[Oe List ...] Values for the Archives | creating aprototypedatabase
Carol Borovic
cborovic at gmail.com
Fri May 29 22:10:26 EDT 2009
----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Parker
To: Order Ecumenical Community
Sent: Monday, May 25, 2009 10:36 AM
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Values for the Archives | creating aprototypedatabase
Marshall and others,
You and others have raised some very good questions and I hope I can answer some of them, maybe in general terms, but somewhere out there are the true answers.
At my work we have several teams of two going out to the county court houses to shoot pictures of the public record in terms of ownership of land and minerals. They have shot millions of images of pages in each legal document file in the record. The images are done with a digital camera, and each trained team can shoot between 3,000 and 10,000 images per day. The cost for this is calculated at 16 cents per page.
If we did the Archives it would require 3,440,000 images. That, of course, is an estimate from me having painfully counted the number of pages I had in one full drawer in a four drawer file cabinet. The number of pages in that full drawer was 5000. So the math for 172 file cabinets with 4 drawers each, presummably full, works out. Now, that 16 cents covers a vehicle, a digital camera, a laptop, 6 meals a day (a team of 2) hotel for two each night, and a $400 day rate for the team members. We would not need to have all of those expenses. Between the People of the Order, ICA staff, and the University (see "Archives Opportunity", a late posting on the listserves) we could get that cost dramatically lower, I would say to somewhere between 2 cents ($68,000) and 4 cents ($137,600). This work would have to be done on location in the Kemper Building. It would require 1133 human days for one team to do this.
The cost could be covered through a joint effort on the part of the University, who can get grants for such things we cannot, the ICA/EI through its funding sources, and the People of the Order. The People of the Order could fund this alone but I think the collaboration with all the parties involved will be preferable.
The location of the physical archives, presummably, would be in a climate and humidity controlled environment in the Kemper Building but your suggestion for a duplicate set of Archives be located in another city was exactly what needs to happen. Let me refer you again to a late posting of "Archives Opportunity" which you may not yet have seen. This opportunity is perfect for what we are trying to do regarding the Living Archives and the Living Legacy.
I regret it was not clear in what I've said previously that everything would be accessible on-line. My entire assumption is that all of the Global Archives, and personal archives would be completely available on-line. I guess I assummed it so much I didn't mention it. All the Archives would be available to Anyone, at Anytime, from Anywhere, at not cost. I am strongly opposed to any charges for access, or restrictions to it, only that the base Archive would be inviolate.
The long term storage is a more difficult question and not knowing what future technologies are going to be makes it impossible to have total assurance that we will still have a retrievable archive. However, the storage will be in a data warehouse and backed up in the ethernet cloud. They will not be stored on DVD's, nor CD's. In the digitizing of the Archives DVD's will be used at the laptop level to transfer the images from the camera to the data warehouse. So, we would have a copy on the DVD but that is not what I consider primary storage for all the reasons you mentioned. At work we have 10 terrabytes of storage in the data warehouse and that is sufficient for tens of millions images. I don't think it will require that much, but if these Archives are used for research and development purposes as is the plan the Archives will continue to expand because they have begun to have life, maybe even abundantly. Given the digital character of the Archives, they can be migrated into almost any new technology that comes along making our equipment obsolete.
If the audio, video Archives in your possession where recorded on equipment created after 1960, they are retrievable and can be pulled into the Archives. This is being done all of the time.
Now, you must not die yet, or if you do, you have to hang around long enough for this task to be finished before your ascension. After we get the 172 file cabinets digitized, plus your audio/video components digitized, it is very important for every one of the People of the Order to arrange to have their personal archives included in the Global Archives, but tagged with the owners name, and when a search is done for that person, their entire archive will show up. Now, of course, that is only if the People of the Order want to do that, but they do have Order archives and they have created their own archives out of their work since 1988.
What is of interest to people is not so much the archives of EI/ICA but that group of people who came together for all walks of life, formed themselves into a secular religious order so they could effectively respond to the last half of the 20th Century. This is more of an address today than it was in the 20th Century. For example, if you consider the salary checks Suzanne turned over to the Order during our years in the Order it would be something like $384,000 (average of $24,000 per year) and you add to that my lost income because I worked "in" of $768,000 (average of $48,000 per year). The total is a contribution to EI/ICA of $1,150,000. This is not an insignificant fact, nor for us it was unusal. It was done hundreds of times with other People of the Order. That is a radical address for anyone who is alive in the 21st Century. It is the People of the Order that is of interest, but I don't believe our opportunities can do anything but strengthen the ICA, the EI legacy, and the legacy of those people.
