Meeting the Challenge of Media Preservation: Strategies and Solutions August 2011 Meeting the Challenge of Media Preservation: Strategies and Solutions Indiana University Bloomington Media Preservation Initiative Task Force August 2011 Our history is at risk Indiana University Bloom- ington is home to at least 3 million sound and moving image recordings, photos, documents, and artifacts. Well over half a milion of these special holdings are part of audio, video, and film collections, and a large num- ber of them are one of a kind. These invaluable cultural and historical gems, and many more, may soon be lost. Forever. IMAGES, PREVIOUS PAGE: g The Archives of African g Gloria Gibson, Frances Stubbs, and founding director Phyllis American Music and Culture Klotman pose in 1985 with part of the Black Film Center/Archive’s has ninety-one audiocas- rich collection of films and related materials by and about African settes of interviews conducted Americans. Photo courtesy of the Black Film Center/Archive. by Michael Lydon with Ray Charles and his associates as background for the book Ray Charles: Man and Music. Image from IU News Room. g The Blackbird (1926), star- g Herman B Wells was an edu- g In 1947 Bill Garrett broke a ring Lon Chaney, is one of cational visionary who helped color barrier in major college many historically important transform Indiana University basketball by becoming the films found in the David S. into an internationally recog- first black player signed in Bradley Collection. Photo nized center of research and the Big Ten. He led the team courtesy of Lilly Library. scholarship. In this 1950 photo, in scoring and rebounding Wells is pictured with Eleanor and was a First Team All- Roosevelt, who was First Lady American. of the United States from 1933 to 1945. g The African American Arts g The 100th birthday of Josef g The Archives of Traditional Institute holds unique record- Gingold was celebrated in 2009 Music preserves many field ings of interviews with Cab with a performance by two of recordings made around Calloway and other prominent his most prominent students, the world including those musicians. Photo by William P. Joshua Bell and Jaime Laredo, by ethnomusicologist Laura Gottlieb, Library of Congress. one of many concerts for which Boulton, seen here record- master recordings are held by ing in Alaska in 1946. Photo the William and Gayle Cook courtesy of the Archives of Music Library. Photo courtesy Traditional Music. of the IU Jacobs School of Music. g The Lilly Library has an un- g A highlight of the Black Film Center/Archive is the collection of paralleled collection of lacquer documentary filmmaker Peter Davis, who took this photograph disc recordings of speeches of his soundman David Mesenbring while working on one of his made by Wendell Willkie in projects in Transkei in 1985. Image from the Peter Davis Collection connection with the 1940 at the Black Film Center/Archive. presidential campaign. Detail of Willkie campaign poster, Library of Congress. g The original open reel tapes g IU holds recordings of g The William and Gayle at the Lilly Library of Peter Hastings Kamuzu Banda, Cook Music Library has Bogdanovich’s legendary one-time IU student and the unique recordings of concerts 1963 interview with Alfred first president of Malawi. Banda by the renowned Beaux Arts Hitchcock served as the basis is photographed in 1964 with Trio spanning half a century for the book The Cinema of Peter Youens, then-secretary of its history. Photo courtesy Alfred Hitchcock (1963). Photo to the Prime Minister and the of the IU Jacobs School of by Fred Palumbo, Library of Cabinet of Malawi. Music. Congress. Table of Contents Table of Contents ........................................................................................ i Executive Summary .................................................................................... 1 1 Prologue .................................................................................................. 7 2 Media Preservation Initiative Task Force Recommendations ............... 11 3 Background ........................................................................................... 15 Provost’s Charge to the Media Preservation Initiative Task Force ..................... 15 National Landscape ............................................................................................ 17 Summary of Media Preservation at CIC Institutions ........................................... 19 Strategic Planning at IU ...................................................................................... 19 4 Preservation Planning ............................................................................ 23 Overview ............................................................................................................. 23 Window of Opportunity ....................................................................................... 23 Guiding Preservation Principles .......................................................................... 28 Stages of Preservation for Media Objects .......................................................... 32 In-house vs. Outsourcing Preservation Transfer Work ....................................... 35 The Indiana University Approach to Preservation Transfer ................................ 41 Media Preservation Prioritization Plan ................................................................ 47 Video Preservation Pilot Project ......................................................................... 52 Educating and Training Students in a Media Preservation Center ..................... 53 5 Strategies for Film .................................................................................. 55 The Collections ................................................................................................... 55 Preservation ........................................................................................................ 57 Access ................................................................................................................ 59 Ongoing Film Collection Preservation and Access Efforts by the IU Bloomington Libraries ......................................................................... 61 Summary of Strategic Approach for Film ........................................................... 62 6 Facility Planning ..................................................................................... 63 Overview ............................................................................................................. 63 Preservation Targets ........................................................................................... 64 Facility Planning Process .................................................................................... 64 Facility Staff ........................................................................................................ 67 Physical Space ................................................................................................... 71 Media Preservation Task Force Final Report | Page i Digital Storage .................................................................................................... 80 Excess Capacity ................................................................................................. 81 IMPAC Audio and Video Preservation Workflow Functions ............................... 82 7 Access ................................................................................................... 87 Overview ............................................................................................................. 88 Guiding Access Principles .................................................................................. 89 Existing Online Access Solutions at IU ............................................................... 94 DLP Strategic Directions for Audio/Video Access .............................................. 97 8 Technology Infrastructure Analysis and Needs ..................................... 99 Preservation ........................................................................................................ 99 Interim Storage ................................................................................................. 104 Network Connectivity ........................................................................................ 104 Access .............................................................................................................. 104 Collection and Object Management ................................................................. 105 Development Needs and Timeline .................................................................... 106 9 Campus Engagement .......................................................................... 109 10 Next Steps ......................................................................................... 113 Media Preservation Initiative 2011–12 Objectives ............................................ 113 Indiana Media Preservation and Access Center Start-up Plan ........................ 113 Appendix 1: Project Structure and Personnel ........................................ 117 Project Personnel .............................................................................................. 117 Appendix 2: Summary of Media Preservation at CIC Institutions .......... 121 Holdings ...........................................................................................................