Cm syllabus docx

MOVING IMAGE ARCHIVING & PRESERVATION PROGRAM

COLLECTION MANAGEMENT, CINE-GT 3401

Version #1: 1/27/14

Spring 2014 – Mondays, 6 pm – 10 pm, 665 Broadway, Room 643 (MIAP Lab)

See adjusted times/locations for some classes.

Instructors: Mona Jimenez and Grace Lile

Office hours: Mondays, 3:30 - 5:00 or by appointment

665 Broadway, room 613

[e-mail], 212-992-8458
Grace Lile

Office hours: By appointment

721 Broadway, Adjunct Office

[e-mail]
GOALS: Students will develop an increased understanding of the principles and practices of collection management for moving images, sound, and multimedia existing in analog or digital form. They will gain hands-on experience with collection assessment, evaluating collections in such areas as goals and policies; care and handling; organization and description; item formats and condition; storage; and copyright status. Students will apply current standards and best practices to identify risks to the collections and to develop action steps for improved collection care, preservation and access. Students will gain experience with preservation planning for phased projects, including fundraising. This course stresses the application of archival principles and best practices in a variety of public and private institutional settings, including organizations specializing in audiovisual preservation, those with few or no dedicated moving image specialists, and ‘ad hoc” collections such as those with producing entities, independent producers or artists.
EXPECTATIONS: Students will work together on group project from the Fales Library and Special Collection that will result in an assessment report and item level inventory or other form of appropriate description. Students will then apply their learning from the group experience by conducting an individual collection assessment with a film/video/audio/digital repository, resulting in a written report summarizing their findings and recommendations and including an inventory or other form of description at item, box, or collection level. Using a project worksheet, students will then shape all or part of the report’s short-term recommendations into a first phase plan with immediate goals and objectives, and write a letter of inquiry and budget that reflects the plan. Highlights of the assessment and funding request will also be presented in a presentation “pitch” in the final two classes of the semester.
We will be spending one full week at the Library of Congress National Audiovisual Conservation Center in Culpeper, VA. All students must attend for the full week, arriving Sunday March 3 and departing Friday, March 8. Details from Rufus De Rham will follow. Part-time students who are unable to attend during the year they are taking Collection Management are required to attend in another semester before obtaining the MIAP degree.
Attendance at all classes is expected unless excused; our work together will be intensive. Notify the instructor prior to class of any absences; absences for classes where work is due or presentations are scheduled will require a doctor’s note if due to illness or injury. Deadlines for assignments are firm and any extensions on written work due to unavoidable circumstances will require prior approval. Grades will be primarily based on assignments: Group collection assessment (25%); individual assessment (50%); and project/letter of inquiry/pitch (25%). Your level of class preparedness and participation will also impact the grade, as well as any unexcused absences or unexcused late work.
MIAP DIGITAL ARCHIVE: In addition to assignments submitted in print form, all course papers/projects will be submitted in electronic form by the beginning of the class period on the due date. (Please also bring a hard copy to class on the due date.) Instructions will follow about how to submit your papers electronically via NYU Classes.
Your papers will be made part of the MIAP Digital Archive in a private space for faculty use, and on the MIAP web site, where appropriate. Please inform me of any papers that cannot be published on the web due to confidentiality restrictions or special circumstances. In some cases, the title of a paper will be published, but access to the paper will be restricted to selected MIAP faculty and staff. File submission format for assignments:
year semester_class number_author’s last name_assignment number.extension
Example: 05s_1800_Smith_a1.doc
For multiple authors, the two initials of each author will be used, separated from each other by underscores. An underscore and the assignment number will follow this. Assignment numbers are determined by the order in which the assignments are given. They begin with an ‘a,’ followed by a number between one and ten. For assignments with multiple files, a letter can be added after the number. Thus, one could have ‘a1b,’ meaning that this is the second of multiple files from one student for one particular assignment. If a student decides to withhold her work from being freely available online, she may alert the professor, as well as by adding “_x “ after the assignment number in file name. Otherwise, permission shall be implicitly granted for the student’s work to be posted on the digital archive website.
Example: 05s_1800_smith_a1_x.doc
TEXTS: Readings that cannot be accessed electronically will be on reserve at Bobst Library. There may be additional assigned readings throughout the semester.
ASSIGNMENTS:

1. Group collection assessment. Draft due: 3/4/2014. Final due: 4/4/2014. In addition to the final report, several short preparatory writing assignments may be part of the group project.

