CPB American Archive Content Inventory Project

Goodbye Letter From WGBH

allison_pekel — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:16:35 +0000

Hi Everyone,
As of October 31st, 2012 WGBH has completed our contract with CPB for the American Archive Content Inventory Project. We may be stepping aside in our management role, but we will be watching the next steps of the project as CPB takes it forward with pride and excitement. On behalf of the WGBH Media Library and Archives staff, Sadie and I wanted to thank every single one of you that has worked on the American Archive Project to make it the success that it is. We have come so far!!

By October, 118 stations had successfully completed inventories with CPB funding and countless others participated by donating records to the cause. To date, the website contains 2,464,773 inventory records!

Talking to participants and hearing about your projects were truly the best parts of our day. We wish you all the best, and please keep in touch. We are always thrilled to hear about new endeavors and discoveries.

Best,

Sadie & Allison

Some of the WGBH Media Library and Archives staff that worked on the American Archive celebrate its successful completion. From left Allison Pekel, Kevin Carter, Leah Weisse, Jeff Elias, Karen Cariani, Alison Bassett & Sadie Roosa

Data Normalization

allison_pekel — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:56:16 +0000

As we near the end of WGBH’s involvement in the management of the American Archive Content Inventory Project, we wanted to provide some details on what work has been done to improve participant data. All records submitted by stations who received funding from CPB for their participation in the inventory project went through a process we call normalization.

How The Process Works
Normalization was done by a WGBH staff member who individually reviewed each station’s records to help ensure that all submitted data conformed to the vocabulary prescribed in PBCore 1.3 to the best of its ability.

Normalization was performed utilizing an analyze function engineered by our web developer. Once the analyze feature has been run, the WGBH staff member see the user generated data broken up into PBCore field headings, accompanied by a list of those terms the station used in those fields.

Here is an example of what WGBH’s data looks like once the analyze tool has been selected

In the example provided above for WGBH, the following terms were used in the Media Type field: Animation, Artifact, Moving Image, Sound & asfgd. These terms are therefore listed below the field heading labeled: //pbcore:pbcoreInstantiation/pbcore:formatMediaType.

Next to each term is a number that delineates how many of WGBH’s records contain this term in the expressed field. Moving image for example, appears in 2,284 records in the Media Type field.

If the WGBH staff member wanted to normalize the term “Moving Image” to something else, they would then click the “fix” link next to that term. This would open a window that would allow them to replace all instances of the term in that specific field with whatever term they deemed more appropriate. This is called applying a filter or a normalization.

With certain fields like Title or Contributor, where a predetermined vocabulary does not necessarily apply, a WGBH staff member reviewed all the entries used in that field and made individual decisions based on the patterns present in the data. Normalization work is left to the discretion of the WGBH staff member assigned to the station, as each station’s records vary greatly from one another. We did however provide normalization guidelines during our training sessions. One of the first rules imposed on our staff was that when in doubt, they were advised not to make changes to participant data. In lieu of making changes, staff members addressed any questions about data in their reports. If participant intention could be gaged within some degree of accuracy however, we asked staff members to make changes. Changes might include correcting spelling errors, spelling out abbreviations, removing symbols, correcting spacing or formatting inconsistencies and choosing name and title authorities based on the format used the most.

One of the benefits of normalizing data the way WGBH has, is that the changes made to the data can be undone if an error is found. The reason this is possible is because staff members use filters to normalize the data instead of going into the record and changing the original submitted data.

Normalization work was done for the following fields: Physical Format, Digital Format, Encoding, Asset Type, Identifier, Identifier Source, Duration, Subject, Coverage, Coverage Type, Creator, Contributor, Publisher, Description Type, Generations, Language, Creator Role, Contributor Role, Publisher Role, and Titles.

Recording The Changes: Normalization Excel Documents

WGBH employees performing normalizations recorded all the changes they made to participant data in an Excel document specific to each station. These documents can be accessed on the website on each stations individual Inventory tab, below the familiar section labeled “Datasets.” There you will see a section labeled “For Station Reference. ” You can download the document by clicking on the link labeled “Normalization Spreadsheet.” This will open a window that gives more details about the document including a “Download” feature.

