Audiovisual materials - smith-special-collections/sc-documentation GitHub Wiki

This page provides guidance on describing audiovisual material in both analog and born-digital form.

There are two key fields we use to track A/V materials, and to clearly describe them to users: Titles and Extents

Title

Title should include a word or brief phrase that identifies the form of communication that the material takes (but not the exact carrier) as well as its content. Including the form of communication is not required at the item level if the series/sub-series the item is part of consists of one form, and the series/sub-series title reflects that form. Using archivists' judgment, you may choose to include this information at the item-level regardless. For example:

Video recordings of episodes 1-210

"You and your mother" sound recording

The following are examples of a/v formats, which should be included in titles:

• video recording
• film recording
• sound recording

The why behind this practice: Users need to know the form of communication to understand whether a resource fits their research needs. Interacting with ArchivesSpace via the PUI rather than via a traditional finding aid can make users miss hierarchical context. The why behind using the term film recording rather than the AAT term motion picture: but we find that term too ambiguous. Laypeople understand that term mostly to mean feature films rather than anything recorded on film.

Extent

Extent should indicate the number of items being described, as well as a plain-English description of the carriers at a minimum. Examples:

Number: 2 Type: Items Container Summary: Two Beta-SP videocassettes

Number: 60 Type: Items Container Summary: 30 VHS cassette tapes and 30 DVDs

Optional information that may be included in a more detailed extent statement includes:

• transcription of the item's label
  • include in the Container Summary after the plain-English description of the carriers and preceded by a semicolon
• information on color content ("color" or "black and white"), sound content ("sound" or "silent"), film type (e.g. acetate), or sound type (e.g. fullcoat mag)
  • include in the Physical Details section of the extent statement, in the following order, with each piece of information separated by a space semicolon space: color content ; sound content ; film type ; sound type
• dimensions of the film gauge
  • include in the Dimensions section of the extent statement and spell out the dimension label (“inch” not “in.” or ‘). Note that "mm" is not considered an abbreviation.

Examples:

1 items (1 film reel; label reads "Introduction to the Enemy, 2B Head Cap") : color ; silent ; acetate ; 16mm

Add an extent for the runtime if known. Example:

Number: 00:32:46 Type: HH:MM:SS_duration

The following are examples of a/v carriers, which should be included in extent container summaries:

• VHS videocassettes
• Audiocassettes
• LPs

The why behind this practice: We can report out on number and carriers of our audiovisual content to better understand what we have and to know where material that may need reformatting is in our collections.