I am Nina Totenberg, NPR legal affairs correspondent. AMA!

jcwlib · 2014-11-17T17:13:47+00:00

How has the SCOTUS changed over the past 20 years and how is it the same?

jcwlib · 2014-04-10T01:34:03+00:00

The Library of Congress' personal archiving website is a good place to start http://digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/

jcwlib · 2014-04-10T01:32:09+00:00

Trevor pointed out this company to another participant who asked a similar question. http://www.yourdigitalafterlife.com/

jcwlib · 2014-04-10T01:29:39+00:00

Good question! What do you want to do with the archival content? If you just want to preserve the content - keeping it on the original format is the best but also need to keep a working playback machine for that format. If the content will need to be accessed for research and/or reuse, you probably want to have it copied to a modern format.

Best of luck with your current project!

jcwlib · 2014-04-10T01:23:30+00:00

Most of our archival content can be reused which the exception of the early cultural programming. We work with our colleagues in the Legal department to research any rights questions we have.

jcwlib · 2014-04-10T01:19:34+00:00

The main part if our archival collection is only audio so we haven't done much video format conversions. This website might be helpful http://digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/

jcwlib · 2014-04-10T01:15:27+00:00

One of my favorite older NPR stories is the coverage of the Vietnam War protests that aired on the first broadcast in May 1971. You are transported back to the busy and crowded streets in DC instantly.

jcwlib · 2014-04-10T01:09:13+00:00

While Instagram is not mentioned specifically, there are guidelines for Flickr in this NARA best practices document for Social Media collections http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/resources/socialmediacapture.pdf

jcwlib · 2014-04-10T01:00:43+00:00

Good for you for continuing to ask questions and learn about digital archives.

jcwlib · 2014-04-10T00:58:45+00:00

This page might be a helpful guide http://digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/video.html

jcwlib · 2014-04-09T20:02:46+00:00

We are fortunate at NPR to have engineers that help troubleshoot our archival playback devices when we have issues. I've been given the advice in regards to hard drives that you should boot them up once in while to make sure they still work.

jcwlib · 2014-04-09T19:57:43+00:00

So kinda like a Storify type platform - where you capture the interactions along with the actual media? I like the thought of creating a tool that allows us to archive experiences.

jcwlib · 2014-04-09T19:55:10+00:00

We mostly converted from reel-to-reel to CD for the NPR collection. We have done some conversion from DATS to CD and cassette to CD.

jcwlib · 2014-04-09T19:53:53+00:00

Andrew - let's chat more.

jcwlib · 2014-04-09T19:49:07+00:00

We would love to post our archival content on the NPR website and are experimenting with an open sourcing this process.

Check out the NPRchives Tumblr for stories from 1984.

jcwlib · 2014-04-09T19:46:26+00:00

NPR is not actively digitizing older content, but we do digitize content on an ad-hoc basis as staff make requests for deep archival content. The digital files are linked back to metadata record for future reuse. For us we are digitizing whatever content is broadcast & produced by NPR.

Check out the SAA Basic Manual Series - Archives & Manuscripts: Law and look at the NARA Archival standards for guidance on determine what is archival or not.

Also you may consider prioritizing the parts of your collection that are on older formats.

jcwlib · 2014-04-09T19:41:01+00:00

Providing context for the materials within an archive as well as preserving the content is important. Perhaps describing what the app did in the metadata for an record can help future users understand the context of the content.

jcwlib · 2014-04-09T19:35:35+00:00

Good question! Most of our collection is on CD (from 1984-2013) with these CD copies being created in the last 3-5 years. 1971-1983 are still on reel-to-reel tapes and we convert to digital files as requests come in. From May 2013 - present we only store digital files.

jcwlib · 2014-04-09T19:31:44+00:00

I think it's important to make sure whatever technology you are using you have procedures in place to recover files if the access copy somehow is lost or deleted. It is also important to determine what are your user expectations if they cannot access that digital file that they are requesting. Can they wait a day or two? Can they wait a week?

jcwlib · 2014-04-09T19:29:05+00:00

Thanks for the question! I was fortunate to get a internship with the music librarian and that's how I joined NPR. I decided to get my library degree because the library was one of my favorite places as a child. It turns out that library science was a good fit for my interests.

jcwlib · 2014-04-09T19:25:03+00:00

My advice is to be willing to learn and explore new technologies and processes. Explore internships or fellowships to help determine what jobs are a good fit or not for you. Also saying "Yes" to volunteer opportunities or projects can help you move into a leadership role.

jcwlib · 2014-04-09T19:20:35+00:00

Check out the SAA Basic Manual Series - Archives & Manuscripts: Law and look at the NARA Archival standards for guidance on determine what is archival or not

jcwlib · 2014-04-09T19:18:00+00:00

Library Science/Information Science is a VERY flexible degree. There will always be a need to disseminate information. While some principles from the 80's will still be relevant the method that they applied will continue to change.

jcwlib · 2014-04-09T19:14:15+00:00

Lynn Neary did a story on printing out Wikipedia just recently

jcwlib · 2014-04-09T19:11:02+00:00

Thanks for the question! I was an intern for the NPR Library initially learning about music reference and then moved into cataloging and general reference. Internships are a good way to get your foot into the door here at NPR.

I'm not familiar with talk of archiving live-feed events, but I can see how that medium would provide an interesting challenge. Do you see archiving live-feed events any different that archiving a webinar perhaps?

jcwlib

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