes can achieve one final pass over read heads

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Ideal digital moving image file format (Jerome McDonough) Non-proprietary file format supports 10-bit/pixel no compression or lossless compression using non-proprietary CODEC supports multiple frame rates/frame sizes supports time code data in file supports audio (multichannel) and video in single file

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Limitations of present file formats MPEG seems to be only non-proprietary format AVI and Quicktime with extensions incorporate most features, but are proprietary

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Many quality questions Quality of playback? Theater experience?

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 How are new works even more problematic?-

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Conventional Works Manuscripts, books, paintings, sculpture We have a good sense of what the original object is Objective is to make object itself endure (temperature/humidity control, chemicals/pigments/fibers/adhesives, …) Goal is to keep object as close as possible to original state (though occasionally contraversy arises over whether to let aging show)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Electronic Media Video, audio, digital, new media Often difficult to determine what the original object is Difficult to make the original object endure (magnetic particle deterioration, warping, etc.) Even if we could make the original object endure, we wouldn’t have the infrastructure to view it in the future Need to develop a paradigm shift from preserving the original object to preserving info content Need to pay more attention to maintaining authenticity and replicating user experience

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Electronic Art in general is not like canvas paintings May include –Moving image materials –Multimedia –Interactive programs (including hypertext novels & games) –Computer generated art Most electronic art works share some common characteristics with other “strange” works like –Performance Art –Conceptual Art –Site-specific installations –Experiential Art

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 The Short Life of Digital Info: Digital Longevity Problems-  Disappearing Information  The Viewing Problem  The Scrambling Problem  The Inter-relation Problem  The Custodial Problem  The Translation Problem

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 The Viewing Problem  Digital Info requires a whole infrastructure to view it  Each piece of that infrastructure is changing at an incredibly rapid rate  How can we ever hope to deal with all the permutations and combinations

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 The Scrambling Problem Dangers from:  Compression to ease storage & delivery  Container Architecture to enhance digital commerce

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 The Inter-relation Problem  -Info is increasingly inter-related to other info  -How do we make our own Info persist when it points to and integrates with Info owned by others?  -What is the boundary of a set of information (or even of a digital object)?

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 The Custodial Problem  In the past, much of survival was due to redundancy  How do we decide what to save?  Who should save it?  Mellon-funded E-Journal Archives  How should they save it?-

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 The Custodial Problem: How to save information?  Methods for later access  Refreshing  Migration  Emulation  Issues of authenticity and evidence

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 The Translation Problem  Content translated into new delivery devices changes meaning –-A photo vs. a painting –-If Info is produced originally in digital form in one encoded format, will it be the same when translated into another format? –Behaviors

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 The Translation Problem Thinking of the Future (1/2) Screens will be different resolutions and different aspect ratios CRTs won’t exist A decade or 2 from now, today’s user interfaces will look like arrow-key navigation looks like today

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 The Translation Problem Thinking of the Future (2/2) Today’s streaming media are small windows, slow speeds As bandwidth increases, viewers will expect higher quality streams Creators may need to consider how they’ll be able to deliver higher-bandwidth streams –Delivery Derivatives vs. Masters encoded w/standards –May also want to re-edit the piece to take advantage of changes in technology, viewer expectations, society-

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Responding to serious Longevity Problems  Previous formats required little ongoing intervention (remote storage facilities, Iron Mtn); digital formats require intense ongoing management  Need for:  Preservation Repositories  Preservation Metadata

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Issues with new works- What is the work? Complexity of rich media Difficulty of making the work last

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 LeWitt: Wall Drawing 340

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Installing LeWitt

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 LeWitt Install Directions

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 LeWitt: What do we save? The installation? Documentation of the Installation? The directions for the Installation? What is the goal of our documentation and preservation?

