Guidance for Digitizing Audio
Advisors in the Weissman Preservation Center can help members of the Harvard community plan workflows and identifiy service providers for preservation reformatting of recorded sound materials. This page provides links to selected best practices, guidelines, standards, and tools that inform and support audio digitization at Harvard.
Harvard audio digitization studios
Harvard specifications and tools (audio metadata and packaging)
Audio objects require extensive metadata to support long-term management, preservation, and delivery. The following Harvard University Library specifications and tools are designed to produce HUL DRS compliant objects in the most accurate and cost-effective manner.
- HUL DRS Administrative Metadata for Digital Audio Files.
- DMART, XML specifications and tool for depositing audio objects to the HUL Digital Repository Service.
- JHOVE, tool for format validation. Standard modules in JHOVE include AIFF-hul and WAVE-hul.
Guidelines and best practices
Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music (ATM) and the Archive of World Music (AWM) at Harvard University, "Sound Directions: Digital Preservation and Access for Global Audio Heritage," Goals for Standards and Best Practices, 2005. Proposed deliverables include METS profile(s) for digital audio preservation and best practices document for use of the Broadcast Wave file format, with extensive metadata, in archival preservation.
International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA), IASA-TC 03, The Safeguarding of Audio Heritage: Ethics, Principles, and Preservation Strategy, Version 3, December 2005.
International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA), IASA-TC 04, Guidelines on the Production and Preservation of Digital Objects, August 2004. (May be ordered from IASA.) Copies also available in Harvard libraries, including the Weissman Preservation Center (HOLLIS Number 009549121)
Library of Congress NDIIPP, Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections, Quality and Functionality Factors for Sound (Audio), 2007.
Weissman Preservation Center, Harvard University Library, Principles for Reformatting Library and Archival Collections.
Standards
- Apple Computer Inc., Audio Interchange File Format: "AIFF" Version 1.3, 1989, and other AIFF specifications available for download from the Telecommunications & Signal Processing Laboratory, McGill University.
- Audio Engineering Society (AES), AES-31 Audio File Interchange Standards.
- Audio Engineering Society (AES), AES-X098, audio metadata (in process).
- Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standard (METS), Official Web Site. See also the METS Implementation Registry, for descriptions of Harvard's use of METS, AES-X098B (audio object schema), and AES-X098C (process history schema) for audio object packaging and preservation.