The top of WGBH’s Inventory page

The bottom of WGBH’s Inventory page

Once you’ve downloaded and opened the Excel File, you will see that the Excel workbook has three sheets, accessible along the bottom of the screen. Each sheet (tab) describes data that WGBH has either normalized, or thinks might need to be normalized. The tabs are: “Entered Online”, “Filter Work” & “Questions.”

The “Filter Work” and “Entered Online” tabs describe changes that WGBH staff have made to your data. For each change made, a row is used in the Excel spreadsheet. The row displays first the PBCore field name where the data appears, then the original data that we wish to change, the field name again, and then the normalized data.

The “Questions” tab lists all of the data that WGBH staff thought might be inaccurate or incomplete. WGBH wanted to bring these instances to the attention of the stations without making any changes that might be inappropriate.

CPB will be in contact with participants regarding instructions on how participants can download a full copy of your normalized records sometime in the near future.

We hope you are happy with the changes made to your data. We had many wonderful staff members for whom we are extremely grateful that dedicated large chunks of their time to normalizing participant data!

Updated Grant Reporting Guidelines

Courtney Michael — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 18:33:27 +0000

Please note the following reporting guidelines. Check your individual CPB contracts for deadlines and let us know if you have any questions.

——————-
INTERIM REPORTS

Please submit a 1–2 page narrative report describing your project’s progress, workflow and any challenges you’ve encountered. Please report on your project timeline — let us know whether your project is taking less time, more time, or the same amount of time as you projected in your proposal. Please also include the numbers outlined below (and requested in your contract). Finally, please include anecdotes about great content finds or losses.

Your contract requests the following statistics be included in your reports:

# of assets inventoried (in total, new + existing, regardless of delivery status)
# of total records delivered to WGBH
# of existing records delivered to WGBH
# of paper records converted and delivered to WGBH
# of new records created and delivered to WGBH

——————-
FINAL REPORTS

Final Project (Narrative) Report:

For your final narrative reports, please update your midterm statistics and include descriptions of your project workflow, any challenges you ran into, and how your station has received the project. In addition, please include any anecdotes about great finds or lost materials from your project.

Final Financial Report:

Please use this template for your final financial report. Use your proposal budget (included in your contract) as a basis for reporting. You can basically copy the items, descriptions and proposed costs into this template, and then report on your actuals and variances. If you have variances, please describe them on the second tab of the spreadsheet.

Kick-Start Webinar II Available

Courtney Michael — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 21:19:45 +0000

CPB and WGBH held an updated “kick-start” webinar on Thursday, October 13th. Topics included updates to the online inventory form, new date fields, and the process for nominating content for digitization.

The webinar recording is available here:
https://cpbnet.webex.com/cpbnet/ldr.php?AT=pb&SP=MC&rID=4566707&rKey=40a1dcb9df87126f

Let us know if you have any questions!

Describing Moving Images Workshop

Courtney Michael — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:03:29 +0000

Today I had the chance to present on PBCore, the metadata schema we are using for the Inventory Project, as part of a workshop on Describing Moving Images. If you are interested in learning more about PBCore I’ve posted my slides here: NHF_PBCore_WGBH.pdf

If you are interested in learning about describing moving images on a larger scale, check out all of the presenters slides posted here on the web site of Northeast Historic Film, the workshop organizer. Thank you to Karan Sheldon for organizing the workshop as part of their CLIR Hidden Collections grant and to co-presenters Andrea Leigh from the Library of Congress and Northeast Historic Film’s own Brian Graney.

Most of the workshop attendees worked at libraries and archives and came to the workshop to learn what to do with their moving image collections. We find that often in “traditional” archives and libraries, the media materials fall to the bottom of the priority list because the standards and expertise needed for cataloging and preserving these materials are specialized and not necessarily part of existing staff knowledge. For example, Brian cited an Association of Research Libraries report, “Special Collections in ARL Libraries,” which found that in academic libraries, 35–37% of the audiovisual holdings are unprocessed or uncataloged and therefore inaccessible to users.

Inventory participants should know that I used the American Archive Inventory Project as an example of how PBCore is currently being used to create and exchange metadata about moving images (and radio!). As of yesterday we have gathered close to 700,000 records in the inventory and stations, libraries, producers and archives reported 3.2 million public media assets existing nationwide.

