This DAS presentation is underwritten by our partners at Iron Mountain Entertainment Services, Seagate powered by Tape Ark, Image Protection Services, and LAC Group.
After sustaining digital content following established preservation workflows, providing public online access is a separately distinct series of steps that requires a team with expertise in metadata, transcoding, file editing, and publishing content in online platforms. During the COVID-19 pandemic, staff from the Library of Congress National Audio Visual Conservation Center were provided with an opportunity to adapt workflows that will increase the availability of moving image content in the National Screening Room, our point of public online access to digitized content. The steps involve the following:
-- Cataloging. All NSR titles are cataloged in the Library’s Voyager integrated library system. A cataloger has been assigned to NSR records and is using a variety of electronic reference sources to create and enhance these records.
-- Transcoding. We remotely transcode JPEG2000 master files to ProRes LT.
File editing. A team of four editors works in Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere to edit, title, and, where appropriate, speed correct ProRes LT files. An automated process creates two files, a ProResLT and a 5mb MPEG-4, both with a “Preserved by” bumper.
-- Ingest. We create an ingest package for delivery to the loc.gov team consisting of a .csv file with the required metadata, GIF and JPG thumbnails for use in the media player, and the two bumpered files.
-- Publication. Most NSR titles are in the public domain, so the ProRes LT is available for download. If a title is restricted to streaming only, we don’t provide the ProRes to loc.gov. NSR titles are also published on the Library’s YouTube channel.
The presentation will follow a sample title through this workflow.
Presenters:
Alexis Ainsworth is a cataloger in the Moving Image Section at the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center where she has worked extensively with the Library’s seminal Paper Print Collection. Since teleworking due to COVID-19, she has enjoyed cataloging a wide variety of sponsored and educational films for the National Screening Room.
Laura Drake Davis is Digital Projects Specialist at the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. In this role, Laura develops and implements workflows for born-digital materials with an eye towards automation. She brings a wide range of experience in digital collections and archives, and previously held positions at James Madison University and the Library of Virginia among others. She has an MLS from the University of Maryland College Park and a BA in Music from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Mike Mashon is Head of the Moving Image Section at the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. A native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and graduate of multiple Big State Universities, he came to the Library as Curator in 1998 before assuming his current positon in 2005.
George Willeman is the Nitrate Vault Manager at the Library of Congress National udio-Visual Conservation Center. A native of Springfield, Ohio, he began his long career at the Library of Congress in 1984 caring for the Library’s nitrate film collections at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio until relocating to Culpeper, Virginia in 2007. He has appeared in several documentaries on film preservation, notably “These Amazing Shadows” (2011), and has worked on the restoration of two silent era features: Ramona (1928) and The Dumb Girl of Portici (1914). George and colleague Lynanne Schweighofer helped reconstruct more than fifty silent films for Kino Lorber’s Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers, which became one the most highly regarded Blu-ray sets of 2018.
Recorded: July 23, 2020