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 ECI - Imagespace (early 80s)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 ECI - Hole in Space (both)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 ECI - 84-locations

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 ECI - 84-Community Memory

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 ECI - 84-kids

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 ECI - 84-MOCA

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 ECI - 84-Annotating Video

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Complexity of Rich Media Works often have artistic nature (including video games) Enormous number of elements can, at times, be very important to preserve (pacing, original artifact, elements used to construct the artifact) Too complex to save every one of these aspects for every type of material Importance of saving documentation

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Special Characteristics of Electronic Works What Really is the Work? Disappearing software Enormous number of elements can, at times, be very important to preserve (randomness, interactivity, pacing, color, format, original artifact, elements used to construct the artifact) Pieces and Boundaries Recontextualization (Postmodernism)--which rendition to save? Dynamic & Lack of Fixity (evolving works) Interactivity Historical context Difficulty of authentication over time

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Documentation & Preservation: What are we trying to do? Show the work the way people saw and interacted with it when it was first created (may be impossible; in the past, the artifact and how one interacted with it didn’t change much, so preservation and documentation were relatively straightforward) Show documentation of the work and people interacting with it when it was first created Reinstall/Recreate/Reinact the work

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 What can we do specific to Electronic Art? Works themselves may no longer even exist; in many cases, what we can save amounts to forensic evidence Enormous number of elements can, at times, be very important to preserve (pacing, original artifact, elements used to construct the artifact) Too complex to save every one of these aspects for every type of material Importance of saving pieces, representations, and documentation Involve the artists to capture their intentions Importance of Standards Familiarize ourselves with recent conservation developments (Who Knows?, TechArcheology, Tate, IMAP)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Technical & Conceptual Approaches to Solutions- Save the Hardware & Software Emulate Migrate FRBR Artist Intentions

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Save the Hardware & Software- A huge undertaking Computer Museum Broderbund

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Old Video Formats

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Old Digital Formats

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Save the Hardware & Software A huge undertaking Computer Museum Broderbund

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Possible endless need for reformatting implies Possible loss with each generation Requires managed environment

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Approaches to Solutions- Save the Hardware & Software Emulate Migrate

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Conceptual Approaches to Digital Preservation Refreshing always necessary due to volatility of physical strata –Impact on evidential value Migration -- advantages & disadvantages Emulation -- advantages & disadvantages And will need a long-term managed environment-

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Migration Wordstar to Word 1 to Word 3, … -Tables and complex features often get corrupted -Need to repeat every 4-5 years (maybe forever) +We know how to do this ourselves +If there’s a problem, we can catch it soon

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Emulation Keep the Wordstar file format, but write emulators to make it work in newer environments +A better chance of carrying over complexity +Many more features can survive -Problems may not be caught until it’s too late -Specialists and a whole infrastructure of emulators required -Serious © problems (reverse engineering?)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Managed Environment More than temperature & humidity control Periodic monitoring of the works Periodic monitoring of the technical environment for viewing the works (software, systems, hardware) Trusted repositories-

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Incorporate parts of Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) work expression manifestation item

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Standards for encoding artists intentions (group efforts w/i Cult Heritage community) Variable Media More recent SFMOMA/Tate collaborations IMAP Artists Interviews Project, Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage , Modern Art: Who Cares ( TechArcheology: A Symposium on Installation Preservation (SFMOMA)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 A few questions our community should address Special issues raised by non-library institutions Special issues raised by images and rich media What is the work (or salient points we need to preserve)? Bring the arts communities (artist intent, BAVC) together with the preservation repository communities and the preservation metadata communities Specifically get Cult Heritage communities involved with the selected OCLC/RLG recommendations Get cult heritage groups started on working to make sure that structure standards incorporate our works What organizations will take responsibility to save today’s digital “ephemeral” materials (online ‘zines, arts discussion groups, etc.)?

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Standards, Metadata, & Best Practices to follow- Risk Management Best Practices for Reformatting Preservation Repositories & Metadata Other Metadata & Standards

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Risk Management We can’t say definitively that we can make every digital work persist What we CAN say is that the more a digital work conforms to standards and best practices, the greater the likelihood that we can assure persistance Our preservation repositories can even accept deposits of non- conforming works, but the less they conform, the less likely that they’ll be salvageable Persistance is most likely for works that share standards, metadata, and best practices

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Reformatting Best Practices (still images) Think about users (and potential users), uses, and type of material/collection Scan at the highest quality that does not exceed the likely potential users/uses/material Do not let today’s delivery limitations influence your scanning file sizes; understand the difference between digital masters and derivative files used for delivery Many documents which appear to be bitonal actually are better represented with greyscale scans Include color bar and ruler in the scan Use objective measurements to determine scanner settings (do NOT attempt to make the image good on your particular monitor or use image processing to color correct) Don’t use lossy compression Store in a common (standardized) file format Capture as much metadata as is reasonably possible (including metadata about the scanning process itself)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Preservation Repositories: Open Archival Info System Model Producer Management Consumer

