At the NDIIPP Partners meeting in January in Berkeley, we were asked to participate in an exercise. We were given post it notes and Sharpies and asked the first question in each column. We were asked to write our answers on the post its and hang them on the wall. I think some categories were already set up, but I can’t remember. I do remember that the answers were compiled and the results were shared with us. Using these questions as a way to build this discussion of our DIGARCH project made sense in light of the way that NDIIPP is building this national digital preservation infrastructure.

Guests include diplomats, statesmen, and soldiers; economists and political analysts; scientists and historians; writers and foreign correspondents; activists and artists. The interviews span the globe and include discussion of political, economic, military, legal, cultural, and social issues shaping our world. At the heart of each interview is a focus on individuals and ideas that make a difference.

UCTV delivers documentaries, faculty lectures, cutting-edge research symposiums and artistic performances from each of the ten UC campuses. They are available on TV and also web cast.

For this production, Conversations with History, the UCSD Libraries didn’t need any expertise. They didn’t have a stake in ths particular program. However, like many libraries, the UCSD Libraries does need the expertise of the SDSC in preservation of digital assets.

For this project we are capturing the TV show, the transcript and the descriptive metadata from the FileMaker Pro database at UCTV.

At this point Harry used to send the description of the show via email to UCTV for data entry. This process has been streamlined so that Harry has access to the UCTV database. Staff at UCTV have refined their database to include pulldown menus from which Harry chooses descriptive terms for each show. UCTV also makes three versions of the original digital file.  The three versions are an edited DV version, a MPEG version, and a RealPlayer version. UCTV outputs an XML record containing preservation descriptive metadata for the interview and preservation technical metadata for each of the content files. This forms the first SIP for preservation.

Second SIP describes the transcript and is much simpler (technical metadata plus UCTV program number). The SIPs for the metadata are consolidated in an AIP expressed as a METS document. The METS wrapper utilizes standard data formats.  The descriptive metadata is expressed in the  MODS schema, the technical metadata in the PREMIS schema, and the rights metadata in the  MetsRIGHTS schema. The METS wrapper properly relates the metadata and content files and indicates which file is the original master, which file contains the broadcast version and which file contains the web (streaming) version.  For the long view, the METS wrapper allows the content files and their metadata to be transmitted to other repositories and to interoperate more easily with other collection materials should that be desirable. The SIP from UCTV can be expressed in the basic METS schema if that is desirable for the digital repository.  In that case, the CwH SIP would have to be integrated into the METS as a PREMIS technical metadata record for the digital transcript.

The preservation of CwH content is based on using data grid technology to manage distributed data.  The Storage Resource Broker (SRB) is used as the preservation repository.  A central metadata catalog (MCAT) manages preservation metadata for each video file.  A dedicated MCAT instance called UCTVStudioArchive was set up.  Two additional logical storage resources were registered to store digital video replicas on SAMQfs (uctv-fs1) and HPSS (hpss-sdsc).  Also, SRB client software and Kepler scientific workflow software were installed on the eMac machine at UCTV.  Finally, a grid brick (srbbrick7) with 300GB of disk space was configured for the DIGARCH project.

Automated workflow that looks for data, ingests it, replicates it safely for long term preservation Kepler is an “executable Visio” type program, which allows the building of a workflow program by dragging and dropping components, glueing them together, and executing the overall flow.  Components can be grid-enabled and perform grid type operations (put, get, authenticate, monitor, report, filter, store, discover, etc.).

Eye to the bigger picture. Does this -- workflow, process, AIP -- work for other TV productions or is this process unique to CwH? SDSC group is research oriented – let’s find the best way to do this process that no one has ever done before With good communication and keeping an eye to the bigger picture, the tension between research and production can be eased.