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DIGITALIZATION RECONSIDERED A VIDEO GURU TAKES ON THE TECHNOCRATS
by Jim Lindner, Videopax
Taking a position against wholesale digitization of audio and videotape is
currently an unpopular stance. As calls ring throughout organizations to scan or
digitize anything and everything in or out of sight, one who suggests caution is
perceived as either a corporate anachronism or a hopeless computerphopbic. Iåm
neither, and while there are many cases where so-called Ãdigitizationå is
warranted, I believe there are also many cases where it is a poor decision.
While many arguments for digitization are propagated by vendors and corporate
technocrats (who may have agendas of their own), the reality is that there is no
"one" form of digitization, just as there is no one "truth". The major benefit
offered by digital migration is the lack of multi-generational loss making
successive copies. But a strategic and in-depth examination of the various
aspects of storing a large collection solely in the digital domain reveals that
such a process may be fraught with long-term risks. These risks may threaten
both the life and the integrity of the very material such a process is supposed
to protect, far outweighing any benefits digitization holds regarding
multi-generational loss. This article examines aspects of digitization, and
takes the admittedly controversial position that a singular digitization
strategy may not be - at this time - the panacea for our preservation woes that
is hoped for.
Techno-accuracy: Does 9.999568 = 10?
What do people mean when they talk about digitization? if one has the courage to
ask such a seemingly techno-ridiculous question of the local techno-guru, one
usually gets the patient and patent explanation that all the information is
nicely and neatly stored as ones and zeros, invulnerable and accurate throughout
time. Such an explanation is often offered as a technocratic security blanket, a
soothing mania if you will. And yet this familiar and seemingly comforting
thought is inaccurate in the sense that it ignores the process in which the
signal gets into those nice and neat ones and zeros in the first place; 2) the
process in which the signal is recorded to the media (most media is inherently
analog); 3) the process whereby the signal is reconstructed from those ones and
zeros; and 4) the many variables in between.
A case in point is video digitization, where the technology of image compression
is used. These techniques are deemed necessary for many applications because at
the current technological moment computer memory is too expensive and processors
and busses to slow to deal with the onslaught of uncompressed data. Although
some systems can store uncompressed video, these systems are very costly and
store very short amounts of information - usually numbered in seconds, not
hours.
The compression used in video is termed Ãlossy compressionå, meaning that it is
acceptable to throw away some of the information. Lossy compression tries to
throw out redundant or visually Ãunimportantå information to reduce the size and
speed of data represented in an image. Once this information is compressed away,
it is no more.
If that were not bad enough, the results of those using the same compression
techniques vary widely. Pictures compressed with JPEG (a popular lossy
compression technique) differ significantly between manufacturerså systems due
to specific implementation. Further, with the motion JPEG used in video
compression, the results can vary from frame to frame -depending on content and
the ability of the computer processor to keep up with the ocean of information
that is presented to it for quick digestion.
Different algorithms have different artifacts some which are apparent in the
first generation, others which wonåt appear until many generations later. These
artifacts can affect the detail within an image, or even the apparent motion of
the image.
So, which compression algorithm is currently the best? Each of the manufacturers
will tell you theirs is.
The reality is that we live in an analog world, and the digitization process is
merely taking a sample of that world - a digital snapshot Manufacturers selling
these systems often compare the visual quality to other analog formats, but the
fact is that these systems are using an entirely different series of techniques
to store and retrieve picture information.
Itås a Question of Standards
Anyone who has ever used a scanner to digitize a paper document can testify to
the fact that it is often impossible to get the exact scan twice. One could
point to many reasons for this problem: the resolution of the sample (or scan),
the color temperature of the lamps during the scan, the amount and distribution
of bits available to represent the color (even black and white have color are
there enough bits to represent the depth of the blacks?), whether the color
space is compressed in any way, whether there are optics in the scanner, and if
so what are the distortions across the field (very few lenses are perfect) ...
you get the point.
One of the reasons there are some many different scanners on the market is that
each has different characteristics and will therefore produce a slightly
different scan. Indeed, from a purist perspective, it would be virtually
impossible to get the same exact scan of a single document from two different
serial numbers of the same exact model from a single manufacturer.
