Inactive

The Library of Congress (Library) requires contract support to continue standardization development of digital preservation reformatting practices for audiovisual materials through the work of the Fed... The Library of Congress (Library) requires contract support to continue standardization development of digital preservation reformatting practices for audiovisual materials through the work of the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) Audio-Visual Working Group (https://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/). This interagency activity was launched in 2007 and is led by the Library of Congress. On an ongoing basis, FADGI members and expert consultants have applied scientific and technical expertise to issues pertaining to the high-quality digitization of collections in all of its member agencies, including but not limited to the National Archives, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Library of Congress. Although the science and technology for digital audiovisual materials are to some degree domain-independent, in practice this knowledge and its associated techniques are applied within certain zones of interest, e.g., the commercial music business, professional broadcasting, and scientific endeavors like ornithology and the study of animal behavior. The domain that is relevant to the digitization of collections held by the majority of FADGI members is that of cultural heritage collections, i.e., the sound recordings and moving image materials held by institutions entrusted with the preservation of the nation’s and the world’s heritage. Cultural heritage materials present special and often unique issues in preservation reformatting, and this is the audiovisual application area related to this contract. FADGI's ongoing development of standardized audiovisual preservation practices and related open source tools can be traced in documents accessed via the initiative's Web site: 2010 through 2016. Documents pertaining to a digital format for the preservation of moving image content (MXF Application Specification for Archiving and Preservation), linked from http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/guidelines/MXF_app_spec.html. 2012 and 2013. Documents pertaining to performance impairments caused by interstitial errors, linked from http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/guidelines/digitize-audioperf.html. 2012 through present. Documents pertaining to performance guidelines for Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs), linked from http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/guidelines/digitize-audioperf.html. 2015 and present. Field testing system and revised guideline for ADC performance measurement in selected federal agencies, linked from http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/guidelines/digitize-audioperf.html . 2016 through present. Documents relating to the standardization of the DPX file format, often used for scanned motion picture film, linked from http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/guidelines/digitize-DPXembedding.html All of the preceding guidelines are influenced and synchronized with standards and industry guidelines from bodies like the following: Audio Engineering Society standards developed by the Working Groups on Digital Audio Measurement Techniques (SC-02-01), Audio-File Transfer and Exchange (SC-02-08), and Digital Library and Archive Systems (SC-03-06); as well as the Technical Committee on Archiving Restoration and Digital Libraries. International Association of Sound and Audiovisual (IASA) Archives and Technical Committee Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) standards, especially the sections related to metadata and file formats Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) Technical Committee Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) In 2022-25, the FADGI family of guidelines and associated open source tools will continue to expand and evolve to meet the needs of member agencies and to serve the larger community of cultural heritage institutions. The expert consultant support provided by this contract will advance that expansion and evolution. The work will also support parallel activities at the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation (http://www.loc.gov/avconservation/packard/). The contractor shall provide expert digital audiovisual preservation advice and analysis for: Continued routine maintenance and bug fixes for ADCTest, the open source tool for the measurement of the performance of Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs) as these pertain to audio preservation archiving in cultural heritage institutions. For more information about ADCTest, see http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/guidelines/digitize-ADCTest.html. Continued development, feature including adding new features and functionality based on user feedback, as well as bug fixes and routine maintenance for embARC, the free, open source tool software application that enables users to audit and correct embedded metadata to comply with FADGI guidelines for DPX (Guidelines for Embedded Metadata within DPX File Headers for Digitized Motion Picture Film), MXF (SMPTE RDD 48: MXF Archive and Preservation Format) files and starting in 2022, FFV1 files. Support shall be for both the CLI and GUI versions of embARC. For more information about embARC, see http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/guidelines/embARC.html. Explore building out accessibility services to support users with visual impairment for FADGI sponsored free open source software (FOSS) packages, using the command line interface (CLI) and graphical user interface (GUI) for embARC as a proof of concept.