As the American Archive grows and matures, it is exciting to share our public media knowledge of our collections, of our broadcast and archives practices, and our lessons learned with the wider library and archive community of practice.

PS: There’s still time to register for the next PBCore Workshop coming up in November at the Association of Moving Image Archivists conference in Austin, Texas, taught by our public media colleagues Jack Brighton, Kara Van Malssen, Dave Rice and Brian Graney.

Generations explained…

Courtney Michael — Wed, 25 May 2011 21:34:18 +0000

Just added to the site – explanations for many of the terms in the Generations list.

You can access it here: http://americanarchiveinventory.org/project/glossary/generations/

Or through the form help text or via the glossary definition of “generations.”

Many thanks to Ann Wilkens of Wisconsin PTV and Alison Bassett of WGBH, as well as the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.

Excel Form Available!

Courtney Michael — Wed, 18 May 2011 19:00:49 +0000

We’ve constructed an Excel template you can use to conduct your inventory. This template works for 1000 records. If you need more space either start a new file or let us know if you need help extending the template.

AACIP_EntryForm_v2.xls

Use the first sheet, “Full Set,” to enter your data. This shows the full set of fields. Then switch over to the second sheet, “Minimal Set,” to check your work and see if you’ve fulfilled the minimal requirements for the inventory to the best of your ability. You can’t enter data in the minimal set sheet, its only a view of the data entered in the full set sheet.

Once you’ve entered up to 1000 records, give the file a number or batch name so you can track your progress and upload it to this site within your organization’s inventory space.

As always, if you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact us!

Inventory Value Lists

Courtney Michael — Wed, 18 May 2011 06:59:00 +0000

Update 5/18/11!

Thanks to Stephanie at CPB, we’ve been able to whittle down the inventory form value lists so that only applicable choices are available.

If you are using or developing your own tool, you can download a copy of the edited value lists here as an Excel file: AACIP_ValueLists.xls

____________

February 28, 2011

The value lists we are using on the online form — which we strongly encourage you to use for your new records — are available on the Open Metadata Registry. These are the value lists recently released as part of the PBCore 2.0 release. Download the lists from the Registry site to include in your own system here:

(*minimum required field)

*Format physical — http://metadataregistry.org/concept/list/vocabulary_id/145.html
*Generation — http://metadataregistry.org/concept/list/vocabulary_id/147.html
Encoding — http://metadataregistry.org/concept/list/vocabulary_id/156.html
*Title type — http://metadataregistry.org/concept/list/vocabulary_id/141.html
Description type — http://metadataregistry.org/concept/list/vocabulary_id/139.html
*Media type — http://metadataregistry.org/concept/list/vocabulary_id/135.html
Genre — http://metadataregistry.org/concept/list/vocabulary_id/148.html
Creator role — http://metadataregistry.org/concept/list/vocabulary_id/128.html
Contributor role — http://metadataregistry.org/concept/list/vocabulary_id/127.html
Publisher role — http://metadataregistry.org/concept/list/vocabulary_id/143.html

If you have more fields to implement or are looking for more information, we encourage you to check out PBCore.org. As always, contact us with questions and we’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible.

SWAT Team RFP, Round 2

Courtney Michael — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:21:28 +0000

WGBH and CPB are working to finalize selections for 16 of the stations/organizations that requested SWAT teams. We are opening the RFP back up for 8 stations/organizations at this time. Download the PDF or click on “Hiring SWAT Teams” at right. As always, please call with any questions!

Filemaker Form Available!

Lindsay Whitacre — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 22:21:38 +0000

Many of you have been asking for the promised Filemaker template to facilitate your inventory work.

Here it is: AACIP_Entry_Form_v1.fp7

This includes the same value lists as the online web form but we tried to arrange them 1) with AV options at the top and 2) with the simplest choices at the top. For example, 1 inch videotape is now at the top but 1 inch videotape: EV-200 is farther down the list. So if you are looking for more specific choices, scroll down.

In addition, this is a very “flat” file — you can’t enter more than one title or subject. If you need to have this kind of flexibility we’d prefer you use the online form.

We’re calling this “Version 1″ because we expect great ideas to come from our users and hope to improve this tool. Let us know what you think and if you have any tweaks or suggestions.