2. Individual collection assessment. Draft due: 4/14/2014. Final due: 5/5/2014.

3. Project worksheet, letter of inquiry and presentation. The worksheet is a guide to goals, objectives, impact and costs for a first phase project based on your individual collection assessments. The two-page letter of inquiry will convert worksheet into funding request in the form of a letter of inquiry with a budget. Draft due: 4/29/14. Final due 5/13/2014. Individual presentations will delivered during classes 13 and 14.

Class 1: January 27

Due this class:

• 
  Smith, Anne P., Jill Swiecichowski and Beth Patkus. Preferred Practices for Historical Repositories: A Resources Manual on the web site of Georgia Archives, Georgia Secretary of State. 1999/2010. Accessed 1/24/14 at http://georgiaarchives.org/GHRAC/preferred_practices_manual/Preferred_Practices_Manual.pdf
  

Topics/activities:

• 
  Overview of class goals and expectations; review of syllabus.
  
• 
  Review of key areas of collection development and management with emphasis on archival practice.
  
• 
  Terminologies and practices of collection assessment in libraries, archives, and museums.
  
• 
  Purpose and use of assessment tools
  
• 
  Components of a collection assessment. Discussion of Assignment #1: Group Collection Assessment. Preparation for visit to the Fales Library and Special Collections for next class.
  

Class 2: February 3

Meet at the Fales Library and Special Collections, Bobst Library, 6:00 – 7:30 pm. Class will resume at 8:00 at 665 Broadway.

Guest: Brent Phillips, Media Specialist and Processing Archivist, Fales Library and Special Collections, Bobst Library
Due this class:

• 
  Chapter 5 “Managing the Acquisition Process”; Chapter 2 “Accessioning” in Ellis, Judith, ed. Keeping Archives. 2^nd ed. Port Melbourne: Thorpe and the Australian Society of Archivists. 1993. On reserve at Bobst Library.
  
• 
  Review the web site for the Fales Library and Special Collections, with particular attention to the “Collection Development Policy” section
  

http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/fales/abouttest.html

The group assessment will be the collection of Frances Alenikoff. See

• 
  Review the web sites of the Archivists Toolkit http://archiviststoolkit.org/, ArchivesSpace < http://www.archivesspace.org/> and IMAP cataloging project http://www.imappreserve.org/cat_proj/
  
• 
  The New Zealand Film Archive. “Ko Ngā Kaitiaki ō ngā Taonga Whitiāhua” on the web site of the New Zealand Film Archive. 2012. Accessed 1/25/2014 at http://www.filmarchive.org.nz/taonga-maori/ko-nga-kaitiaki-o-nga-taonga-whitiahua-2/.
  
• 
  “Selection and Acquisition Policy”, the “Deposit Agreement”, and the Taonga Maori Deposit Agreement” linked at the bottom of New Zealand Film Archive. “Depositing materials with The Film Archive” accessed 1/24/14 at http://www.filmarchive.org.nz/about-the-archive/depositing-material-with-the-film-archive/
  

Topics/activities:

• 
  Collection development and management at Fales; introduction to the group assessment project
  
• 
  Discussion of logistics and a work plan for the Group Collection Assessments. Data collection during an assessment process, including evaluation of the descriptive information provided by the archives. Comparisons of collection level, box level and item level inventories; differences between spreadsheets and databases.
  
• 
  Discussion of readings on collection development and acquisition.
  

• 
  Discuss options for individual collection assessments.
  

Class 3: February 10

Due this class:

• 
  During the previous week, each pair of students should have inspected the collection for the group project at Fales. Come prepared with observations based on your preliminary inspection and your proposed methodology for tackling the collection.
  
• 
  Chapter 3 “Arrangement and Description” in Ellis, Judith, ed. Keeping Archives. 2^nd ed. Port Melbourne: Thorpe and the Australian Society of Archivists. 1993. On reserve at Bobst Library.
  
• 
  Kula, Sam. Appraising Moving Images: Assessing the Archival and Monetary Value of Film and Video Records. Lanham, Maryland and Oxford: Scarecrow Press, 2003, p. 1 – 58. On reserve at Bobst Library.
  
