Longevity

Preservation. How do you make sure that your family's records and recordings last a long time?

June 9 is International Archives Day

Celebrate the Archives in our midst. June 9, 1948 was the founding of the International Council of Archives. The anniversary is suitable for celebrating the founding of those institutions which keep and maintain the collective memory and documents of our society and culture.

Go visit some archives today! To whet your appetite, here are some archives and listings.

The National Archives has a resource center devoted to genealogists and family historians.

Oral History collections, as listed by In The First Person

White House Tapes.
Between 1940 and 1973, six American presidents from both political parties—FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, and Nixon—secretly recorded on tape just under 5,000 hours of their meetings and telephone conversations. The Miller Center’s Presidential Recordings Program is a unique effort aimed at making these remarkable historical sources accessible.

Miller Center for Public Affairs: Search the Scripps Library Digital Archive (audio, video, documents) and just oral history results

Computer Oral History Collection (on the development of the computer) from the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation (Smithsonian).
All Oral/Video Histories from the Lemelson Center. Includes audio synthesizer, stem cell research, laser eye surgery and more.

Closer to home... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Archiving • Longevity
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I’m following Digital Death Day today. Remotely

What happens to your bits after you die? That’s the premise behind the Digital Death Day unconference, currently in progress. (On twitter, check out the #ddd2010 hashtag). I’ll be posting provacative tweets and topics here on an ongoing basis.

Why does Family Oral History deal with digital death? The recordings of conversations that are saved in digital formats is the deliberate creation of digital bits that are meant to last longer than the speakers whose voices are recorded therein. It’s an edge-case of the central phenomenon explored at the conference. What happens to your bits once you die?

Here, in no particular order, are tweets from those in attendance, as a kind of thought-piece about the digital lives we have. Plus, for me, having experienced three deaths of people close to me in less than a year (and many more remote as friends’ parents shake off this mortal coil), it’s highly relevant.

• digitaldeathday Secret online lives are often revealed by a loved one’s death. #ddd2010
• digital_beyond Families don’t always understand how digital networks relate to their loved ones. #ddd2010
• digital_beyond What happens when you have a digital life that conflicts... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Digitality • Longevity • Personal History
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Not your father’s iPod… well, actually it is (a Walkman)

For Sony Walkman’s 30th anniversary, 13-year old Scott Campbell tries it for a week. Hilarious for us oldsters to see our old fave equipment through a young-person’s eyes.

My dad had told me it was the iPod of its day.
He had told me it was big, but I hadn’t realised he meant THAT big. It was the size of a small book.

Size? cumbersome. Handy belt-clip, but with that weight? (you hafta read the article to find out its effect for current 13 year olds).

When I wore it walking down the street or going into shops, I got strange looks, a mixture of surprise and curiosity, that made me a little embarrassed.

Though one teacher got nostalgic. Two tantalizing questions:

How long did it take for Campbell to figure out that there was a side B to this tape?

And how did he create his own impromptu “Shuffle” effect?

You hafta read the article to find out the answers.

A couple of pluses: two output jacks for sharing music with friends, and a power port to plug... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Audio • Audio: Hardware • Digitality • Longevity • Memorabilia
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Restored Reel-to-Reel Tape Decks as Art.

A Gallery of Custom Tape Decks, wherein Jeff Jacobs restores old audio technology as art, via BoingBoing Gadgets. I love the meta-line here. Jacobs restores tape decks, which I think of as tools for restoring (and digitizing) audio. If tape decks are art, then there’s a ton of art at Richard Hess’s audio tape restoration studio! In decades to come, when those machines grow ever scarcer, the BoingBoing post points to another source to find those long-obsolete tape decks of the world: the personal collections of geeks.

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Audio • Audio: Hardware • Longevity • Memorabilia • Restoration
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CDs and DVDs: Tons of good info

The Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs, A guide for librarians and archivists. Found while researching the layer-cake sandwich of materials in an optical disk. Disk structure page. Did you know that the top side of a CD-R is thin and fragile? I mighta mentioned it before, but this underscores it, in a big way.

Also of note: the tests for aging and shelf-life of CDs and DVDs that you can burn yourself is that their pre-writing shelf life is limited to some 5 years or so. By all means, stock up, but don’t stock up too much.

Gold disks are the best. But that’s a topic for another post.

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Archiving • Digitality • Longevity
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Motion picture sci/tech report on archiving

[updated] Hollywood Reporter reports that (the Oscar organization)’s Science/Tech council’s released 64-page report on archiving. From the looks of it, the limits of digital are being manifest. I’d like to look closer to see how much of an overlap there is for motion picture industry’s archiving existing work and how to preserve audio and visual recordings that are born digital.

Update [18 November]: I went to the web site and inquired if the paper was available. Not in downloadable form, but if I supplied my name and address, they’d send me a copy. I did. The paper just arrived. It’s 74 pages (full color, nice production!) I’ll give it a read and report on any findings relevant to people doing family oral history.