A scan is a series of samples, and decisions are made by (and for) you that can
alter the accuracy of that sample. Since no scan can be identical to the
original, depending on many variables it may be a very good or very bad series
of samples. How good, or how bad, depends upon your yardstick - how you define
what is Ãgood enoughå.
Furthermore, what may be judged to be Ãgood enoughå by todayås standards will
certainly not be good enough in the near future. As processors and memory
systems get smaller, faster, and cheaper the tradeoffs that we are currently
making in the digitization process today will become totally unnecessary in the
future. These tradeoffs may rob our future of information that is important for
future processes and techniques as well. With lossy compression, for example,
some of the information lost could conceivably be used in digital noise
reduction, which may rely on high frequency data to apply algorithms for signal
reconstruction and improvement
Is Migration for the Birds?
One argument favoring digitization is based upon the assumption that once the
material has been digitized, it can be effortlessly and perfectly migrated from
one technology to the next. Some experts have recently gone so far as to suggest
throwing put old equipment because of the purported ease with which digitized
images can be migrated to future technologies.
That would be an interesting and comforting thought, provided that there was a
single migration path for sampled (or any) data, and that application software
will be forever backward compatible. But what would be the likelihood of that
ever occurring?
One need only look to the current state of digital video for a possible answer.
There are several competing companies offering digital encoders and decoders,
all translating within the same digital standard. The prices of these systems
can vary by tens of thousands of dollars - and not surprisingly, so do their
picture quality as well. Although there are standards in which the order of the
information being transmitted is defined, how you encode or decode (digitize)
the video is NOT defined but left to the market to determine. Going further,
digital video converters between different standards (D2 to Dl for example) from
different manufacturers produce output that actually looks different!
File format translators are another huge problem. Some file formats do not have
enough information for other formats, in which case one must "extrapolate" -
take a good guess - at what the data might be. In addition, changing market
conditions dictate that file formats evolve over time - adding new features and
dropping unpopular ones - which make file format migration programs an imperfect
science at best
How many times have we heard "Just put it on a CD"? Exactly which CD format are
we talking about, and which software is used to record and play back the
information? Is it yellow book? Red book? What application is used, and what
guarantee do we have that the application software will be around 50 years from
now?
Currently, one of the biggest problems in the CD authoring market is
incompatibility between different computer platforms for graphic performance. In
fact, many Ãmulti-mediaå computers cannot play some of the CDs that were made
just a few.
How can we be naive enough to think that all of the systems will eventually be
compatible, particularly with the knowledge that the sampling techniques used to
put the information on the disk in the first place is a rapidly evolving
technology? Clearly, migrating one technology to the next is a far more complex
issue than is immediately apparent.
Media Failure Means Never Having to Deal With That Information Again!
Historically speaking, media failure is one the biggest problems facing
information retrieval today - digital or analog. During one meeting where a
corporate expert was giving a presentation on the archival advisability of
storing all of the companyås library on recordable CDs, I took the liberty of
doodling on the top surface of a CD. When the meeting was done, I asked the
individual to play back he CD, and when the machine spat out the disk a
catastrophic failure causing all the information on it to be lost he stared at
the disc.
When he realized what my artistry had done, he cried foul. I responded that in
the real world, objects do get dropped, scratched, overheated, ver humidified,
and occasionally doodled upon. Of course, media failure can affect any
information storage technology, which is why disaster planning and strategic
duplication is vital. This being the case, then why is one media being offered
as a single preservation strategy, particularly since CD-R was not invented with
an archival application in mind in the first place? In my opinion, a technology
that uses index tracks to map out the location of all the information on the
disk is extremely vulnerable to catastrophic loss - and therefore unsuitable for
an archival application.
Whatås a Non-Technocrat to Do?
What then is the solution? The answer is to realize that there is not ONE
solution, but rather to recognize that relying on any one media in a period of
rapid technological innovation is a gamble - as apt to be the wrong choice as it
is the right The best have multiple strategies that take into account that all
media is subject to failure, that migration is not guaranteed to be possible or
even advisable over the years, and that any wholesale commitment to a single
technology is certain to fail.
