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Complex Digital Objects

Somaya with Robin Chandler, John Kunze and Paul Fogel
Somaya with Robin Chandler, John Kunze and Paul Fogel of the California Digital Library

Somaya with Gordon Mohn, Igor Ranitovic and Kristine Hanna
Somaya with Gordon Mohn, Igor Ranitovic and Kristine Hanna of the Internet Archive

Somaya in discussion with Henry Warwick
Somaya in discussion with Henry Warwick (image courtesy of Shannon O'Neill)

Friends of the National Library of Australia Inaugural Travelling Fellowship Report

As the recipient of the inaugural Friends of the National Library of Australia Travelling Fellowship, I travelled to the Bay Area in California in early August 2006 to visit several institutions that are tackling issues associated with complex born-digital objects. In particular, the objective was to study a variety of models used in the preservation of ‘complex objects’—items made up of multiple interlinking parts and, for digital materials, a range of file types. The three-week visit took me to the California Digital Library, the Internet Archive, and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. I also attended the 2006 International Symposium on Electronic Art.

After familiarising myself with the Bay Area Rapid Transport (BART) train system, I made my way to Oakland to meet John Kunze and other staff at the California Digital Library. The California Digital Library is exploring complex digital objects, primarily through text-based documents and web archiving. We discussed issues such as ‘how to define a website’s boundaries’ and the effectiveness of long-term, persistent identification. During my three days there, I investigated their Digital Preservation Repository system architecture and workflow and how digital materials are curated and packaged (using METS) for submission into the repository.

From Oakland I travelled south to San Jose to attend the International Symposium on Electronic Art—a conference coupled with exhibitions, performances and displays of media-based works. Many works were hybrid in form, comprising digital and mechanical components; many incorporated sensor systems to monitor environmental conditions or provide audience interactivity. Additionally, some works were mobile and could be viewed as people roamed through the city. The long-term preservation strategies of these highly complex works often focused on documenting ‘around the work’ (such as recording video, still images and written descriptions) rather than trying to preserve the actual work. The emerging trend of hybrid works—from the literary, visual and performing arts—will confront many of Australia’s cultural agencies. These works will pose a significant challenge in the future.

At the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive I met with the Director of Digital Media, Richard Rinehart, to discuss his Media Art Notation System (MANS). This model uses the metaphor of a ‘score’ to document complex media artworks. Theoretically, each artwork can be broken down into several components, and by identifying each component’s function, a work can potentially be reconstructed using this documentation. I also had the opportunity to attend the final day of Richard Rinehart’s UC Berkeley summer class, where we discussed the MANS model in relation to the creative works exhibited at ISEA.

My final destination was the Presidio of San Francisco, where I met with staff from the Internet Archive’s Web Archiving and Audiovisual Archive teams. We discussed strategies for web harvesting, data storage, systems monitoring, their SmartCrawler project, and managing the audiovisual archives. The Internet Archive’s Moving Image, Live Music and Audio archives are managed using two approaches: the curated collection, in which files are restricted to standard formats, and the ‘non-curated’ collection, which accepts any file type with no guarantees of long-term access.

The knowledge gathered during my travelling fellowship will be adopted into the National Library of Australia’s Digital Preservation Project, which will start in December 2006.

Further details of my study trip can be found on the blog: http://complexobjects.blogspot.com/.

Somaya Langley
Digital Preservation Officer
National Library of Australia