1. If I Knew Then What I Know Now: Evolution of MDPI's Post-digitization Processing (56:17)

Date:
2019-10-30
Main contributors:
Wheeler, Brian
Summary:
Indiana University announced the Media Digitization Preservation Initiative (MDPI) in October 2013 with the goal of digitally preserving and providing access to all significant audio, video, and film recordings on all IU campuses by the IU Bicentennial in 2020. Digitization began in mid-2015 and has now digitized more than 320,000 objects using more than 10 petabytes of storage. After digitization, every object in MDPI has to be verified to be stored correctly, checked for format conformance, processed into derivatives, and finally, distributed to a streaming video server. Conceptually, the process is straightforward, but like many things, the devil is in the details. The post-digitization processing has continually evolved since its inception in early 2015. Initially implemented to handle a couple of audio formats and processing a few terabytes of data per day, over the last few years it has been enhanced to handle peak transfers of more than 35 terabytes daily with more than 20 formats across audio, video, and film. This presentation details how some of the implementation decisions have held up over time, such as using a tape library as primary storage and using an object state machine for object tracking, as well as some of the growing pains encountered as the system was scaled up. In addition, there is a discussion covering some of the surprises that have been encountered along the way.
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metadata (3)

2. AMP-lifying IU’s media collections with the Audiovisual Metadata Platform (56:56)

Date:
2018-11-28
Main contributors:
Dunn, Jon, Hardesty, Juliet
Summary:
In recent years, concern over the longevity of physical audio and video (AV) formats due to media degradation and obsolescence, combined with decreasing cost of digital storage, have led libraries and archives to embark on projects to digitize recordings for purposes of long-term preservation and improved access. IU's Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative (MDPI) is one of those projects, estimated to digitize 325,000 audio and video items and 25,000 film items overall. Beyond digitization, in order to facilitate discovery and research use, AV materials must also be described, but many items and collections lack sufficient metadata. Join us to learn more about a planned project at IU with experts from University of Texas at Austin School of Information and AVP to create a technology platform and workflow to support the incremental application of both automated and human-based processes to create and augment metadata at large scales for AV collections. The project is called AMP: Audiovisual Metadata Platform.
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metadata (1)

3. MDPI Film Processing: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (58:57)

Date:
2018-04-18
Main contributors:
Wheeler, Brian
Summary:
The MDPI project posed a tremendous technical challenge: digitize and process around 280,000 audio and video assets by the University’s bicentennial. The first objects began processing in June 2015 and by the summer of 2016, the major problems had been worked out and the processing was proceeding smoothly. Then the discussions of film processing began. In theory, processing film is the same as audio and video. On paper, it seems easier: even though the time allotted is less than A/V, there are only 25,000 reels to process. In reality, however, it is a very different beast. An hour of film scanned at 2K resolution is 20x larger than an hour of video. When a film is scanned at 4K, it is 80x larger than video. Additionally, the film preservation master consists of not just a few files, like we see in audio or video, but thousands of files: a picture for every frame. Like all preservation masters, these files must be validated. This session will address the challenges and solutions that were needed for the back end processing to be able to process film efficiently.
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metadata (2)

5. Reciprocal Impacts: MDPI, MCO, and MARC (37:34)

Date:
2018-02-07
Main contributors:
Hahn, Michelle
Summary:
"Metadata is a love note to the future" mused Jason Scott, archivist for the Internet Archive. Librarians and archivists cultivate metadata standards and practices to shape the future of resource description...so what does the metadata in our past say to us now? And what do our standards and decisions say to our descendants? IU’s Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative (MDPI) and new Avalon-based Media Collections Online (MCO) have brought to light both issues and opportunities related to metadata creation and upkeep, impacting how we view our legacy data and how we create new data. The decisions and projects intended to improve and enrich this vast repository will be discussed, as well as suggestions for other institutions interested in taking on similar projects.
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metadata (2)

6. MDPI home movie (04:37)

Date:
2018
Summary:
Limited to a Bolex, a tripod, a light meter, and 100 feet of Kodak 16mm B&W reversal film, we captured the film digitization phase of the Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative (MDPI) at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. The film was shot in chronological order of the MDPI film digitization process and all editing was done in camera.
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7. An Inside Look At Managing MDPI Digitization (58:31)

Date:
2016-09-21
Main contributors:
Casey, Michael, Dapuzzo, Andrew
Summary:
Audiovisual archivists agree that media holdings must be transferred to the digital domain as soon as possible in order to survive. Because this work requires significant resources, it must be conducted as efficiently as possible. One place to realize efficiencies is in the management of the digitization process. This presentation will explore managing effective and efficient 1:1 as well as parallel transfer media digitization workflows. Using the Indiana University Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative project as a case study, Mike Casey will discuss applying the theory of constraints and adapting software development methodologies to efficiently manage 1:1 digitization workflows. This will include a look at working with bottlenecks, scrum methodology, and the daily standup. Andrew Dapuzzo from Memnon Archiving Services will address issues in regulating parallel transfer workflows including the role of workflow management software, the importance of both human and machine quality assurance in each step of the process, the difficulty in maintaining obsolete machines, overall system design and Total Quality Management. The more efficient the digitization workflow, the more we are able to preserve with scarce resources.
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metadata (1)

8. Transcodes and Transfers: Exploring the MDPI Back-end Processing (56:15)

Date:
2016-04-06
Main contributors:
Wheeler, Brian
Summary:
The process of converting the digitized MDPI media into something that can be used for web delivery is conceptually simple: transcode each one into derivatives and transfer them to the delivery system. However, like most things, the devil is in the details. Data corruption, tape latency, and managing large amounts of data are just a few of the problems which must be overcome. This session will follow the steps that MDPI digital objects take during processing and explore the solutions used to create a system which must reliably process hundreds of hours of audio and video content daily.
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metadata (3)