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Preservation Repositories: Open Archival Info System Model  High-level reference model describing submission, organization and management, and continuing access  Conceptual framework for different organizations to share discussions with a common language  Producers, consumers, management, actual repository  SIP, DIP, AIP  AIP consists of data objects plus representation info (Content, Preservation Description, Packaging, Descriptive)  Originally developed for Space Science community

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Preservation Repositories -- AIP Metadata Preservation Description Info –reference info –context info –provenance info –fixity info Packaging Info Descriptive Info Content Info

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standards (METS) Designed to make viewing works less dependent on proprietary software and particular computing environments Upsurge in use for digital reformatting of other types of archival material METS extensions for streaming media

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 OCLC/RLG Digital Repository Attributes Administrative responsibility Organizational viability Financial sustainability Technological suitability System security Procedural accountability

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 OCLC/RLG Selected Recommendations Policies, Certification processes, Risk management, Persistent ID, Migration/Emulation experiments Stakeholders meet to decide how to describe what is in a dig repository Examine special properties of particular classes of digital objects Technical standards for exchange and interoperability btwn repositories Develop projects and case studies Copyright issues

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 OCLC/RLG Efforts Working Group I: Preservation Metadata Framework …to define the concept of preservation metadata, describe its importance in context of the overall digital preservation process, examine the "state-of the-art" in the use of metadata in support of digital preservation, and evaluate the prospects for a community- wide, consensus-building activity in the area of preservation metadata (Preservation Metadata for Digital Objects: A Review of the State of the Art …to develop a framework outlining the types of information—i.e., metadata—that should be associated with an archived digital object. (A Metadata Framework to Support the Preservation of Digital Objects –an expanded conceptual structure for the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) information model, and –a set of metadata elements, mapped to the conceptual structure and reflecting the information concepts and requirements articulated in the OAIS model.

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 OCLC/RLG Efforts Working Group II: PREservation Implementation Strategies (PREMIS) develop a core set of implementable preservation metadata elements, with broad applicability within the digital preservation community develop a data dictionary to support the preservation metadata element set examine and evaluate alternative strategies for the encoding, storage, and management of preservation metadata within a digital preservation system, as well as for the exchange of preservation metadata between systems develop a pilot program for testing the group’s recommendations and best practices in a variety of systems settings explore opportunities for the cooperative creation and sharing of preservation metadata

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Preservation Repositories: Projects based on OAIS Model  CEDARS  NEDLIB  Pandora  CDL  OCLC/RLG Working Group on Preservation Metadata, Attributes of a Trusted Digital Repository, August 2001-

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Other Standards/Metadata Areas Synchronicity between media/streams Performance Archive & Retrieval Working Group Performing Arts Data Service (PADS) Persistent Ids- Website mgmt- Technical Imaging Metadata- Structural & Administrative Metadata- Complexity of formats (storage & compression)- Crosswalking Metadata-

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Persistent IDs--the Problem Need to separate work ID from work location URNs probably won’t be ready until 2003 Becomes a business process issue when one organization maintains the resource and another organization references it (ie. licensed from vendors or managed by separate administrative structures)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 More Persistent IDs --the Approach for today PURLs Handles HTTP redirects And worry about costs now and conversion costs when URNs become feasible

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Website Management More issues with referencing IDs References for mirror sites References for back-up sites when main site is down or bottle-necked References for off-site copies and archival copies

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 NISO/DLF Technical Image Metadata Workshop--4/99 (Z draft)  create metadata needed to manage images in digital repositories over long periods of time (full life-cycle mgmt)  document image provenance & history  ensure that the images will be rendered accurately on any output device

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 METS

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Structural Metadata Standards for Encoding Multimedia- (no time for details) SMIL MPEG 4, 7, 20

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Crosswalks  mapping btwn differing metadata structures  eliminate the need for monolithic, universally adopted standards  focus on flexibility and interoperatiblity  RDF-based metadata registries