Multiple strategies offer a much higher probability for survival because in the
case of loss or technological obsolescence there are other possibilities for
recovery. In this light, digitization should be considered an element of this
multi-media approach, and not the all-encompassing solution it is being hailed
as.
to top of 1995
MANAGING THE LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS OF ELECTRONIC MAIL RECORDS
by Donald Ghostlaw (Caruso, Murry, & Ghostlaw)
Electronic mail ("E-mail") is clearly one of the fastest growing forms of
communication in the 1990s. According to one recently published estimate, the
trend will continue long into the twenty-first century. With the rate of new
Internet users growing exponentially, E-mail is frequently displacing the
telephone as the communications mode of choice, for cost if nothing else.
For the price of a local telephone call and a modest fee to an Internet service
provider, it is possible to communicate globally over the Net for much less than
it would cost to communicate with the same people via long distance telephone. I
believe that from most userså perspective, E-mail more closely resembles the
telephone than it does the traditional "memo" or letter. Thus, E-mail often
becomes the equivalent of digitally stored conversations.
This unique characteristic of E-mail raises many legal challenges that may be
managed at least in part by the electronic records archivist.
E-mail has some unique characteristics that distinguish it from other forms of
communication.
Informality: Consider how much less formal you are when you compose your E-mail
messages than you are with a formal memo or letter. Many people, myself
included, consider E-mail to be a typewritten version of what they would
otherwise say to the recipient(s) during a telephone conversation. The only
thing missing is the tone of the authorås voice, If lam sending E-mail to a
client, I will certainly be as courteous and careful as I would be to that
client over the telephone. But if I am sending an E-mail message to a friend or
colleague that I know well, there will be little difference between an E-mail
"conversation" and a telephone conversation, When communications are held in
such an informal manner, they are often written with less care or concern for
the potential downstream implications to the individual or organization.
Userså Sense of Privacy and Security: E-mail records are typically composed on a
system where the user feels "secure" that the communication will remain
confidential. This security comes from the perception that a trusted recipient
will not forward a sensitive message to others in the organization, combined
with the fact that the user must generally log into the E-mail system with a
private password, which provides control over a small space within the computer
that the user believes to be his or her exclusive domain. This is very often not
the case, since many, many employers engage in some form of E-mail monitoring.
Nonetheless, the feeling of security and privacy that the typical user feels is
very similar to the feeling of privacy that one generally expects on the
telephone, which again leads to a certain degree of informality.
A Combination of Substantive and Non-Substantive Content: While I stand by my
premise that E-mail is very similar to the telephone from the userås
perspective, there is the other side to E-mail. Many people use E-mail as their
principal form of communication, and never write formal memos or letters. The
substance of their work lies in their E-mail communications. Some of what they
send and receive in E-mail form is therefore just as valuable to the
organization as the formal memos and letters stored in filing cabinets.
While one can argue that E-mail conversations closely resemble telephone
conversations in many, if not most respects, most records managers are not
charged with archiving the substance (as opposed to statistical information) of
telephone calls.
The reasons are quite simple. In most organizations, telephone calls are not
recorded and saved. Where they are recorded, with few exceptions they are done
so only for training and quality control purposes, usually under state and even
federal telephone monitoring laws and the archival value of such recordings is
typically viewed as very low.
Also, capturing and preserving voice data has traditionally been more costly and
impractical than digital data (although that may be changing rapidly with more
sophisticated compression technology that allows voice data to be stored
digitally in a much smaller space than previously possible). There is also the
element of privacy, and freedom from the "Big Brother" intrusion of telephone
recording that allows people to conduct business freely, without concern that
their every call is being recorded and preserved.
An Archival Challenge
The question that every organization should ask is whether E-mail records should
be preserved for any length of time, and if so, how to select the E-mail records
to be archived. While many E-mail records will have certain archival value to an
organization, there is a strong argument that most will not, and that they can
cause your organization more trouble than they are worth.
For example, consider an organization comprised of 10,000 E-mail users. If each
user sends an average of just 10 messages each day to only one person per
message (a purposefully conservative estimate to illustrate my point), there
exists the potential for 100,000 E-mail messages each day.
The challenge to the archivist is distinguishing the difference between E-mail
that has archival value and that which has no archival value (e.g., "are you
free for lunch today?"). This distinction if it is to be made at all, is to be
made among thousands and thousands of E-mail records that may pass through your
organization on an daily basis.