• 
  Ide, Mary and Leah Weisse. “Developing Preservation Appraisal Criteria for a Public Broadcasting Station.” The Moving Image, Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 2003, pp. 146-157. Online access available through Bobcat.
  
• 
  Society of American Archivists. “Code of Ethics for Archivists” in “Standards” on the web site of the Society of American Archivists. February 2005. Accessed 1/19/12 at http://www2.archivists.org/standards/code-of-ethics-for-archivists
  
• 
  OCLS Research. "Well-intentioned practice for putting digitized collections of unpublished materials online" (W-iP) on “Research” on the OCLC web site. May, 28, 2010. Accessed 1/19/12 at http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/rights/practice.pdf
  
• 
  Society of American Archivists. “Orphans Work: Statement of Best Practices” in “Standards” on the web site of the Society of American Archivists. June 17, 2009. Accessed 1/19/12 at http://www2.archivists.org/sites/all/files/OrphanWorks-June2009.pdf
  

Topics/activities in class:

• 
  Discussion of readings on appraisal and selection. Ethics in archival practice.
  
• 
  The impact of production processes on audiovisual collection care; determining relationships between audiovisual items.
  

• 
  Evaluating existing information existing with group assessment projects considering evolving descriptive standards and needs for metadata. Students informally present their proposed methodologies for their group assessments. Refinement of the overall work plan and development of inventory templates.
  

• 
  Final matching students and groups for assignment #2: Individual Collection Assessment.
  

******* MONDAY FEBRUARY 17 – NO CLASS – PRESIDENT’S DAY *******

Class 4: February 24

Due this class:

• 
  By Wed. February 26, you should have, according to assignments for the group assessment report, completed research and information-gathering for all sections of report except the inventory.
  
• 
  By the end of this week, you should have made contact with the organization/producer for your individual collection assessment, should have requested descriptive information, and should have scheduled a time for your initial visit.
  
• 
  Kula, Sam. Appraising Moving Images: Assessing the Archival and Monetary Value of Film and Video Records. Lanham, Maryland and Oxford: Scarecrow Press, 2003, p. 59 - 129. On reserve at Bobst Library.
  
• 
  “2: Key Digital Principles” in International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives Technical Committee, Guidelines on the Production and Preservation of Digital Audio Objects, ed. by Kevin Bradley. Web version on the web site of the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives. Second edition 2009 (IASA TC 04). Accessed 1/19/12 at www.iasa-web.org/tc04/audio-preservation.
  
• 
  Review “Format Characteristics and Preservation Problems” and “FACET worksheets” in the “FACET Downloads” section of Sound Directions: Digital Preservation and Access for Global Audio Heritage. April 15, 2008. Accessed 1/24/14 at http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/projects/sounddirections/facet/downloads.shtml
  
• 
  Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative. “Digitization Activities Project Planning and Management Outline” in “Guidelines” on the web site of the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative. August 12, 2008. Accessed 8/31/10 at http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/audio-visual/documents/Resource_Video_080812.pdf
  
• 
  “Sound” and “Moving Image” in “Content Categories” and “Sustainability” in Library of Congress. “Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections.” 2012. Accessed 1/5/12 at http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/index.shtml
  
• 
  Fleischhauer, Carl. “Format Considerations in AudioVisual Reformatting: Snapshots from the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative.” Spring 2010. Information Standards Quarterly. Vol. 22, Issue 2. Accessed 1/24/14 at http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/audio-visual/documents/IP_Fleischhauer_AudioVisual_Reformatting_isqv22no2.pdf
  

Topics/activities:

• 
  Discussion of readings on appraisal and selection.
  
• 
  Review of inspection techniques, risk assessment and re-formatting standards for audio, video and film materials.
  
• 
  Analysis of and reporting on the contents and condition of collections.
  

Class 5: March 4-8 at Library of Congress National Audiovisual Conservation Center in Culpeper, VA

Due this week:

• 
  Draft Group Collection Assessment Report and Inventory due Monday, March 4
  

Class 6: March 11

Topics/activities in class:

• 
  De-brief from Culpeper.
  
• 
  Continued discussion of technical specifications for target formats, including file/wrapper considerations, codec choice and options for re-use and access.
  
• 
  Introduction to common storage devices and systems.
  