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Digitality • Longevity
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Making a recording self-explanatory

I’ve been finalizing an Audio CD of a 1980-era recording that my Mom gave to me. (For her birthday). I’m making copies for her and for a brothers and a coupla cousins that will be at a family gathering. The “think long term” mindset has dug in and changed the way I mark CDs and my other “metadata” (data about the data) that I’m including with the CD. The recording came to me with some gaps in info, a generation and family branch removed, so I’m learning by doing and trying to create as dense a nugget of info to pass on to others with the CD as I can.

I was amused by a little in-situ metadata that was part of the recording itself, identifying who the main speakers are. The original recording was made by my grandfather’s cousin, Bud or George (I hafta ask my Mom again. I wasn’t there, I don’t know. Have never met either.) It opens with my grandpa telling a story. At the end, the narrator’s voice comes on and says, “That was Bruce B[ family name].” My great uncle, his brother, also told a story. The narrator identified him, too. It’s obvious he made this recording for his side of the family, and identified the speakers on the other side—that would be my side. I, of course recognize the voices that he identified, and am frustrated by not knowing the identities of the other speakers, who were, of course, obviously known to the maker of the tape.

I edited the audio in Audacity, using... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Afterwards • Audio • Audio: Software • Do it: Yourself • Longevity
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(UPDATED) Storyofmylife.com goes beta: Their Terms of Service Stopped Me Cold

The promise of storyofmylife.com is compelling. Store information about your life. Forever. They’re thinking way far ahead— they’ve established a non-profit foundation to store the stories in perpetuity. Sounds great. But I’m not going to use the site. (Well, beyond a quick signup and look see.) The Terms of Service has a big gotcha in it: You grant storyofmylife.com and its parent company, Eravita, a 6% (minimum) royalty of any money you make on the proceeds of any commercial creative endeavors of the story of your own life.

UPDATE: I heard from the site’s COO. They’ve changed the TOS and deleted the objectionable part. Continue reading the original post and, at the end, the relevant portion of email from Storyofmylife.com’s COO.

The TOS was brought to my attention by my friend Cynthia, who visited the site the first day it was open.

Today’s the first day I’ve had a chance to visit, and I’m rockin’ back on my heels. I’m scared to even sign up to see what is behind it. 

Here’s the part of their TOS in the big capital letters (side note: Why oh why does the most important stuff get printed in all caps, which, when presented in paragraph form, make the most important stuff the hardest to read?)

Note: They updated their TOS, view note at end of this post for more info. NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING HEREIN TO THE CONTRARY, USER HEREBY GRANTS TO ERAVITA, INC., A ROYALTY IN AN AMOUNT TO BE NEGOTIATED BUT CONSISTING IN NO EVENT OF LESS THAN 6% OF THE PROCEEDS DERIVED BY USER FROM THE COMMERCIAL EXPLOITATION (WHETHER IN THE FORM OF A... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Digitality • Family History Software • Longevity • Personal History
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End of the Reel for Cassette Tapes

Telegraph, UK: Curry’s, biggest retailer, announces that it’ll stop selling cassette tapes. News story is a sad lovesong to the format used by many a man to woo his woman. [via Practical Archivist] Having just digitized a 1980s-era cassette tape myself, I’ve a fondness for the format.

The High Street chain also predicts that this Christmas will be the last time it sells any hi-fi system with a tape deck included.

[...]The portability of the format moved out of the living room and on to the street. In 1989, helped by falling prices of hi-fi systems, 83 million music cassettes were sold in the UK. This fell to 53 million in 2000, and just half a million in 2005, according to Understanding & Solutions, a market research firm.

Last year only about 100,000 of the items were sold. However, this figure excludes audio books and blank tapes, which still attract a small, loyal fan base, with four million blank tapes sold last year and 1.5 million audio books.

I’ll have to go and do another round of in-store audio-product browsing. Time was that the blank cassette was the most ubiquitous media around. Last I checked, it was hard... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Audio • Audio: Hardware • Longevity
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Oral History Conference Swag

Swag: Freebies. Giveaways. Schtuff. What kind of swag do you get at an oral history conference? Last weekend’s SOHA conference was the first oral history conference I’ve attended.

Now, I’ve gone to trade shows, I’ve gone to tech conferences. Heck, I even put ON a conference once. And when I worked for a software company, I remember the mad rush to create swaggy handouts for a trade show. What kind of goodies have I brought home with me? I’ve gotten pens and pencils flashlights, and carry bags and keychains, and sweatshirts and tee shirts and baby bibs and a condom (true!) and small flash memory drives. (See Flickr photos of Swag and Schwag)

The swag freebie available at the reception a week ago was a little different. The more I think about it, the more I like it.

There it was, a stack of boxes. “Free. Help yourself.” the sign said. An empty flat box.