E-Mail Records are Discoverable as Evidence in a Law Suit
My experience shows that most E-mail users are shocked to learn that their
E-mail records are discoverable in a court of law, although I think that a
growing number of users are becoming sensitized to the discoverability issue.
Although there are the traditional hurdles of establishing electronically-stored
records as business records kept in the ordinary course and establishing that
the digital data has not been corrupted or altered in any way, most courts at
both the state and federal levels are routinely accepting E-mail records as
evidence.
Since E-mail frequently is written in a more relaxed form, and often when
presented out of context can take on different meanings than the author
originally intended, it can be very dangerous to preserve en masse for any
length of time.
An Effective E-Mail Purging Policy
Since it is illegal to destroy or otherwise alter any records once they become
the subject of litigation or even possible litigation, it is critical that your
organization establish a comprehensive, consistently followed E-mail purging
policy. It is also possible for you as the archivist to integrate an E-mail
record archival plan into that purging policy.
For example, your organization can provide employees with an option to
electronically designate certain records for archival purposes, with an
understanding among users that the default in the absence of such a designation
is that the records will be purged according to a pre-set schedule. Consider the
following elements to a comprehensive E-mail purging program:
I have counseled clients who established a purging program whereby records that
are thirty days old or older are automatically purged from the system every
weekend and backed up to tape (whether they have been read by the recipient or
not). The records reside for another sixty days on the backup tapes before the
tapes are erased. No E-mail record within the entire organization that isnåt
marked either for archives or as part of ongoing litigation exists for more than
ninety days. In some organizations where there are different E-mail systems
operating on different local and wide area networks, designing and implementing
such a program is no small feat, but it can be accomplished through upper
management support and careful coordination.
The program must be effectively communicated to employees (particularly those
who conduct a substantial portion of their work via E-mail and those who retain
records for diary purposes). Employees should be encouraged to archive E-mail
only when it has significant real or potential value to the organization. They
should be informed that E-mail is discoverable, and to use the "front page" test
when composing their E-mail. If you wouldnåt want to see it on the front page of
the local newspaper, then donåt send it.
Remember that backup tapes are just as discoverable as records that still reside
on the system. Also, it is important to keep in mind that records that are
simply erased from a personal computer hard disk may still be retrievable until
they are physically written over. Many lawyers are aware of that technicality
and will attempt to force a party responding to discovery to check for erased
but unpurged (or "wiped") records, or the attorney may hire a company to scan
such "erased" records looking for old E-mail. A comprehensive program includes
software that will physically erase records completely.
By far the most important element of an effective E-mail purging program is
consistency. The program should be put in writing and followed consistently
throughout the organization or the organization risks raising eyebrows in the
event that its E-mail records are involved in litigation. A comprehensive, well
documented and consistently followed E-mail purging policy should endure the
scrutiny of the court much more easily than a policy that is followed only when
it appears that a law suit is brewing. It is also critical that E-mail records
that are involved in actual or potential litigation are not purged accidentally
as part of the regular program. Not only should there be a mechanism for marking
records to be archived, there should also be a way to mark records that need to
be preserved on a shorter term basis at least until the conclusion of a relevant
law suit and perhaps even a way to mark certain records as falling under the
attorney-client privilege to make it easier to distinguish those during
discovery.
There are often regulatory restrictions against destroying certain records
before a specified period of time. For example, you should have counsel check
the regulations published by the Internal Revenue Service, Securities and
Exchange Commission and state and federal Departments of Labor, in addition to
being aware of the Freedom of Information Act record retention requirements.
While E-mail often does not represent the type of record for which these
regulations require retention, the organization should be aware of the
requirements imposed by these regulations, and build appropriate guidelines into
its E-mail purging program.
Current Trends
If the growing number of E-mail records traveling within and outside of your
organization isnåt enough to convince you that a combination purging and
archival program is essential to most organizations, the fact that E-mail
records are rapidly changing in both source and character should.
Gone are the days when text-based E-mail sent only over internal local area
networks is the only form of E-mail communication. As employee access to the
Internet expands, and the costs of purchasing multimedia computer hardware
drops, the legal considerations surrounding E-mail are expanding.