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Crosswalk Example

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Other Digital Preservation Activities/Projects-  LC Natl Dig Info Infrastructure & Preservation  InterPARES  Electronic Literature Organization  Emulation Projects  E-Journal Archiving  ERPANET

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 LC’s National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program Authorized Dec 2000 LC, Dept of Commerce, NARA, White House Office of Sci & Tech Policy with help from CLIR, NLM, NAL, OCLC, RLG Ongoing collab process Commissioned papers on preserving: the Web, periodicals, digital sound, E-Books, Digital TV, Digital Video

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 InterPARES 2 International Research on Permanent Authentication Records in Electronic Systems Ongoing international archival world project examining how to make electronically-generated records last over time Developing the theoretical and methodological knowledge needed, then will formulate model policies, strategies, and standards Reliability, accuracy, authenticity In 2003 was extended to include dynamic, interactive, and experiential works

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 ELO Projects- For older works For works not yet created

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 ELO: Uncle Buddy’s Funhouse

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 ELO: Impermanence Agent

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 ELO: Boyfriend Home from War

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 ELO Research Approaches- Retrospective Focus on 8 older works representing –Text/lexia based hypertext/interactive works –Storyspace hypertext/interactive works –Hypertext/interactive works in “plain” html –Hypertext/interactive works incorporating more complexity (DHTML, layers, Javascript, CSS, …) –Flash works –Director/Shockwave works –Interactive Fiction/Drama –Algorithmically-generated works Attempt various preservation/restoration methods –Archival repository to save the bits, maps/storyboards, software in hopes of future restoration breakthroughs –Write open source code to construct viewers to read the older works on today’s machines –Save supporting material (screen shots, videos of interactive sessions, interviews with the author/designer, interviews with users, …) Examine Results –Review how usable the works are under each method after 3 (5, 10) years –Assess the cost, time, skills involved in each method

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 ELO Research Approaches-- Prospective Develop standards for encoding interactive behaviors, timing, etc. Gain community consensus for these standards Express these standards in terms of METS extensions and XML encoding Either convince vendors of authoring software to export to these standards, or design our own open-source authoring software Partner with a stable institution running a digital preservation repository, and use the encoded standards we develop as directions of how to handle works over time Develop model IP rights contracts that allow ELO to distribute a work if it’s no longer in distribution elsewhere Convince the community of authors to place copies of their works in ELO’s “dark archives”

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 National Report: Moving Image Preservation Education is critical Important to “Create a systematic graduate program for educating new film preservation professionals and continuing education opportunities for those already in the field” “ad hoc instruction is no longer adequate” “The National Film Preservation Board will work toward the creation of a master's degree program in film preservation at an American university and invite curriculum discussions with pertinent professional organizations.” -Redefining Film Preservation: A National Plan (Recommendations of the Librarian of Congress in consultation with the National Film Preservation Board) Library of Congress Washington, D.C. August 1994

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Interdisciplinary; students need to –learn the context in which each of these cultural artifacts were made –know the history of changing formats –need to be scientists and technologists who understand: the process of color changes how certain stocks become too brittle to provide a flat focus for copying how magnetic particles are laid on videotape and what causes the various types of deterioration how different computer files link and interact, (and how certain compression algorithms cause various types of loss) so that they can anticipate preservation problems of compressed and hyper-linked digital works –strong organizational and classification skills so that they can manage these collections and help others find things they want in them. –administrative skills to manage these large preservation repositories (whether they be film, video, digital, or others). –understand that preservation does not exist in a vacuum, and that they may have to become activists to prevent outside political forces from inadvertently trampling on our ability to preserve

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 3 Educational Programs recently established Jeffrey Selznick School (1 year, no academic degree) UCLA (2 years, Masters degree) NYU (2 years, Masters degree)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 NYU’s MIAP: A curriculum for studying Moving Image Archiving & Preservation Film History/Historiography and Film Style Conservation, Preservation, Storage, and Management Legal Issues and Copyright Laboratory Techniques Moving Image Cataloging Curatorial Work and Museum Studies Programming New Media and other Digital Technologies Access to Archival Holdings

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Our Graduates We are training a new generation of custodians of our cultural heritage This training has to involve more than the kind of apprenticeship that has traditionally characterized this field To be an effective Moving Image Archivist in the future will require a combination of the professional and the theoretical, and the ability to apply important traditions and concepts to communications technology of the future that we’ve never even dreamed of today We want our graduates to act as “change agents” in the organizations they go into We want to instill in them a commitment to preserve the future as well as the past many of us will need to work together to make sure that the moving image artifacts of the 20 th century and beyond are available to our grandchildrens’ grandchildrens’ grandchildren.

