Digital Storage Options – a Transitional Perspective: How Current Storage Technologies Can Facilitate Longevity and Access JTS 2007 Toronto

My name is Richard… and I digitize and restore audio tapes Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

Dietrich Schuller says: “The world's stock of audio recordings is estimated to be more than 50 Mh (million hours) of materials.… “None of these recordings are on permanent carriers…” Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

King’s College London says: “Seventy percent of all audiovisual material is under immediate threat of deterioration, damage or obsolescence — and seventy percent of collection managers don't know it. Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

Simplified process Playback Digitize Store Distribute Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

Digitize when ? Now Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

Store where ? This is the big challenge we are discussing today. What do you do if you cannot afford your own digital repository? What do you do if you cannot gain access to a shared digital repository? Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

Shared digital repository Lonergan Research Institute ~700 hours of audio cassettes Project was started on CDs Saved about $20,000 and gained access by using U of Toronto’s T-Space system https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/ Rich metadata will be created for files Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

T-Space showcases and preserves the scholarly work of U of T faculty T-Space showcases and preserves the scholarly work of U of T faculty. T-Space is faculty space, established by the Library to support the dissemination of knowledge by the University community. Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

Crowdsourcing California State Univ., Fullerton Center for Oral and Public History ~7,000 tapes were deteriorating due to poor storage No budget available Sharon Owen Pellegrino marshalled volunteers to Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

Create two audio CD sets Set up multiple workstations with two audio CD recorders and a playback deck Volunteers monitored playback and recorded CDs CD sets were placed in separate storage Access metadata didn’t change CD number = Tape number Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

CDs offer Simplest workflow especially if using audio recorders Familiarity of media Physically filed (shelf model) Longevity (MAM-A says 300 years with archival gold CDs) Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

CDs lack High resolution capability Metadata 44.1 ks/s and 16 bits vs 96 ks/s and 24 bits for many projects Metadata Space saving attributes of other media File-system security Checksums Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

CD burning quality CD burning quality is variable Recent project for broadcaster Let’s talk about your CDs… we tested them in the Clover CD tester… <gulp> How did you do it? Your discs are much better than ours! <phew> Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

My CD burning chain MAM-A gold archival CDs Plextor Plexwriter PX-716A Samplitude Pro CD burning module Burn at 16X Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

DVDs with files Eddie Schwartz 79 tapes; 75 GB at 96 ks/s 24 bit Wrote “Hit me with your best shot” 79 tapes; 75 GB at 96 ks/s 24 bit 18 DVDs per set, two sets Allows metadata Within BWAV file Separate files Robust (Gold MAM-A DVD-R discs) Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

What do I use ? (for audio) 1 TB On-site NAS 1.5 TB Office 0.5 TB Off-site NAS 1.5 TB Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

Richard’s ad-hoc storage 6 x 250 GB volumes Each volume holds approx 400 hours at CD quality 3 copies for redundancy One copy off-site on fibre link Automatic backup Deletes not propagated Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

Richard’s next step… On-Site RAID 5 NAS 1.5–2.25 TB Off-Site RAID 5 NAS 1.5–2.25 TB Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

Transitional media summary CD-DA DVD HDs RAID LTO TDR Audio Access HiRes Video No $/gigabyte (loaded) $$$$$ $$$$ $$ $$$ $ Start-up cost Online Poss Often Yes File based External checksums (MD5) GB/unit 0.7 4 500 2K+ 400 open Long term access VGood Good Fair Excelnt Ease of future migration Poor Incld’d Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

Archival storage overview Archival storage must be… Understood Funded Designed Organized Populated Managed in perpetuity Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

Archival storage management Don’t risk losing material Don’t trust dedicated formats long term Nothing is certain but change IT data loss rarely happens due to redundancy and good planning IT migrates for long term storage Data management is well understood Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29

Summary If the content matters to you, do not rely on old tape. New data tape is fine, as long as there is a plan to refresh it over time. Tapes are not getting better with age. Just because you can’t play the tape doesn’t mean it’s not recoverable. Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto 2007-06-29