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

2. My name is Richard… and I digitize and restore audio tapes
Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto

3. 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

4. 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

5. Simplified process Playback Digitize Store Distribute
Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto

6. Digitize when ?
Now
Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto

7. 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

8. 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
Rich metadata will be created for files
Richard L. Hess JTS Toronto

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

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

22. 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

23. 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