Year in Review of Digital Archivy Projects
Our year in review of Digital Archivy reveal one unsurprising conclusion. In an era of Big Data, digital archiving and preservation provide the most effective and efficient ways to manage, leverage and use historic materials and information. Last year, Digital Archivy worked closely with some impressive organizations. We helped create archival projects that were tailored to serve their specific needs, goals, requirements, timelines, and budget.
As you can see from the list below, the projects all raise awareness, improve control and add value. We help organizations develop digital preservation strategies, digitize and license raw footage, compare and rate different Digital Asset Management (DAM) options, and build trusted digital library prototypes that provide access to hidden historic materials.
“Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage” (HBO)
Recent Digital Archivy Projects
We met and faced new challenges and learned a lot over the past year. It was intimidating and fun! Fortunately, our clients were willing to hear out and test out different options and find solutions that were the most effective and useful. Our new client projects included everything from film production studios, magazine publisher, and a few non-profit organizations, foundations and charities.
- Assisted a children’s rights organization in updating digital preservation and access strategy, implementation road map, timeline and budget
- Digitized and licensed Super 8 film and digitized and transcribed on-site audio recordings for
- Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99 (Raw TV/Netflix),
- Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage (HBO Max), and
- BURN IT DOWN! (Dorothy Street Pictures and Rolling Stone)
- Developed a DAM Scorecard to assist a non-profit foundation compare and select a DAM
- Launched Digital Library Archive of 30+ years of a groundbreaking lesbian magazine.
As a result, we learned that projects may differ in time, budget and complexity, but Digital Archivy is effective by working closely with clients. We work best when we help people who have a vision, an awareness and sense of pride in their history and collections. Our clients want to share with others and support their stakeholders. We help them do that and make their information more valuable and less vulnerable. No job is too small or big!
Potential Digital Archivy Projects
So the question is: what’s next? Are there any projects that you are facing that seem impossible and could use some support?
For example, do you have
- a collection of Family Photo Albums or Scrapbooks gathering dust? – These could be digitized and made accessible everywhere online!
- a list of awards and honors that your institution has received? – These could be analyzed to find insights on trends and patterns!
- different types of media content and formats on related subjects? – These could be preserved and made accessible via online platform!
- an Excel spreadsheet with a lot of data but is incomprehensible? – Data analytics and pivot tables can reveal new and useful insights!
“Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99” (RawTV/NetFlix)
Check out our proof-of-concept Digital Archive Library prototype for Talker of the Town. If you’d like to learn more, please contact us directly.
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2020 Hindsight
Happy new year! With 2020 hindsight Digital Dark Ages is here! With that in mind, it’s time that we focus on learning from and leveraging the past to inform and improve the future.
Fifteen years ago, while I was in Library School, I was writing my thesis/research paper. One day in the library, I discovered an article that brought me to a complete stop. The article is titled “Titanic 2020.”
It was a scholarly article and an early and compelling warning against the “Digital Dark Age.” More importantly, it pointed out that “organizations that use IT — are generally ill prepared to prevent damage or loss of valuable electronic records or data.”
Though it’s been years since I read it, with 2020 hindsight the Digital Dark Ages still affect me profoundly. It was a Call to Action that raised such specific alarms on a variety of icebergs of technological obsolescence and format change, that I lost sleep! These icebergs, the article warned, would threaten the history and legacy of the Information Age.
As a relatively young archivist, this article had a profound effect on me. Ultimately, it force me to face a long and arduous war against obsolescence. Granted, the war has been occurring for years, but as digital archivists and librarians, we can do something constructive. And, more importantly, my colleagues and I have a responsibility to identify problems and challenges. By doing this, we can face them strategically and expeditiously. If we don’t, our historical legacy may be at risk.
Read the 2000 Titanic 2020 report here courtesy of CENSA (The Collaborative Electronic Notebook Systems Association).
Check out some of the clients with whom we’ve worked to avoid the 2020 Titanic!
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