Many Eyes example #3

This visualization shows the different types of DVDs that can reside in a collection, their typical uses and storage capabilities. This is a good reference for any digital librarian looking to purchase new media

Many Eyes example #1 and #2

These visualizations depict the relationships between the number of copies of each work, the type of carrier for these copies, and the year the materials were created. Please visit my many eyes site for further manipulation of the visualization. My display name is cjg225

Redo of Blog #8

The Digital Art collection at the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art is an eclectic mix of moving image art installations and interactive/visual art documentation. The collection is in desperate need of both long-term preservation planning and immediate preservation action. The very nature of the materials have placed it in a precarious situation in which long-term sustainability will be difficult and hard fought because there is little that we know about how digital objects will behave in the future.

The digital art collection at the Blanton is unique in that these works do not exist in other forms within any other art institution. The loss of even one object will result in the complete loss of that work of art. The actions which are known to help safeguard these objects lay in the areas of documentation and migration. Currently, there is not preservation strategy that encompasses these areas. Many of the digital files included in the digital art collection are in file formats that may not last much longer or on magnetic tape formats that are decades past their projected obsolescence date. The file formats require constant research by a trained digital librarian. Upon receipt of funds, the Blanton will hire a full time librarian for a one year appointment under the supervision of the current registrar and curators of the collection. Job duties will include educating the current staff in long-term preservation needs, full metadata capture of all works, rehousing of all DVDs and CDs, and creation of a disaster plan for the collection. This very librarian will also take custody of creating a metadata document that documents all static elements of the objects to track any detrimental changes within the collection. Following these changes, the librarian will assess all original videotapes for signs of playback difficulties and all DVDs/CDs for media updates. Monies will be allocated towards the acquisition of playback machines for VHS, Beta cam, Digibeta, DVCPro, and U-matic tapes to aide in playback assessment. A separate cool storage container will be purchased to house the many copies of collection materials in archivally sound conditions. These basic changes will make a large impact on this small collection. Many do not realize how little can be done to better the health of a collection. Your grant funds will impact this collection not only now but throughout the life span of the collection. It will further impact the greater spectrum of museums and other institutions that have such digital holdings in that graduate students from the local school of information will be charged with aiding the digital librarian in securing proper server space for digital copies, ingest of files, curation of digital files, and maintenance. These students will go on to become employed in a variety of institutions and the knowledge they gain from this curatorial project will enhance the quality of these future collections as well. Furthermore, the librarian will be required to construct and present his work at no less than two digital conferences or symposiums as a requirement of his appointment. This will enable other institutions to also reap the benefits of the work at the Blanton. All playback machines purchased will be available for use by any person affiliated with the University of Texas as well as any local institutions with a moving image collection.

Digital objects are becoming more and more prevalent in all collections but little is known about their preservation. Your grant will fund research into an unknown aspect of preservation. Together we will become front-runners in the race towards saving our nations digital treasures.

I often feel that I am in a unique position job-wise in that I want to work with a particular material. I would like to find a job working with audio or moving image materials so there are many PA jobs that I see that simple do not interest me. I could see myself in a job that was mainly working with a book or paper collection with a small portion devoted to audio or moving image but I've been searching for jobs lately that have this as a main focus. I feel that this gives me a skewed outlook on the job market because I see very few jobs that are solely what I want to do. Many of these jobs do have a digital component because they deal with reformatting of obsolete moving image formats or providing access to these formats. I've searched the ischool job site as well as the ARSC forums and AMIA listserv for jobs. Some of the more interesting jobs are not at libraries or archives but at private corporate institutions. For example:

Job Number	1035148
Business	NBC Universal
Business Segment	NBC Universal - NBC TV Network & Media Works
About Us	NBC Universal is one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies. We develop, produce and market entertainment, news and information to a global market. NBC Universal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks.
Posted Position Title	Assistant Archivist
Career Level	Experienced
Function	Manufacturing
Function Segment	Library & Archives
Location	United States
U.S. State or China Province	California
City	Universal City
Relocation Expenses	None
Role Summary/Purpose	Under direct supervision of the Senior Archivist, the Assistant Archivist – Exhibits and Loans will be responsible for fulfilling internal and external exhibit and loan requests, installing displays of archival assets, monitoring the displays, and coordinating the safe return of assets. The Assistant Archivist will also assist the Senior Archivist in cataloguing and packing the production assets of NBC Universal that have been chosen for retention in Archives & Collections.
Essential Responsibilities	· Responsible for the planning and implementation of internal and external exhibits featuring Archives & Collections assets. This includes working closely with other departments within NBC Universal including Universal Studios Hollywood to develop themes, select assets, and install exhibits ensuring their safe display and return. · Responsible for managing all internal and external loans of objects for marketing junkets or small exhibits in external venues. Includes creation of legal documentation, arrangement of shipping, managing the dressing of items, and condition reporting upon return. If damage occurs, works with Senior Archivist to negotiate repair or compensation arrangements. · Quality checks exhibition during duration of loan to be sure that the requirements detailed in the loan agreement are being followed. · Responsible for checking in assets and their physical re-housing after they have been returned. · Assist the Senior Archivist as needed in cataloguing film and television assets chosen for retention in Archives & Collections.
Qualifications/Requirements	· Bachelor’s degree with coursework in history, fashion, museum studies, or equivalent · Minimum 3 years experience in museum environment and knowledge of the entertainment industry Eligibility Requirements: · Interested candidates must submit a resume/CV through nbcunicareers.com to be considered (note job#: 1035148). · Manual dexterity to handle fragile collections, and ability to lift 40-pound boxes required · Must have good communication and writing skills · Willingness to travel and work overtime, and on weekends with short notice. · Must be willing to work at the station in UNIVERSAL CITY, CA. · Must be willing to take drug test and submit to a background investigation. · Must have unrestricted work authorization to work in the United States. · Must be 18 years or older. · Must have a valid driver’s license (if applicable).
Additional Eligibility Qualifications	For U.S. employment opportunities, GE hires U.S. citizens, permanent residents, asylees, refugees, and temporary residents. Temporary residence does not include those with non-immigrant work authorization (F, J, H or L visas), such as students in practical training status. Exceptions to these requirements will be determined based on shortage of qualified candidates with a particular skill. GE will require proof of work authorization. Any offer of employment is conditioned upon the successful completion of a background investigation and drug screen.
Desired Characteristics	· The ability to be a self-starter that works independently · Detail oriented person, with strong organizational skills · Experience using word processing, spreadsheet, database and digital imaging software

This posting deals in both the digital realm and the physical. I feel that many of the moving image/audio jobs require that someone have a good grasp of the theory behind metadata creation and digital preservation. I feel that I have a good understanding of the key concepts but I would like a job that deals more with they physical side of the media.

I ran DROID on a few files on my computer to see what it would make of them. I was not aware of DROID before it was brought up in class and I imagined that it would find information about my files that I would either have a hard time finding or would be hard for me to access. After running the software, I think DROID would be helpful with unknown formats but the information that it displayed was nothing I could not have researched myself. It would have taken me much longer to do the research so I do see how DROID is a useful application for large quantities of files, especially unknown file formats. What troubled me the most was the missing information such as "Technical Environment", "Supported Until", or "Format Risk". In a project I am working on for another class, all of this missing information is information that we are desperately trying to find in reference to some files with the extension: .krz and .arr but I am not sure DROID would recognize these formats as many programs do not. I wish I had access to these files outside of class to see what DROID would make of them. My favorite piece of information that DROID delivered is the "Description". It was like a mini history of the format. DROID was very easy to use but will probably need a few more years of work to become a tool that works consistently and delivers full informative profiles of even the most diverse file format collections.

Here is a sample of some of the files that I had on my computer. The first is a picture and the second is an xml file that I had to work with for another class:

Name: JPEG File Interchange Format
Version: 1.01
Other names: JFIF (1.01)
Identifiers PUID: fmt/43
MIME: image/jpeg
Apple Uniform Type Identifier: public.jpegFamily
Classification: Image (Raster)
Disclosure: Full
Description: The JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF) is a file format for storing JPEG-compressed raster images. It was developed by the Independent JPEG Group and C-Cube Microsystems, in the absence of any such format being defined in the JPEG standard, and rapidly became a de facto standard; this is what is commonly referred to as the JPEG file format. A JFIF file comprises a JPEG data stream together with a JFIF marker. It begins with a Start of Image (SOI) marker, immediately followed by a JFIF Application (APP0). This is followed by the JPEG image data, which is terminated by an End of Image (EOI) marker. JFIF supports up to 24-bit colour and uses lossy compression (based on the Discrete Cosine Transform algorithm). Other types of compression are available through JPEG extensions, including progressive image buildup, arithmetic encoding, variable quantization, selective refinement, image tiling, and lossless compression, but these may not be supported by all JFIF readers and writers.
Orientation: Binary
Byte order: Big-endian (Motorola)
Related file formats: Has priority over Raw JPEG Stream Is previous version of JPEG File Interchange Format (1.02)Is subsequent version of JPEG File Interchange Format (1.00)Technical Environment:
Released:
Supported until:
Format Risk:
Developed by: C-Cube Microsystems Independent JPEG Group
Supported by: None.
Source: Digital Preservation Department / The National Archives
Source date: 11 Mar 2005
Source description:
Last updated: 02 Aug 2005