Well, Marshall and the other People of the Order, I truly hope you will take extra precaution against death, take care of yourself, for there is a good reason for you to do so.
Bill Parker
----- Original Message -----
From: W. J.
To: Order Ecumenical Community
Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 7:43 PM
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Values for the Archives | creating a prototypedatabase
I'm a little behind on the technical edge of archival preservation, but I'd like to know...
1. How much is digitization of the 172 file cabinet contents going to cost, and how is Nino going to pay for it?
2. Who is going to do it, with what equipment, and in what location?
3. How and where will the digital records be stored, made available, and preserved from catastrophe (remember the "great flood" in Kemper Building)?
4. Will on-line access and search capabilities be offered, to whom, at what cost, and with what security (anti-hacking) precautions?
5. How will storage media be accessed on future platforms (when today's storage methods are obsolete and hardware/software is no longer available to access data)?
The working assumption is that once the entire corpus is digitized, then the digital database becomes of primary value (even though the original materials are preserved until they disintegrate or are damaged in a catastrophe). Digitization is a process you wouldn't want to have to do more than once.
Though about 99% of the surviving Archives are on paper, a very valuable addition to this treasure is the corpus of original (and duplicate) analog 1/4" audiotape, videotape (in various formats, some of which, like 3/4" U-Matic cassettes, are playable only on 'legacy' equipment that is no longer supported by the manufacturer), and film formats (16mm, 35mm slides) that are highly vulnerable to deterioration in a hostile environment and to chemical changes in the best environment. While there are many surviving archival sources of this material, the primary one in the Kemper Building has been stored in a file cabinet adjacent to the furnace in the basement--which takes the cake for the most hostile storage environment I could imagine (short of a vat of hot vinegar)!
In 2007 I worked on digitizing what I considered the most valuable of the film/video material, and compiled it on 2 DVD's which were released by ICAI. (If you own the DVD's, you have the best state-of-the-art access to it!)
The uncompressed digital files were stored on hard drives (the cheapest method) subject to fragility issues, so I made a second backup set as a hedge against catastrophe. The best practice would be to store both sets securely in two different cities, but I haven't gotten that far, and currently none of the uncompressed digital media from this project is in the Kemper Building (which says a lot about the dysfunctional relationship between ICA-USA and myself).
Any ideas for tweaking this outcome?
Marshall Jones
Oh yeah, there's a stack of 3/4" analog video in the very back of my closet that I can no longer play. Some of it is stuff like ICA's 25th Anniversary celebration in the Guild Hall with David Wood, etc., a TV news segment on Delta Pace, a very critical piece on HDP's from the CBC (Neil Vance told me to "Get that out of the Kemper Building!"), raw footage from Gibson, and a copy of 'Marshall High Fights Back' which ran on PBS.
Any ideas for dealing with this before somebody finds me dead and takes it to the dumpster?
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From: Bill Parker <bparker175 at cox.net>
To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 11:08:12 AM
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] [Dialogue] Values for the Archives | creating aprototype database
David and Marilyn,
You've brought up a good point and one which after the 172 file cabinets are digitize should be moved on. In the practical dimension I would hpe we would want to initiate an effort to pull in everyone's archives, those that fill the gaps AND those archives they have been created since 1988. You could, for example, box up your personal archives, ship them to "us" (not knowing who us is at this point) where they would be digitized and added to the total archive database, tagged so that when finished with the integration phase one could do a search and have digital access to their personal archive while at the same time those same archives would be added to the Global Archives, some of which would fill gaps and some would not, might even be a duplication, but it would not matter. After the digitizing of those archives the boxes would be shipped back to the owner of the archive.
Now, one assumption underlying this is that the Global Archives and any personal archive are about the documentation of the human journey taken by that group of people who came together, formed themselves into a secular/religious order so they could respond to that which was transpiring in the 20th Century, and the new additions of personal archives would continue the historic legacy of that group of people into the 21st Century.
Take care everyone, there is a reason you need to,
Bill Parker
----- Original Message -----
From: David Dunn
To: Colleague Dialogue ; Order Ecumenical Community
Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 11:15 AM
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] [Dialogue] Values for the Archives | creating aprototype database
On May 19, 2009, at 6:50 PM, Marilyn R Crocker wrote:
We are wondering, is there a way we (collectively) might be able to identify and fill gaps in the official archives with the gifts of items from our dispersed family archives? Otherwise we're thinking the whole lot may get chucked given the "down-sizing" time of life we are all entering, or "the dumpster strategy" that our kids would likely choose if they were the ones left "holding the files."
