Arrangement and Description of Audiovisual Materials

Certificate Eligibility: 
A&D
Credits: 
5 ARC, 0.75 CEU
Length: 
1 day
Format: 
In-Person
Max Attendees: 
30
Tier: 
Tactical and Strategic
Description: 

Learn how to arrange and describe analog sound, video, and film materials found in mixed-media archival collections over two 4-hour sessions. Day 1 will focus on understanding analog audiovisual media with sections on understanding the lifecycle of different types of audiovisual records, pre-processing assessment, and physical and intellectual arrangement. On Day 2 we will focus primarily on description of audiovisual materials in finding aids, using EAD and DACS. Throughout the workshop we will virtually process a case study collection for a concrete application of skills discussed in the lectures.

Note: This course does NOT cover born-digital sound and video, audiovisual preservation, or digitization.

Learning Outcomes: 
Plan and implement processing of archival collections with audiovisual media
Identify and assess content and generation of archival audiovisual materials
Arrange audiovisual media physically and intellectually
Describe audiovisual media effectively according to DACS and EAD
Apply strategies for arrangement and description of media when processing at minimal, intermediate, and full levels
Who Should Attend: 

Archivists with processing experience who are new to audiovisual media, as well as media archivists who are new to traditional processing

What You Should Already Know: 

Participants should have working knowledge of the fundamentals of arrangement and description, as well as prior experience with Encoded Archival Description and Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS), and basic knowledge of analog audiovisual media carriers. A pre-recorded lecture on audiovisual formats will be provided in the course portal prior to the workshop for those interested.

A&D Core Competency: 
1. Arrangement: Understand the process of organizing materials with respect to their provenance and original order to protect their context and facilitate access.
2. Description: Analyze and describe details about the attributes of a record or collection of records to facilitate identification, management, and understanding of the work.
3. Descriptive Standards: Apply rules and practices that codify the content of information used to represent archival materials in discovery tools according to published structural guidelines.
4. Management: Demonstrate ability to manage physical and intellectual control over archival materials.
5. Discovery: Create tools to facilitate access and disseminate descriptive records of archival materials.
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