Name: Extensible Markup Language
Version: 1.0
Other names: XML (1.0)
Identifiers: PUID: fmt/101
Apple Uniform Type Identifier: public.xml
MIME: text/xml
Family:
Classification: Text (Mark-up)
Disclosure: Full
Description: The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general purpose markup language for creating other, special purpose, markup languages, and is a simplified subset of SGML. The structure and grammar of an XML document can be defined using a markup declaration, such as a Document Type Definition (DTD) or XML schema. A XML document consists of nested elements, each of which may have attributes and content. It typically begins with an XML declaration, defining the XML version and character set used. This may be followed by a Document Type declaration, containing or pointing to a markup declaration for the class of document. An XML document is said to be well-formed if it conforms to the XML specification; it is said to be valid if it additionally complies with a defined markup declaration. The formatting and transformation of XML documents can be controlled using the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL).
Orientation Text
Byte order:
Related file formats: Has lower priority than Scalable Vector Graphics (1.0)Has lower priority than Scalable Vector Graphics (1.1)Has lower priority than DROID File Collection File Format (1.0)Has priority over Hypertext Markup Language (2.0)Has priority over Hypertext Markup Language (3.2)Has priority over Hypertext Markup Language (4.0)Has priority over Hypertext Markup Language (4.01)Has priority over Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (1.0)Has priority over Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (1.1)Has priority over Hypertext Markup Language
Technical Environment:
Released: 04 Feb 2004
Supported until:
Format Risk:
Developed by :World Wide Web Consortium
Supported by: None.
Source: Digital Preservation Department / The National Archives
Source date: 11 Mar 2005
Source description:
Last updated: 02 Aug 2005

Best Manager:
* Manager for a Internet, cable, telephone company
Personable
responsible
funny
respectful
always wanted to make sure we were doing alright
willing to stand up for her employees
creative

* Worst Manager:
spread too thinly in her responsibilities
too young
didn't care enough about the job

I don't think either manager used any particular style of management. I think that most people do not think of what management style they will use. These two particular managers were working in a situation where they rose to management position because they happened to be working at a place long enough to rise to a management position. I am not really sure what type of management style I would use. I have yet to be in a management position. I have a hard time finding a good balance between being a manager that my team finds to be responsible but at the same time fun and easy going. I feel that it is important for a manager to be relaxed in certain situations so that those being managed feel that they can come to their manager for anything but at the same time a manager must be seen as responsible and as an authority figure.

Assignment #8

The Digital Art collection at the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art is a eclectic mix of moving image art installations and interactive/visual art documentation that is in desperate need of both long-term preservation planning and immediate preservation action. The very nature of the materials already places it in a precarious situation in the way of long-term preservation. There is little that we know about how digital objects will behave in the future. The actions which are known to help safeguard these objects lay in the areas of documentation and migration. Many of the digital files included in the digital art collection are in file formats that may not last much longer. The files formats require constant research by a trained digital librarian. This very librarian could also take custody of creating a metadata document that documents all static elements of the objects in hopes of tracking any detrimental changes that may occur within the collection. The librarian need not be hired full time but grant funds could start a short term project that would lead to the education of staff members already in place. Immediately, the collection is in need of money to rehouse and properly store all of the physical media. Many of the original videotapes are in danger of become unplayable and the DVDs/CDs are in need of updates in their quality. A separate storage area must also be purchased to house the many copies of collection materials. These basic changes can make a large impact on this small collection. Many do not realize how little can be done to better the health of a collection. Your grant funds would impact this collection not only now but throughout the life span of the collection. Digital objects are becoming more and more prevalent in all collections but little is known about their preservation. The rehousing, storage, and documentation of the digital art collection at the Blanton Musuem of Art can be the first step for this type of preservation.