Preserving Your Digital Life

Isaiah Beard, Digital Data Curator, Rutgers University Libraries

Krista White, Digital Humanities Librarian, Rutgers University

Libraries

Preserving Your Digital Life

Today’s Presenters

Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services

Krista White

Research in digitization standards,

oral histories and ethical issues

Isaiah Beard

Research in digital data curation,

born digital data formats, mobile

device technology

Objectives

Learn methods for developing and implementing a plan

for preserving the audio and video files documenting

personal and community "digital lives”

Be introduced to

various file formats for digital audio and video

ways to improve chances for long-term access at the point of

recording

file formats for digital audio

file storage options and best practices

basic steps for preserving digital audio and video


ALCTS Preservation Week

Partners

Hosted by ALCTS

The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services

Analog artifact paradigm

Physical objects: typically stored, left behind,

forgotten and “rediscovered”


Importance of Digital

Archiving



Archiving

Source: Ancestry.com (formerly 1000memories).

“How many photos have ever been taken?”

https://goo.gl/WtQKpU



Archiving

Smart choices need to be made about what

to keep and what to throw away.

“How will I feel if this picture, movie, or sound

recording goes away, and I can never get it back?”

Delete? Keep?

Preservation Terminology: Digital Audio Files

Sampling Rate The number of times per second (kHz) in which a digital device “samples” or

captures its environment. For sound, common sampling rates are 44.1 (CD), 48,

96, 192kHz.

The number of data bits used per sample. Common sound bit depths: 16 bit

(CD), 24 bit (DVD, Blu-ray audio). Common video depths: 24 bit (true color),

30/36/48 bit (deep color)

Bit Depth The number of data bits used per sample. Common sound bit depths: 16 bit

(CD), 24 bit (DVD, Blu-ray audio). Common video depths: 24 bit (true color),

30/36/48 bit (deep color)

Channels The number of individual audio streams in a recording. Stereo = 2 channel audio.


Preservation Terminology: Digital Video Files

Frame Rate The number of individual frames, or images, that are displayed per second, to give the effect

or illusion of motion. Common framerates: 24fps (film), 29.97 or 30fps (TV/SD Video), 60fps

(some HDTV), and up to 240fps (commonly used for high-speed video capture).

Resolution The vertical and horizontal pixel dimensions for the image being shown.

Common resolutions: 640x480 (SD, VGA); 1280x720 (720p basic HD video); 1600x900

(HD+), 1920x1080 (1080p ”Full HD”); 2560x1440 (WQHD); 3840x2160 (UHD, 4K video)

Aspect Ratio Ratio of the length of a viewing screen to its height.

Common: 4:3, 16:9, 21:9

Quantization The process of determining which portions of an image can be discarded with minimal

subjective loss.


Preservation Crash Course: The Ideal: Metadata

Content: Jenn Riley Design: Devin Becker

Licensed under a CC 3.0 license

mailto:[email protected]

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

Archival Masters A high-quality, uncompressed (or minimally/losslessly compressed)

version of the digital object in a stable, well-supported and well-

documented format.

Archival Masters are not to be edited or modified. For such

modifications, create a Derivative Master and use versioning.

Compressed Presentation Files Commonly an easily-accessible and web-friendly version of the digital

object, suitable for the public to stream or download.


Preservation Workflow: File Formats

Crash Course in Preservation:

The Ideal Preservation Standards

Sound: 44.1kHZ sampling rate at 16 bits and 2 channels (stereo)

minimum

Video: 24 bit color minimum, 640x480 (for analog SD), native

resolution for born digital video. Up to 4K resolution or better for

film.

Guides: Library of Congress: http://digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/

National Recording Preservation Board:

http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub137/pub137.pdf

Rutgers University Community Repository (RUcore) digital preservation

standards: http://odin.rutgers.edu/standards/


http://digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/


http://odin.rutgers.edu/standards/


The Ideal

File Formats: Sound

WAV/BWF: Uncompressed audio,

recommended format for archiving sound

MP3: Compressed audio format, commonly

used for streaming and playback on mobile

devices

AAC: Newer digital compressed format, with

audio and compression improvements over

MP3.



The Ideal

File Formats: Video AVI/MXF: Uncompressed video, recommended format for archiving

moving images

Other options: Motion JPEG2000, QuickTime ProRes, High bitrate

native H.264 (m4v)

MP4/M4V:: Compressed video format, commonly used for streaming

and playback on mobile devices and web browsers. Also native format

for most HD cameras

H.265: Newer digital compressed format, capable of support Ultra HD

video (4K and up).



The Ideal

Storage Options and Best Practices

Local Options: Hard disk, Solid State,

Removable Disc, Tape

Cloud options: Dropbox, Google Drive,

Microsoft One Drive, Amazon Cloud, etc.


3

2

1



The Ideal

Photo courtesy of William Warby Photography on Flickr

Copies of your Data

Different Storage Formats

Backup copy offsite

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwarby/11644168395/in/photolist-iJXpA4-dM4JM1-75Zcwo-iNmvEe-mCwZm-dtpe2z-emi7PE-62Yv2h-4tfnPj-Fn7HF-5CJJzE-dtuyTd-o8qyCY-ituYVn-ituojj-6YMhL1-ituLvW-99iFGP-a1nNUc-piNdKo-bY8VwQ-5LcPJs-8w7NCo-9DBWy5-ndEkj8-83MGRE-dtuz2y-o8qwdi-kJuukn-3aNJeq-676EQ5-5JC4WJ-o8qybq-kJveMa-aUghg6-epb78-7beJ1K-51z1N1-ebjTQ3-aUgdnB-aUggYx-6ASa1U-q2vS8-74wJ9F-8EboSi-kJwEjf-pe1xH3-78ePNM-aUgjsT-onTmts



Preservation Workflow: The Reality: Inventory


Preservation Workflow:

The Reality

Step 2: Device and App Evaluation

What types of projects will you be doing?

