[AT] Spam> Re: OT--taped audio to CD audio??

[Larry Goss]

There are standards available for digital archiving from the two organizations for librarian archivists.  You might want to check those out.  One of the groups is terribly behind the technology curve and is dragging its feet at generating gudelines we can work with, but the other one recognizes that we have to think beyond the concept of locked cabinets, controlled atmospheres in libraries, and white gloves.  If you don't find instructions for how to preserve "born digital" materials or how to meet the problems of media migration, then look elsewhere.

If you can find a copy of it, read "Mastering Internet Video" by Damien Stolarz (Addison-Wesley).  It is an excellent source on the problems, development, and history, of storage and delivery of archival materials.  The title is a misnomer.  It discusses much more than Internet and Video.

On some materials, I'm into second generation media migration.  The old home movies were converted to analog video tape many years ago, but this winter I put them all on DVD.

Larry


----- Original Message -----
From: David Bruce <davidbruce at yadtel.net>
Date: Sunday, March 29, 2009 17:54
Subject: [AT] Spam> Re:  OT--taped audio to CD audio??
To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>

> Larry,
> 
> Digital archiving 101 might be off topic but I'm listening.
> 
> I have already moved to archiving much of my monthly 
> correspondence 
> (bills, receipts, etc) to digital form for ease of retrieval.
> 
> David
> NW NC
> 
> Larry Goss wrote:
> > BTW folks, just as a philosophical concept that all of us are 
> going to find ourselves working with, we all need to become 
> adept at media migration to convert analog to digital for 
> everything under the sun.  Audio is just one of those 
> conversions.  Video (both electronic and film) and still 
> images for either photos or documents are two others.  It's 
> the "only" way we have of preserving the history we are involved 
> with regardless of whether it pertains to tractors, literature, 
> photos, events, or what have you.  Converting from analog 
> of any medium is just one of the steps.  Because of the 
> nature of changing technology, conversion from one digital 
> medium to another is going to be with us forever.
> > 
> > CD's are already passe as an acceptable medium for preserving 
> these materials.  DVD formats are rapidly pushing all other 
> CD formats aside.  PDF as a specialized format for digital 
> preservation of documents shows promise that it may be around 
> for a while.
> > 
> > You can point a finger of blame about how poor some of the 
> fidelity is on some of the conversions, but you can't add 
> meaningful fidelity to materials that are already in 
> "resolutions" that are pitifully low in the first place.  
> So when you need to preserve your old home movies or your faded 
> color snapshots, it becomes a bit nitpicking to criticize the 
> fidelity in the commercial Windows products.  For many 
> media conversions, there are optimal resolutions or fidelities 
> that are actually much lower than what is physically 
> possible.  Those lower resolutions work very well for 
> archival work.
> > 
> > For PDF files of printed or typed documents, the optimal 
> resolution is "around 400 dpi".  Adobe recommends that 
> resolution in their Acrobat products because the optical 
> character recognition engine works with the predefined lettering 
> fonts of the software better at that resolution than at higher 
> or lower scanning densities.
> > 
> > Enough already!!  I have to quit before this email turns 
> into Digital Archiving 101.
> > 
> > Larry
> 
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