Now mind you, this was a reception in a meeting room on the third floor of the library of Cal State Fullerton. Go through the door on the left, and you’re in the office of the Center for Public and Oral History. Weave your way this way and that and you’re in the stacks amid reel-to-reel magnetic tape, and (possibly) cassette tape and other audio media. And typed transcripts and other boxes. (off topic, but worthy of note, is the CSUF “house wine” they served at the reception. The merlot was good. Very nicely balanced. Fruit forward. But I digress.)

Now most swag is designed for promotion “put your name out there!” and to make some kind of memorable impression on attendees. But this was a plain khaki-tan box. Open it up, and see... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Longevity
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Digitization Resources

I could spend a good, long day getting lost in these Digitization Resources links by Hurst Associates at Digitization 101. From a workshop Jill Hurst-Wahl led at the Comptuers in Libraries conference.

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Digitality • Links • Longevity
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The Lost last 20 years; and a plea for paper (!!!)

1980-2000 has disappeared into the ether. Sorry. The history that’s being written right now does not have this kind of sensory fulness (if it’s being saved at all): “I have recently spent many hours in the National Archives, ferreting through the wartime records of MI5. The sheer richness of written material is overwhelming: letters, memos, telephone transcripts, diaries, scribbled notes in the margins. You can smell the pipe smoke and personalities wafting off the pages.”

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Digitality • Longevity
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History Digitized (and Abridged) Follow-up

A follow-up post (read my previous) with various responses to the Katie Hafner article on History Digitized.

But before I do, I’ll offer my own, small what-if thought about how to get a bigger budget to digitize historical artifacts: I know of efforts and companies moving into this space. What they do: Digitizing Your Memories. Your Personal History. (Heck, this site is also an effort in this direction). Suppose that the players in this space were to create a fund from a small portion of proceeds of each company? The fund would underwrite digitization efforts. It’d never get as big as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, but it’d be focused on This One Thing.

Speaking of Bill Gates, David Rothman compares libraries to the steel industry (once a giant, now a weak shadow of its former self), concentrating on library budgets in a “follow the money.” What’s the library budget per person? He’s got the goods. Incidentally, Andrew Carnegie, who founded (funded?) so many libraries, got his money from steel. Rothman looks at the benefactor Bill Gates, and what his fund is buying (computing equipment) and what it is not (digitizing the data, the content, the stuff). Rothman’s Steel-and-Libraries inspiration comes from a post by Peter Brantly, digital librarian: There was a moment in the history of the steel industry where it could have adapted itself to changing conditions. And did not. Libraries are at a similar juncture. 

Tim O’Reilly, Publisher with a Preservationist Heart (O’Reilly books), ties the costliness of digitization to the dispute over Google’s Library Project—to digitize books. The Author’s Guild wishes... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Digitality • History • Longevity
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History: If it isn’t digital, it doesn’t exist

History: Digitized and Abridged. Not everything will get digitized. And the non-digital will be overlooked. This NYTimes article by Katie Haffner provides a fascinating (and sobering) twist on the trend toward digitality. [via Dave Winer, Scripting News] It’s very expensive to transfer all those archives of artifacts into digital form. Who will support the digitizing of historical artifacts? And how much stuff — and history— will get “lost” as an increasingly-digital-aware public overlooks the items that aren’t in digital form?

While the Internet boom has made information more accessible and widespread than ever, that very ubiquity also threatens records and artifacts that do not easily lend themselves to digitization — because of cost, but also because Web surfers and more devoted data hounds simply find it easier to go online than to travel far and wide to see tangible artifacts.

The article touches on matters of copyright. Copyright laws—which have extended the term of copyright from the original 7 years to over 90 years—does not touch on matters of digital preservation. An example of how things get mucked up as a result: A collection from Leonard Bernstein was donated to the Library of Congress. In the collection is a letter written by Jacqueline Kennedy right after the funeral of John F. Kennedy.

The letter is an extraordinary window into her grief: “Your music was everything in my heart, of peace and... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Digitality • History • Longevity
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Save My Memories

A website devoted to longevity and preservation of digital photographs. A site put together by the International Imaging Industry Association (I3A). Cause you want to “remember the day in pictures” but not have your digital images go to “file heaven”— that location the bits go when your disk drive crashes or you accidentally erase the files.
[via Digitzation 101 via Richard Hess]

And while digital technologies have changed the way we capture and share photos, the desire to safeguard our visual heritage today, and in the future, remains essentially the same.

The companies that comprise the International Imaging Industry Association, or I3A, understand this all too well. That’s why we created this site—to help you understand how to protect and preserve your photographic memories for years to come.

The issues with digital preservation of photographs are bascially the same as the issues of digital preservation of spoken word stories. Once the files exist as digital files (hey, it’s all bits), you’re in the realm of preserving digital media. This page comparing backup methods is as good a pointer for audio recordings as for photos. Of course, the number of photos that fit on a [insert item type here] differs from the amount of audio recordings you’d be able to store on the same... Read More

Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in • Digitality • Longevity • Photographs
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