Instructors: Howard Besser & Ann Harris
 

Nov 8  New Media & Digital Issues (HB)

• NOTE: We'll meet in Bobst Library, the West Room in Avery Fisher Center (walk towards the front desk of Avery Fisher, then turn right) and then move to the Library Conservation Labs for the first half of the class
• View video Into the Future: On the Preservation of Knowledge in the Digital Age. Available at the Bobst Library and in the Film Study Center.
• Read:
  • Besser, Howard (2001). Digital Preservation of Moving Image Materia l,The Moving Image, Fall, pages 39-55
  • Besser, Howard (2000). Digital Longevity , in Maxine K. Sitts (ed.) Handbook for Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation and Access
  • Andover Mass: Northeast Document Conservation Center, pages 155-166
  • Variable media Initiative
  • Preserving the Rhizome ArtBase . Richard Rinehart
  • Richard Rinehart, " Archiving the Avant Garde: Documenting and Preserving Variable Media ," D-Lib Magazine, 8 (5), May 2002
  • Rinehart, Richard," The Straw that Broke the Museum's Back? Collecting and Preserving Digital Media Art Works for the Next Century "
  • Besser, Howard (1997). The Transformation of the Museum and the way itís Perceived , in Katherine Jones-Garmil (ed.), The Wired Museum, Washington: American Association of Museums, pages 153-169
  • Variable Media case study (from monograph)
  • "Quick Reference Guide for Care and Handling" (see "the Checklist" in Byers, Fred R.. Care and Handling Guide for the Preservation of CDs and DVDs - A Guide for Librarians and Archivists.   (24 June 2003).

• Guest:  Melitte Buchman, Digital Conversion Specialist, NYU Digital Library
  
• Visit to Bobst Video/Audio reformatting Lab
• NYU Cataloging Templete
  
• Introduction NYU/Public Television preservation project
• Knowing more about digital media artifacts, what does that tell you about risks to the material? What about its needs for description and care?
• What are some of the major issues with new media preservation?
• What are the major issues facing moving image and sound archivists in the "digital age"?
• What are some of the practicalities that preservationists must address?
• What theories and predictions are being advanced?
• Does this evidential value change when materials are reformatted?What are the advantages and disadvantages of keeping different versions of materials?
• What is different between the preservation needs of material that is "born digital" and that which has been digitized?
• Is it possible to preserve digital materials unchanged?
• What are the strengths and limitations of the various proposed methods of digital preservation for different uses of cultural materials?
• As the digital world moves toward multiple uses and viewing works from different angles, how does this affect notions of context and its preservation?
• How do digital objects challenge traditional archival notions of evidence?  Can ways be found to authenticate digital works, and track provenance and versioning?
• Documentaries, Actuality Footage, media art, installation art, performance art
• Documentation, treatment

• Current Events:
  
• Universities Fear Research and Lectures May be Illegal,  UK Guardian, Nov 8, 2005
• Law-breakers in the library, UK Guardian, Nov 8, 2005
• Critics Press Companies on Internet Rights Issues, NY Times, Nov 8, 2005
• Grokster Calls It Quits on Sharing Music Files, NY Times, Nov 8, 2005
• NBC and CBS to Sell Reruns for 99 Cents Each, NY Times, Nov 8, 2005
• Beware Your Trail of Digital Fingerprints, NY Times, Nov 7, 2005
• Yahoo Plans to Connect Services With TiVo, NY Times, Nov 7, 2005
• Want That on Rye, or in Writing?, NY Times, Nov 4, 2005
• For Sale: Our Permanent Collection, Lee Rosenbaum, NY Times, Nov 2, 2005
• Want 'War and Peace' Online? How About 20 Pages at a Time?, NY Times, Nov 4, 2005
• John Fogerty Is Closer to Peace With a Label, NY Times, Nov 1, 2005
• The Strange Case of the Spoofer Captured by a Spoof, NY Times, Nov 1, 2005
• Sony Effort to Reach Christians Is Disputed, NY Times, Nov 2, 2005
• Beware Your Trail of Digital Fingerprints, NY Times, Nov. 7, 2005