The Digital Preservation Outreach & Education Network (DPOE-N) is excited to offer a free virtual workshop for US-based library, archives, and museum professionals focused on digital preservation tools and audiovisual media...
Moving Image and Sound Digital Preservation Software Tools & Intro to Python for AV
Virtual Workshop | Thursday, June 24: 12–6pm EST & Friday, June 25: 12–5pm EST
DESCRIPTION:
Much of the day-to-day work in digital preservation is in the technical realm: moving files, checking for file integrity, understanding and implementing processes for ingest and so on. While some archivists can closely collaborate with computer programmers and IT departments, many institutions do not have the resources and will need to build technical skills on their own. Even when an IT department exists, not all needs of digital-based archival work can be fulfilled in a timely manner, thus having an archivist or digital archivist who can empower themselves with handy scripts and practical experience in the command line becomes essential.
This workshop will be an intensive two-days of demonstrations and practical exercises, starting with the command line interface, tools demonstration, and working up to, on day two, an introduction to Python scripting. As a part of the application, you will have an opportunity to express your level of experience and expectations, so please do not let the technical nature of the workshop intimidate you! Even though the second day will be geared toward intermediate users, we are interested in meeting the workshop participants where they are, be that through demonstrations or practical exercises.
Day one: Learning objectives include an introductory level of familiarity with the command line interface, where many digital preservation applications are run from. The participants will come away with an understanding of Homebrew (Mac) and Winget (Windows), how to navigate a file system using basic commands including listing files in a directory, creating a new directory, permissions issues, and where files are located. The second half of the first day will then be devoted to tool demonstrations and exercises, covering av-specific tools, such as FFmpeg and Mediainfo, as well as utilities like rsync, which allow the user to automatically copy files from one place to another, and Bagit, which is used regularly in many digital preservation repositories and environments.
Day two: The second day will be focused on learning what scripts can do to help facilitate the work of a digital preservation practitioner. What is a programming language and what is its utility for everyday work, and what makes Python particularly useful? The basic concepts will be covered, and then move on to utilizing some example scripts in scenarios like, generating file manifests from folders of files, generating custom technical metadata reports with MediaInfo, and transcoding videos. A preliminary agenda for the workshop can be accessed at the following link: https://amiaopensource.github.io/av-python-carpentry/index.html. Prerequisites are listed in the application.
DETAILS:
This workshop is being hosted by the Digital Preservation Outreach & Education Network (DPOE-N) in partnership with New York University Moving Image Archiving & Preservation (MIAP) program. It is being offered *tuition-free*, thanks to generous support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The application for this program is now available: bit.ly/dpoen-workshop-june2021
The application gives the participant the option to apply for one or both days of the workshop:
Day one will be technical and hands-on, but less intensive, and will be limited to 25 participants.
Day two is more technologically intensive and will be restricted to 15 participants.
The deadline to apply is Wednesday, June 9, 2021.
Applicants must be located in the United States or US territories. Successful applicants will be notified by Tuesday, June 15, 2021.
INSTRUCTORS:
Day one:
Brendan Coates is a gardener, fermentation enthusiast, member of the Los Angeles Tenants Union, and the Sr. Archivist at Academy Oral History Projects, where he's worked since 2018, focusing on all aspects of post-production, archiving, preservation, and access. Prior to this, he worked as the Audiovisual Digitization Technician at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he supervised the migration of a variety of materials, from "wax" cylinders to DigiBetas. He's a graduate of the University of Michigan's School of Information and has been working with open-source software since 2012, primarily focused on workflow and quality control automation.
Day two:
Benjamin H. Turkus is the Assistant Manager of Audio and Moving Image Preservation at NYPL. He's an adjunct professor at New York University, where he holds an MA in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation. Previously, he was the Preservation Project Manager at the Bay Area Video Coalition.
Nick Krabbenhoeft is a digital collection manager and educator with experience in libraries, archives, and museums. Nick works as the digital preservation manager at the New York Public Library where he manages born-digital and digitized collections. He also teaches courses in digital collection management with a focus on tool experimentation and ethics discussions.