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July 28, 2008
IRENE
The University of California at Berkeley created a piece of equipment that reconstructs sound waves through imaging processes with little or no contact to the material. Damaged, broken or warped can then be recovered through a manner that will not further any destruction.
Initials tests compared the digital reconstruction with the actual playback and the digital version as recorded through the player. Regular playback with a stylus samples a portion of the groove wall in contact, and researchers found better information stored in the other parts of the groove which can enhance the overall sound capture.
(a microphotograph of record grooves)
The researchers looked at the records more as a digital maps of the surface of the media. Image analysis methods to recover the audio data and reduce noise were applied to the scans to create the audio files. More about IRENE
Reconstructed sound sample, taken from a 78 shellac disc- Goodnight Irene
One of the interesting aspects of this application is the possibility to obtain data from damaged objects and transfer into a medium that could also entail a higher level of access and use of the material. Older recordings on wax cylinders or other obsolete formats can be read on a scanner instead of finding an appropriate reader. Some of these older recording may also be too delicate to be read with a stylus, so IRENE provides a method to read the content with essentially no contact to the original surface. Scratches, dirt or other signs of wear can be taken out after the scan is completed, since the affected areas can be recognized separately from the groove structure. Since scratches and dirt could also affect the playback during a normal playing of the object, IRENE can also produce a version more akin to the original recording, since the scan will include a deeper reading of the groove.
Posted by vad17 at 01:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 15, 2008
Digital memory
Digital preservation is sometimes used as a means to transfer information from an obsolete (or on its way to being so) format into a digital version, with the intention of retaining the data before the information is completely lost. Ongoing hardware and software changes have lead to many obsolete formats, as with the original tape of the moon landing (related article, Wired 'One Giant Screwup for Mankind'). In the book Digital History (Cohen and Rosenzweig, 2006), the authors highlight the problems inherent to the multitude of digital formats used over the years, and recommend constant and continual assessment of the storage and retrieval systems involved in any digital project.
While they authors agree that digitization should not be viewed as a means of preservation, there is a point where digitization processes step in to provide a way to extend the content and data further than the lifespan of the original container. The access and use of the original content can then be extended by digitization methods. For example, an early radio recording from 1944, on a fragile audio reel, of Orson Welles narrating a program on jazz was digitized from the Louisiana State Museum collection in the Louisiana Digital Library. Previously, this material was limited only to research or staff use, since the reel was in poor condition. The digital copy was made as the original reel was being duplicated onto an archival reel. Oftentimes, the material or digital copy are used in place of the original to further ensure the longevity of the original object.
In Wharton, Texas, there is a museum of 20th century technology, which is interesting to see the progression of the technology in the relatively short time period of 100 years. Cohen and Rosenzwerg use the more recent examples of WordStar files from the 1980s and WordPerfect documents from the 1990s as being some of the problematic files to access even a decade or two later. The containers holding data may still be in fair condition, but if the reader necessary to access the information is not available, then the problem of finding a way to access the information arises. Emulations of long gone software programs are one solution to accessing files created with old programs, but this will also entail some loss of data. Cohen and Rosenzwerg recommend thorough research into better media formats and consistent migration to "avoid technological quicksand".
Another related article: Lost magazine, 'Are We Losing Our Memory? or The Museum of Obsolete Technology'
Posted by vad17 at 02:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 07, 2008
Web Archiving and 'Curating'
In the May/June issue of D-Lib Magazine, there is an article on an OpenSource tool for selective web archiving called 'Web Curator'. While still in the early stages of the tool (version 1.1), this brings up some important issues as related to digital libraries. Selecting information from online sources and ascertaining their validity is often overlooked in everyday online browsing. Conversely, the research and academic environments, which are adapting its practices into the digital realm, are often more skeptical to incorporate digital content into serious debate or research.
This OpenSource tool is a way to organize web content into subject or event 'packages' which would enable users to provide a way of bringing together valuable information in a way that would also provide quality assessment of the content. The tool was developed between the National Library of New Zealand and the British Library and is freely available at http://webcurator.sf.net . The key motivation for the National Library of New Zealand was to provide a way to organize and capture content relating to New Zealand history, including web pages, images, multimedia files, blogs and text documents. The tool also allows for the harvest of the digital material as well. In a way, the preservation of digital material is viewed as a type of social history, relevant to the identity of the country and to hold onto cultural memory in a more tangible way than shortlived websites and changing URLs. While this tool is in the early stages, the future versions of the Web Curator will be interesting to see in application.
Posted by vad17 at 08:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 02, 2008
DigiCULT
DigiCULT is short for Digital Culture. DigiCULT's mission is to monitor and assess the "existing and emerging technologies that provide opportunities to optimise the development, access to, and preservation of Europe's rich cultural and scientific heritage, within the emerging digital cultural economy."
Very like the early articles (in which I referred to Witten and Bainbridge) digital libraries “are about new ways of dealing with knowledge: preserving, collecting, organizing, propagating, and accessing it—not about deconstructing existing institutions and putting them inside an electronic box.” And DigiCULT's work is to ensure that this happens.
To this end, DigiCULT has produced seven Thematic Issues that have called together experts on a "selected topic" to "provide additional information and opinions in the form of invited articles, interviews, and case studies" on issues of importance to Digital Heritage, Digital Preservation, archives and so forth. These reports are very interesting and valuable and I will continue to read and comment on these in the upcoming weeks. I started a while ago with the issue of Integrity and Authenticity (which is by no means settled) which raises no end of questions on the subject of digital preservation.
For those of you interested in a broader consideration of digital archives, digital libraries, digital preservation, etc, these works at DigiCULT are certainly worth taking a look at.
Posted by twh7 at 08:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack