Closing Thoughts

We realize that concepts touched upon in this survey may be new to you. Here is an opportunity to convey your thoughts or concerns on the development of a digital preservation standard. Based on your understanding from reading this survey and supplementary materials found on our web site, how might this project for a universal preservation format or framework benefit you or your organization? And what activities would you like to see this project undertake that perhaps have not been addressed?

I am in the position of gathering information to support the conversion of materials in an obsolete format to a useable and, at the same time, archival format. We have very limited funds so I am always looking for information that will lead me to the safest choice for our archival show tapes and field tapes. I am glad there is a project that is looking at the idea of a universal format since format wars between manufacturers have proven a nightmare for archivists in past years. This project makes me feel that there is help for those of us with no idea of where to turn as the digital age takes over. Thanks! - Allen

A cohesive standard would allow us to work intelligently with our clients to develop a range of preservation options and approaches that would provide a large measure of assurance that the digital material would be available and could be transferred to newer media with less effort than the current situation requires. - Andolsen

The benefits I see are standards that describe how different parts of an archive solution should interact.The media [that is] used and how they get there will change over time and so by defining the interaction rather than file formats you open things up to rapid development. - Baker

Most important would be to settle on the standard for picture and sound and then a medium, such as DVD as the recommended media. - Bailey

We are in the process of developing metadata requirements for digital items in our repository. A system identifing the archival or "best" version along with related and derivative digital items would be useful. - Bramel

...I preceive a time in the not too distant future that our young will no longer go to school as they do now. Digital data will be employed via virtual reality technique and the use of drugs to educate our children much better and faster than we ever imagined possible. This same technology will also make juvenile crime, prisons and jails obsolete , or almost forgotten.
What and how we store digital info now will play an important part in what happens then. - Burris

We are developing a digital library, including both static media such as images and dynamic media such as streamed audio and video, using the IBM Digital Library version 2. This system will be used for three primary purposes: a) provide infrastructure for on-demand and long-term centralized multimedia storage; b) provide system for library special collections to be converted and stored in digital format; c) static and multimedia courseware. - Calarco

...my professional interest in digitization relates mainly to paper-based materials. The idea of the potential complexity and cost of preservation of other media is staggering to me. My husband works in the film department of the George Eastman House, so I have some idea of the technologies and costs involved in analogue preservation; my sense is that budget limitations will be a key limiting factor in digital preservation as well, and that the development of standards will have to take that into account, as well as the fact that technology is now unfolding so fast that whole new paradigms can be expected to come into play in even the near future, much as Web access has done in the recent past. I actually expect, in fact, that the SMPTE initiative's most important contribution may well be to create such a new paradigm, simply by concentrating on the particular needs of archival storage and access. Best of luck! - Carli

I think your project may be too narrowly focused.
The survey shows a lack of understanding of preservation practices/ initiatives for archival electronic records that are already underway. Developing a format for long term preservation of graphics, video, and audio is a critical issue. But the work should build upon work that has already been done in the archival world with text and numeric data. - Conrad

I think my comments to the questions above express my concerns and the concerns of our members. While RLG does not own any collections, the collections of our approximate 160 members represent some of the greatest collections that exist. I would be very interested to work with SMPTE on this (or have the opportunity to attend meetings where possible) because the Research Libraries Group is also working with and on behalf of our members to help establish best practices for preserving and providing access to materials through digital means. The website mentioned above gives specific information about the working groups already formed, their charges and progress reports. As well, please see the Digital Initiatives portion of our web site at for further work and involvement in the evolving metadata standards. - Dale

I want to learn more about UPF itself, rather than the issues that led to this survey (yes, I'm backing out and exploring your web site next) if results or a summary of this survey are available, please share: sed@netcom.com or sean@interactivate.com good luck! - Dreilinger

I'm following your work because of my activities in the library community. What you're doing looks good; keep up the work. - Graham

I have a lot more to learn and consider! Glad you're working on this; I'm a firm believer in the usefulness of standards. - Hadley

If you find a great way to catalogue videos...and get clips onto the web...I have not yet investigated any of those avenues. It would also be nice if the TIF were standardized (or is that too much wishful thinking?) - Hamal

Will follow the progress of the project and comment at a later time. Thanks for the opportunity. - Hedges

I need to know what are the possibilities for future preservation of the images which I now provide for the teaching of art at my institution and how I can work to preserving those images in a digital world so that others can learn from the visual arts. - Hehman

Being a preservation administrator, my main concern is how long this information will last in a digital format. Recognizing that discs now have a finite life of only 30 years, digitization is not a viable preservation option at this time. If, by "universal format" you mean a standardization of digitization equipment and process, I think it would be useful. - Herrick

Question 3 under the wrapper format makes it clear that you are looking at video preservation (as one would expect from SMPTE). Don't you think that calling this a "universal preservation format" and a "digital preservation standard" is a little pushy? Do you really envision your standard working for audio, bitmapped and vector images, graphics, text, etc., etc., etc.? - Hirtle

This needs to be an international effort. - Hughes

I would like to see more opportunity for input about the capture and playback equipment itself. I am also curious if the format would still have NTSC / PAL standards or if it could/ would be truly "universal." I am also interested in the length of the tapes and what institutions would need or prefer. - Lee

In my opinion one of the major aspects of the quest for a Universal Preservation Format is the perceived (and in my opinion misdirected) need for a single format to replace the wide array of video/audio/data and multimedia formats in the marketplace. I do not feel that this is realistic or viable now or in the forseeable future. Indeed - in UNIX parlance - I see this effort as YAFF (Yet Another Format Format). Since this new format would have to be migrated to/from existing formats, would have to be used along side of existing formats for production purposes, and also be necessary to output (and input) to different media types, I see it as being yet another format that will necessarily live with formats in the video, audio, and data world... and as such I consider it largely redundant. Perhaps when we have network and local bandwidth that is so fast and storage that is so inexpensive that the network itself becomes the "virtual archive" because it is just as fast as and as cheap as local storage ... this idea would be more appealing to me. Indeed, with RAID mirroring type methodology to ensure reliable data reconstruction from different data storage node sites on very fast data networks - one could have a "virtual archive" and a distributed mediaLESS way of storing information.... that would be the time to seriously consider these issues - but I am afraid that these advances are more than a few years away - and as such I fear that this effort will spawn YAFF that will have to be supported - along with all the others thereby just making matters worse. One aspect that I do find appealing, however, is the storage of other data associated with the a/v records in the same way as the a/v records.
For instance shot lists, EDL, and storyboards could all be stored along with the different tagged versions of the a/v material. Good luck on the project. - Lindner

Just as traditional libraries have been doing for centuries, digital libraries will have to contain the world (even worlds). To do so digitally means to model the world's structure with conceptual maps and other frameworks. That task, awesome though it may be, is not as terrible as handling exceptions to that overarching framework. I believe it was Pope who said: "The exception tests the rule." We see that over and over in libraries, and new media are not new in that regard. - Lowe

Education. Especially to library schools like mine: San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science. Workshops. Information about costs, groups, opportunities, training. How do we get from vinegar syndrome in a metal can to metadata streaming? - Lucas

First of all, we would like to preserve our material. Secondly, if we had our material in a digital form, we could provide easy acces to our users and other people in Greece to our Collection. Additionally, we could make links with other collections and provide a more wholesome aid to the researchers. - Mamalinga

I think a standard needs to be developed that will easily accomodate changes in technology, and I think managers and administrators need to be sold on it, not just archivists and records managers. - McLemore

As an art conservator, I am concerned that any preservation effort for electronic media attempts to document and preserve an artifact's integrity and original artistic intent. While I understand that for many electronic artifacts, preservation of the "native" format will be impractical for the purposes of preservation, I am also convinced that there is value in preserving the intrinsic characteristic of the original to whatever extent is possible. For instance there are certain attributes of 2" video and that are part of the material record of a piece and will remain significant even if the piece (again for preservation purposes) is long disembodied from the original 2" tape. Therefore, the material changes that occur as visual information is preserved should be documented. This documentation (including any visual enhancements, artifacts or glitches that occur as part of a preservation program) should become part of a permanent record always associated with the piece. Therefore, a video scholar looking at a 1970's video in a 100 years will not have to ask the question "Am I looking at visual content actually dating from the 70's or am I seeing the cumulative result of manipulations made over time to preserve the piece?" - Messier

A concern that I don't see here is the need to automate these cataloguing activities. It just is not feasible in many cases to manually enter all the info needed for each object in a large collection. Unless a new standard can be reasonably implemented, it is hard to see how it can be entirely useful. (I don't have the answer, but it is a concern of mine.)
Automatic identification of image feature information is an active research area in my own project - content analysis using computer vision techniques. I would suggest that any standards for images - still or otherwise- should be flexible enough to allow this kind of info to be stored as it becomes available. - Ogle

