Do You Hear the People Sing?: Audiovisual Digitization

One major way that the archival practice is influenced by technology is through digitization. Digitization is the action of creating a digital copy or reproduction of a piece of physical media. Through such action, materials that are at risk of becoming damaged or are on defunct technology can be given a second life. One example of materials that benefit from digitization due to rapidly progressing technology are audiovisual materials. Audiovisual materials include such things as recordings on DVDs, cassette tapes, vinyl records, etc. While many individuals still enjoy their viewing and listening experience with these technologies, it is becoming less and less likely that the technology required to support the viewing and listening experiences are easily accessible. As such, archivists use various tools and techniques to convert the materials to a digital format. In doing so, the materials are able to become more widely accessible.

I have had minimal experience digitizing audiovisual material, but I will describe my most notable experience. I co-presented a presentation at the Louisiana Studies Conference on the Louisiana Czech Heritage Collection housed within the NSULA University Archive. This presentation was designed to show potential users the many materials within the collection. Notably within the collection were several cassette tapes with oral histories, town meeting minutes read aloud, and music from the Czech settlements within Louisiana. As part of the presentation, I felt it important to include these tapes. However, the archive only has one small cassette tape player not suitable for a presentation. With the assistance of the Head Archivist, a select few cassette tapes were converted to a digital format utilizing the software Audacity. Though the tapes were not played in their entirety, they did serve to immerse listeners into the collection and the experience they would have viewing the collection in person.

The digitization of audiovisual materials serves to preserve archival material that may run the risk of being lost due to ever developing technology. Additionally, it makes materials more accessible for users who may not be able to access archival materials within their existing format. There are clear benefits to the impact that digitization has on users.

Further Reading:

§  https://siarchives.si.edu/what-we-do/avmpi

§  https://www.archives.gov/preservation/formats/motion-picture-film-playback-digitize.html

https://www.loc.gov/programs/audio-visual-conservation/about-this-program/