Hello Marilyn and other colleagues.
Walt Epley and I have been custodians of the Paul Evans personal archive that Gini Natali passed on to me for temporary care until the Global Archives is ready to receive it. We've begun by cataloging Paul's audio recording collection and researching what is involved in digitizing the audio cassettes. The tool we're using is a Filemaker Pro database that we expect to have online by the end of this week. (See the attached 'screenshots.')
Though we began experimenting with this prototype before Bill Parker's values email arrived, our experiment is in some sense an attempt to further the discussion about his three values: preservation, accessibility, and flexibility.
As it stands, the structure of this prototype database is more like a "participatory archive processing management" tool that addresses the question Marilyn raises. We see it as a way to engage a dispersed network in the exercise of visualizing and growing the Global Archive.
We began building a prototype with several principles in mind:
1) accommodate the data in the present Global Archive catalog in Marge's care
2) access with a web browser over the Internet with an evolving structure and functions
3) colleagues can catalog their personal archives
4) colleagues can identify their priorities for processing and interpreting particular categories of materials
5) colleagues can specify particular materials they are seeking for current use
6) colleagues can indicate the arenas of our common memory in which they have "subject area" expertise or interest (dispersed archive "curatorial teams")
7) colleagues can link contemporary institutional or programmatic examples of their use and impact (ToP, Training Inc, etc., etc.) with arenas of our common memory
8) colleagues processing the Global Archive collection in Chicago can update the online catalog and track their activities in real time
9) ICA staff can track the amount of volunteer time invested in work related to the Global Archives
10) URL links to each of the items that are available in the Repository
11) an online database visible to the public that can only be added to or changed by users with access credentials (secure login and specific usage privileges)
When we get the database online, we'll let you know where to find it and how to try it out so that you can give us feedback.
David
---
David Dunn
dmdunn1 at gmail.com
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On May 19, 2009, at 6:50 PM, Marilyn R Crocker wrote:
> We are wondering, is there a way we (collectively) might be able to
> identify and fill gaps in the official archives with the gifts of
> items from our dispersed family archives? Otherwise we're thinking
> the whole lot may get chucked given the "down-sizing" time of life
> we are all entering, or "the dumpster strategy" that our kids would
> likely choose if they were the ones left "holding the files."
Hello Marilyn and other colleagues.
Walt Epley and I have been custodians of the Paul Evans personal
archive that Gini Natali passed on to me for temporary care until the
Global Archives is ready to receive it. We've begun by cataloging
Paul's audio recording collection and researching what is involved in
digitizing the audio cassettes. The tool we're using is a Filemaker
Pro database that we expect to have online by the end of this week.
(See the attached 'screenshots.')
Though we began experimenting with this prototype before Bill Parker's
values email arrived, our experiment is in some sense an attempt to
further the discussion about his three values: preservation,
accessibility, and flexibility.
As it stands, the structure of this prototype database is more like a
"participatory archive processing management" tool that addresses the
question Marilyn raises. We see it as a way to engage a dispersed
network in the exercise of visualizing and growing the Global Archive.
We began building a prototype with several principles in mind:
1) accommodate the data in the present Global Archive catalog in
Marge's care
2) access with a web browser over the Internet with an evolving
structure and functions
3) colleagues can catalog their personal archives
4) colleagues can identify their priorities for processing and
interpreting particular categories of materials
5) colleagues can specify particular materials they are seeking for
current use
6) colleagues can indicate the arenas of our common memory in which
they have "subject area" expertise or interest (dispersed archive
"curatorial teams")
7) colleagues can link contemporary institutional or programmatic
examples of their use and impact (ToP, Training Inc, etc., etc.) with
arenas of our common memory
8) colleagues processing the Global Archive collection in Chicago can
update the online catalog and track their activities in real time
9) ICA staff can track the amount of volunteer time invested in work
related to the Global Archives
10) URL links to each of the items that are available in the Repository
11) an online database visible to the public that can only be added to
or changed by users with access credentials (secure login and specific
usage privileges)
When we get the database online, we'll let you know where to find it
and how to try it out so that you can give us feedback.
David
---
David Dunn
dmdunn1 at gmail.com
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