Our organization is committed to preserving the history of chemistry. To do that we must preserve not only books and photos, but personal papers, video, film, sound recordings and objects. As a museum and a library, it would probably be enough to preserve and provide access to materials where possible and digitize only the most fragile items.
But in our time it is possible to do more. The oldest book we have may be 200 years old. Are we going to be able to do better than that with the pictures and documents and in your case, film and audio, we are producing today? How much longer can we preserve items that are hundreds of years old? We Archivists, historians and librarians are in it for the long haul and we need standards that are going to be sustainable for centuries. - Pollock

Any "universilizing" and standardizing of methods for conversion and storage of data and media is welcome if for only one reason: It allows for more time and energy to be devoted to the creative process, which includes the research process necessary to stimulate new ideas. - Reilly

I am currently researching digital preservation in order to draw up a list of guidelines for our users. This would include a section on best practice. Consequently ANY information on preservation is useful to the Visual Arts Data Service, especially since we will be archiving datasets. We will need to establish our own set of rules and regulations for digital preservation and ensure that these will not become obsolete over time. - Rymer

What type of computer should i buy to be ready for any computer-based archiving technology that is about to come out? Should I keep digitizing clips using jpg and other apple applications? Thinking about a mac 9300 when we get some money. - Schwan

First, we need to talk about definitions. "Archival" means capable of lasting 200 years. I am a preservation librarian. - Sinclair

I feel like I jumped in on the middle of a discussion. My main concerns for the collection are accessibility and preservation. I see a real need to transfer or copy the collection onto a usable format so the films can be used in a classroom setting. I also want to make sure that the original, master film survives. I would like to have special curatorial training so I can make more informed decisions about the collection. - Skarstad

It's clear that a universal preservation format would solve most of the important problems in the area of digital preservation that archivists are facing today. There's a shift in preservation theory because of the technologies involved in digital-format documents, and much of it involves copying and migrating data because the physical supports are not stable enough for long-term storage. A universal physical support that is stable would relieve the first problem, and a complex and thorough enough metadata format would relieve the migration problem--in other words, documents would become independent of hardware and software. This can only benefit everyone who works with archival materials. It's as if we're presently in the midst of a huge set of problems that seemingly have no solution, and some kind of universal preservation format would finally signal the arrival at some kind of plateau at which we could stop worrying so much and get on with our work. I'll be watching this work with much interest. - Turner

I see this project for a "Universal Preservation Format or Framework" as being an opportunity to create a focus-point, a standard to which the caretakers of all media may resort. Thus, I believe it should be capable of handling all media. I will bookmark this site and try to become more aware of your efforts. - Vanderlinden

It would be useful to create a common language (if possible) that included terminology familiar to archivists/preservationists and the terminology familiar to computer/web/digital professionals. It is still difficult for various professionals to talk to each other. - Vetter

Not clear on the benefits for us. That reflects two things:
- not sure how well the approach extends beyond moving image collections. I'm sure that if it works it will be applicable to some of material we are dealing with, but we haven't thought the idea through sufficiently to see immediately how it will work for us.
- some concerns about its workability. Seems to be a good way of reconciling a diversity of standards at acquisition so that a limited number of formats have to be dealt with for preservation and access, but it requires an input of standard data formats that can be easily converted and it only expands the migration period, rather than eliminating the technological obsolescence problem. Still, the preservation of digital collections is almost certain to be made up of a patchwork of interim solutions that buy us a bit (or byte) more time. Perhaps I would be more comfortable if it was described as a "Universal Archiving Framework".
We need to learn a lot more about UPF before making any sort of definitive judgments for this institution.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment. - Webb

The problem that I don't understand how it will be addressed is one of copyright and ownership of material once digitized. in this regard, would authentication stamps be available to determine if digitized data had been doctored? - Weiss

Since we exist in a world where interdependence is critical, perhaps the achievement of a standard is more important than all of the specifics within the standard. Whatever happens we will have an increasing need for standards so that we can ensure preservation and access for the future. - Wilding

I can tell from some questions in this survey that my knowledge of digital standards and new developments is lacking. I would like AMIA to develop coursework, for conferences or on line, to help others like me learn more about the concepts and ideas you introduced in your survey and supplementary documents. - Wilson

Until we can move from a `hold-it-in-your-hand' (physical) format onto a fully `down-the-wire'method of working, we will be faced with format conversions of the physical items -- meaning there won't be a preservation format, only a succession of physical formats incorporating (hopefully) more and more of the metadata and structure required by the ultimate `down-the-wire' format. - Wright