More From AMIA
This hardly counts as live conference blogging, but here are a few more vignettes and bits of random gossip:
The NDIPP grantees appear to be getting a lot done towards preserving public television, which is very heartening.
There was much muttering in the halls about the terms and conditions Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are offering to different archives and archivists. Plans to develop a negotiation guide for archivists (a project made interesting by Google’s insistence on NDAs for *everything*) are afoot.
The session on television news on Friday went well. Jeff Karnes of Yahoo has collected some amazing data about the increasing adoption of online video services. I’m not sure what AMIA is doing with the recordings, but I hope they will be posted somewhere soon.
The Television Interest Group and News & Documentary Interest Groups are merging. Karen Cariani, John Lynch, and Steve Davidson will be leading the new group.
There was more discussion about the MIC Project (see previous post); it’s clear that some archivists are beginning to count on it. A committed user base is a Good Thing.
Two possible schisms within AMIA came up in an open forum. One is about copyright: some archivists lean towards providing broad access; other archivists work for organizations that maintain tight control over their holdings. The other is about certification: is AMIA a professional association dedicated to improving the careers of its members (thus, a certification might be useful), or is it defined by shared interests (thus, certification would create a caste structure that would fracture the community.)
No mentioned it, but in some countries there are efforts to certify journalists and programmers; certification for archivists seems like a similarly bad idea.
Jim Lindner gave an overview of the PrestoSpace project, which is developing technical solutions for digital preservation at European archives.
The National Television Preservation Foundation is hoping to make another round of in-kind grants this year, but needs to find cash and perhaps congressional support.
At the end of the day Friday, Andrew Lampert proved conclusively that art based on surgical training films can cause up to half of a hardened audience to avert its eyes and gasp.