Which device(s) will meet your needs?

Does the software the meet standards you

want?


Device and App Evaluation: Android Apps for Audio

Parrot VoiceRecorder

Sampling

Rate

Bit Depth

Channels

Recording

Format

Bitrate

Device and App Evaluation: Android Apps for Video

Cinema FV-5 Lite

Sampling Rate

Bit Depth

Channels

File Format

Screen Resolution

Frame Rate

Codec

Bitrate

Device and App Evaluation: Android Apps for Video

Sampling Rate

Bit Depth

Channels

File Format

Screen Resolution

Frame Rate

Codec

Bitrate PowerCam

Device and App Evaluation: iOS Apps for Audio

Voice Record Pro eFusion Voice Recorder HD

Device and App Evaluation: iOS Apps for Video

Native Video Recorder Settings

Archival Masters A high-quality, uncompressed (or minimally/losslessly compressed)

version of the digital object in a stable, well-supported and well-

documented format.

Archival Masters are not to be edited or modified. For such

modifications, create a Derivative Master and use versioning.

Compressed Presentation Files Commonly an easily-accessible and web-friendly version of the digital

object, suitable for the public to stream or download.


Preservation Workflow: The Reality: File Formats


Preservation Workflow: The Reality: Metadata

Metadata standards/schema will be determined by

local needs

Preservation Workflow: Sustainability

Image courtesy of aNto on Flickr according to a Creative Commons 2.0 license

Data Integrity Using DROID for checksums

by CRKussmann, University of Minnesota

Libraries

University of Minnesota Guide to

Checksums

Long Term Planning

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dia-a-dia/7046151669/in/photolist-bJDnpB-uqdE6-khg-in4r4H-uiDMM-da8jMn-ph5TWN-gTnvc5-21T2U-iQVE1q-8pYhRM-82Qmd2-uiCSH-cNHhw-in4qSv-uiDb7-2Kg5Nv-9Xfxt6-4foZvD-aMi8gz-6D6U1Z-9gHTYe-9u6D14-az29P5-6P4ecT-5jidJy-jAZBNr-9CpJYM-7xsz7q-9u6D1T-7NiNkw-joWCV5-9A3dVz-dq9qxc-aNU6Hr-9AdKsr-gg18VW-5iP6pi-gfZQtj-6yx8zu-8LSmqh-ceApCU-no6Y-4HT5Fu-rEAZ-aXXa3i-in3WKE-6bZGbD-8yyKdK-5SHwTb

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

https://docs.google.com/a/umn.edu/file/d/0B8MvBJV_5_s5ckRUZFV4bjhoYlU/edit




https://www.lib.umn.edu/dp/checksums



References Isaiah Beard, et al., Sound Objects: Recommended Minimum Requirements for Preservation Sampling of Audio (New

Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Libraries, 2010) accessed July 7, 2012,

http://odin.page2pixel.org/standards/latest/RUcoreStandards-Audio.pdf.

Isaiah Beard, et al., Video and Moving Image Objects: Recommended Minimum Standards for Archival and

Presentation Datastreams (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Libraries, 2010) accessed July 7, 2012,

http://odin.page2pixel.org/standards/latest/RUcoreStandards-Audio.pdf.

Katie McKissick, Just How Does Facebook Store Billions of Photos? University of Southern California News, November

2, 2015, accessed April 20, 2016 https://news.usc.edu/88075/how-does-facebook-store-billions-of-photos/.

National Recording and Preservation Board, Capturing Analog Sound for Digital Preservation: Report of a Roundtable

Discussion of Best Practices for Transferring Analog Discs and Tapes (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress;

Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Resources, 2006) accessed March 10, 2016,

http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub137/pub137.pdf.

National Recording and Preservation Board, Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Plan (Washington,

D.C.: Library of Congress; Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Resources, 2012) accessed March 10,

2016, https://www.loc.gov/programs/static/national-recording-preservation-plan/publications-and-

reports/documents/NRPPLANCLIRpdfpub156.pdf.

Jedi787plus, Vector Video Standards8 (Wikipedia, 2009) accessed April 20, 2016

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vector_Video_Standards4.svg.

http://odin.page2pixel.org/standards/latest/RUcoreStandards-Audio.pdf






https://news.usc.edu/88075/how-does-facebook-store-billions-of-photos/














https://www.loc.gov/programs/static/national-recording-preservation-plan/publications-and-reports/documents/NRPPLANCLIRpdfpub156.pdf











https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vector_Video_Standards4.svg


Resources Technical Terms

Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative Glossary http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/glossary.php

Audio and Video Digitization Standards Isaiah Beard, et. al., Digital Audio http://odin.page2pixel.org/standards/latest/RUcoreStandards-Audio.pdf.

National Recording and Preservation Board, Digital Audio http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub137/pub137.pdf.

Isaiah Beard, et. al., Digital Video http://odin.page2pixel.org/standards/latest/RUcoreStandards-Audio.pdf.

Metadata Standards Dublin Core Descriptive Metadata Standard http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/

Generic Dublin Core examples: http://dublincore.org/documents/2001/04/12/usageguide/generic.shtml

PBCore http://pbcore.org

Software and Utilities Media Info Software (for viewing technical metadata of digital files) https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo

University of Minnesota Digital Preservation: Checksums https://www.lib.umn.edu/dp/checksums

http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/glossary.php










http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/

http://dublincore.org/documents/2001/04/12/usageguide/generic.shtml



http://pbcore.org/

https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo


Thanks for listening!


• Krista White [email protected]

• Isaiah Beard [email protected]

Any Questions?



Documents

Preserving Your Digital Life