• 
  Discussion of group collection assessment report. Practice writing and refining recommendations from observations and data analysis.
  

********* NO CLASS MARCH 18 (SPRING BREAK) *********************

Class 7: March 25

Due this class:

• 
  By the end of this week, you should have made your first visit to the organization/producer for your individual collection assessment and have scheduled the remainder of your visits.
  
• 
  Cornell University. “Digital Preservation Management: Implementing Short-term Strategies for Long-term Problems.” 2003-2007. Accessed 1/12/12 at http://www.dpworkshop.org/dpm-eng/eng_index.html
  
• 
  Additional readings TBA
  

Topics/activities:

• 
  Practical approaches to identification, organization and arrangement, monitoring and preservation of born digital materials.
  
• 
  Tasks in management of digitized and born digital materials and assessing organizational readiness for the management of digital files.
  
• 
  Check-in on individual assessments.
  

Class 8: April 1

Guest: Nicole Martin, Multimedia Manager, Human Rights Watch
Due this class:

• 
  Case studies from Human Rights Watch and Witness on the management of born digital materials.
  
• 
  Incorporating principles of digital storage, management and preservation into assessment reports.
  

Topics/activities:

• 
  Check-in on individual assessments, with focus on creating and refining recommendations based on data collected.
  

Class 9: April 7

Guests: Kim Tarr, Moving Image Preservation Specialist, Bobst Library and Miwa Yokoyama, Digital Project Manager, Carnegie Hall
Due this class:

• 
  Final Group Collection Assessment due
  
• 
  Reading: De Stefano, Paula and Mona Jimenez. “Commercial Video Collections: A Preservation Survey of the Avery Fisher Center Collection at NYU.” The Moving Image. Volume 7, Number 2, Fall 2007. pp. 55-82.
  
• 
  Work products of the Video at Risk Project. Citations to follow.
  

• 
  By this class, you should be done with data collection for the individual collection assessments and be in the analysis and writing phase.
  

Topics/activities:

• 
  Kim Tarr will present on conducting a multi-institutional assessment at the Smithsonian Museum of American History and her work at Bobst Library.
  
• 
  Miwa Yokoyama will present on developing a program for collection management, preservation and access from the ground up.
  
• 
  Studies and research projects for circulating video collections in libraries.
  

****MONDAY APRIL 14 – NO CLASS – adjustments made in final week****
Draft Individual Assessments due April 14.

Class 10: April 21

Due this class:

• 
  Readings TBA
  

Topics/activities:

• 
  Key principles and elements of a funding proposal; turning a preservation work plan into a fundable project.
  
• 
  Creating a detailed work plan, with an attached timeline and budget, from a list of recommended actions.
  
• 
  Creating a letter of inquiry.
  

Class 11: April 28

Due this class:

• 
  Draft project worksheet and letter of inquiry due
  

• 
  Foundation Center. “Proposal Writing Short Course” on the web site of the Foundation Center. 2012. Accessed 4/5/12 at
  
• 
  Review:
  
  • 
    Institute for Museum and Library Services http://www.imls.org make sure that you locate and read the application from the Maine Historical Society
    
  • 
    National Endowment for the Humanities (http://www.neh.gov) make sure that you locate and read the application from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
    
  • 
    National Historical Publications and Records Commission http://www.archives.gov/nhprc
    
  • 
    Mellon Foundation http://www.mellon.org
    
  • 
    Gladys Kreible Delmas Foundation http://www.delmas.org
    

Topics/activities:

• 
  Differences in approach for foundations, public funding and donors.
  
• 
  Observations about individual collection assessments; refining your work.
  

Class 12: May 5

Due this class:

• 
  Final individual assessments due
  

Topics/activities:

• 
  Continue review of sample grant proposals and sources public and private fund-raising for access and preservation.
  
• 
  Modeling of and practice with communicating project impact and goals.
  

Class 13: May 12

Topics/activities:

• 
  Presentations by ½ of class
  
• 
  30-minute PowerPoint presentations (20 min. plus 10 min. Q & A)
  

Class 14: May 13

Due this class:

• 
  Final project worksheet and letter of inquiry due
  

Topics/activities:

• 
  Presentations by ½ of class
  
• 
  30-minute PowerPoint presentations (20 min. plus 10 min. Q & A)