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Conclusions for preserving all types of digital works: Digital Repository Traditions & Services require  Sustainability  Interoperability  Access  And all of these require Standards and Metadata

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Conclusions for preserving all types of digital works: From the technological point of view Standards offer the best hope of overcoming Impediments Easier to maintain a single set of standards over long periods of time Puts your institution in the same large boat with lots of other institutions who will face obsolescence and migration problems periodically throughout the future

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 for artistic and other challenging works: How Best to save these works? Use Standards wherever possible Be aggressive about asset mgmt -- saving component parts and ancillary materials Both creator and Archive should develop an institution-wide plan for saving electronic works –Refreshing and either migration or emulation –Standard encoding schemes –What is the work? And prioritize what needs to be saved –Save ancillary materials and records

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 What can we do specific to electronic media? Works themselves may no longer even exist; in many cases, what we can save amounts to forensic evidence Enormous number of elements can, at times, be very important to preserve (pacing, original artifact, elements used to construct the artifact) Too complex to save every one of these aspects for every type of material Importance of saving pieces, representations, and documentation Involve creators & curators to capture intentions Importance of Standards Familiarize ourselves with recent conservation developments (Guggenheim’s Variable Media, Who Knows?, TechArcheology, Tate, IMAP)-

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Paradigms Shifts needed OldNew Physical preservation atmospheric cntrlongoing mgmt What to save?artifactidea + ancillary material & documentation CatalogingIndividual work in hand FRBR Later accessArtifact & documentation Restaging, ancillary material & documentation

Tough Challenges in Preserving Electronic Works: Moving Images, Websites, and Electronic Art Howard Besser, NYU Moving Image Archiving & Preservation Program UC Libraries Systemwide Operations and Planning Advisory Group (SOPAG) Site for the UC Digital Preservation & Archiving Committee Final Report METS official site:

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Preservation Metadata  OCLC/RLG Working Group on Preservation Metadata, Preservation Metadata for Digital Objects: A Review of the State of the Art, January  OCLC/RLG Working Group on Preservation Metadata, A Recommendation for Content Information, October 2001

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Technical Image Metadata Focus on Metadata that may prove helpful for  management  use  preservation ...

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Technical Image Metadata In Scope  still, bit-mapped pictorial images  scanned/reformatted images (+ born digital)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Technical Image Metadata Out of Scope  vector images  moving images  images of OCR-able text  structural and hierarchical relationships between images  rights management, terms of use  (authenticity/security)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Technical Image Metadata Technical Image Metadata -Z39.87  Image parameters (MIME type, compression, colorspace & profile, …)  Image Creation (source, capture info, etc.)  Image performance assessment (sampling, colormap, whitepoint, target data, etc.)  Change history (source, processing, etc.)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Technical Image Metadata Technical Image Metadata -Z39.87  additional XML implementation schema (MIX)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Discovery Metadata Dublin Core - NISO Z39.85 (3/95)- CBIR (ongoing)

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Emulation Projects CAMiLEON (Michigan/Leeds) NEDLIB

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 E-Journal Archiving Issues –License, don’t own; may not be even able to obtain right to make archival copy –Increasingly no paper back-up at all –Usually we don’t have the important redundancy factor Mellon funded projects (2001) –Yale, Harvard, Penn working w/individual publishers –Cornell, NYPL--specific disciplines –MIT exploring characteristics that change (dynamic)\ –Stanford--archiving software tools

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Electronic Resource Preservation and Access NETwork (ERPANET) Best practices and skills development for digital preservation of cultural heritage and scientific objects 3 year project launched Nov 2001; 1.2 million Euros

Museum Studies, 4/1/04 Serious Longevity Problems  What we know from prior widespread digital file formats  Images separating from their metadata  Inaccessibility of software needed to view an image  Inability to even decode the file format of an image

Museum Studies, 4/1/04