On metadata and digital preservation tools

We’ve recently contributed to the Greatbear’s blog about some of our audiovisual material, and have discussed how we have prioritised digitization of audiovisual material, the digital preservation tools we’ve been using, metadata, and digital file formats. You can read our contributions on the Greatbear blog.

Audiovisual material from the Linda Smith Collection and Tony Allen Collection

Audiovisual material from the Linda Smith Collection and Tony Allen Collection

Its been a while since I’ve shared some links that I’ve found useful lately, so I thought I’d do that now too…

DigiPres Commons is a website providing links to various other resources (such as those provided by the Open Preservation Foundation, the Digital Curation Centre, and the Internet Archive), and includes links to digital preservation tools, information on file formats, digital preservation FAQs, and help when writing a business case for digital preservation.

 

Linda Smith's notes for her appearance on Room 101, broadcast 17 November 2003

Linda Smith’s notes for her appearance on Room 101, broadcast 17 November 2003

The BBC Genome website has proved incredibly useful when sorting, organising and listing material within the Stand-Up Comedy Archive. Many of our depositors have also worked in TV and radio, as well as within the stand-up/cabaret circuit, and when we have unlabeled audio-visual material, or notes scribbled down for a radio or tv programme, we’ve generally been able to find out the date and station of broadcast using the Genome website. The Genome project contains listings information printed in the Radio Times between 1923 and 2009, and allows you to search by contributor or programme name.  You can also get involved, and help provide additional information if there have been spelling or punctuation errors during the scanning process.  This is a really great resource!

 

Digital Archiving at the University of York is a blog from Jenny Mitcham at the University of York. Jenny provides lots of interesting insights into the work of a Digital Archivist, and the blog has proved really interesting reading, particularly with relation to her investigations into floppy disks and her own use of digital preservation tools.