First, consider the source of E-mail. More and more companies are doing business
not only on local area networks, but also over the Internet and on wide area
networks that span interstate boundaries. For example, one of the ways that an
employer was reasonably certain that E-mail monitoring without notice to
employees was relatively risk-free was that there was a lack of state statutes
addressing the issue, and the federal wiretap statute did not apply because the
messages were all intrastate over local area networks. It is now possible,
although there have been no cases thus far directly on point, that such
monitoring of messages sent across state lines (over a WAN or the Internet) in
the absence of a clearly stated policy regarding E-mail monitoring may fall
under the federal wire tap statute.
Likewise, an E-mail retention program that records and preserves interstate
E-mail messages that are later reviewed by the organization for any reason may
be seen by the courts as a form of ad hoc monitoring. At the very least, the
organization should be aware of the emerging legal trends that apply to
monitoring when developing its E-mail purging and archival program.
The character of E-mail is also changing rapidly. It is now routine in many
organizations to attach multimedia elements to E-mail records. These can include
digitally stored sound, graphics, animation and even film clip files that are
sent together with the traditional text, all of which are accessible to any
recipient who has multimedia capabilities on his or her workstation.
When combined with expanding Internet access capabilities, these multimedia
components do not necessarily have to be the original work of the E-mail
author/sender. The author can download multimedia components, for example, from
the World Wide Web (which by its very design is intended to carry many different
forms of media), some legally and many that have been posted illegally and may
infringe otherså intellectual property rights. The author can then distribute
such records all over the organization.
Not only are multimedia records considerably larger and more costly to store
than simple text-based records, there is potential for contributory or actual
copyright and trademark infringement within the organization. For example,
consider the sales representative in the field who has been sent an E-mail
containing many multimedia components, including other companieså trademarks and
some copyrighted materials. These materials may have been posted somewhere on
the Internet without the trademark or copyright ownerås permission;å
Assume that the person who composed the E-mail and sent it to the sales rep and
the sales rep himself did not know that the intellectual property components of
the E-mail message were infringing. Since the trademarks and copyrights were
available on the Internet, everyone involved assumed that the material must be
in the public domain, and it would be all right for the sales rep to integrate
the trademarked and copyrighted work into his multimedia lap top sales
presentation routinely presented to prospective customers. Assume further that
the original E-mail message that contained the infringing elements was
permanently archived within the organization.
It is easy to see that as the sales rep continues to "innocently" infringe by
showing his lap top presentation (innocent infringement is not a valid defense
to a copyright or trademark infringement action), the company who has archived
the original record so it is clearly available for discovery in the ensuing law
suit has stumbled into a legal battle in part because it did not have a
well-conceived, well-publicized E-mail policy of any sort.
Organizational Gap = Archival Opportunity
I recognize that the issues Iåve presented perhaps go farther than the direct
concerns of the average electronic records archivist. But armed with an
understanding of the importance of implementing an organizational policy
regarding E-mail, as it applies to (i) the composition of records, (ii) the
monitoring of records and particularly (iii) the purging/archiving of records,
you are in a better position to assist your organization in the development of
such policies and programs. I believe strongly that the archivist should have an
active role in the development of such policies as E-mail becomes a more
important part of the essence, both present and historical, of the organization.
to top of 1995
OUCH! LETåS SEE THAT AGAIN! ACCESS TO MOVING IMAGES AT NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
PRODUCTIONS
by Mott Linn, Manager of Video Services National Hockey League Productions
My department at NHL Productions is essentially that of a stock footage house.
From a collection of some 7000 videotapes and film reels, I supply customers
with copies (dubs) of unique performances by some of the best athletes in the
world. Clients can be either internal, such as for league promotional spots and
highlight tapes, or external, such as for commercial use by other companies.
Since response time is of premium importance, I have had to come to terms with
how to provide rapid access to the collection.
Bonecrushing Hits: Basics of Physical Access
When dealing with moving images, access is even more critical than in most
archives because just gaining physical control of an item can be a challenge.
With motion picture film, as is the case with microforms, in a worse case
scenario one can still view it using a relatively simple magnification process.
With videotapes and disks, however, one can not view the material without proper
equipment.
Despite the relatively short life span of videotape, in all too many formats the
recording material may outlast its playback decks. With so many new and better
formats constantly appearing on the market, the outmoded technologies fall out
of use - and replacement parts for the decks are no longer produced. Eventually,
the machines can no longer function, thus creating the ultimate access
restriction.
As a consequence, archivists who have moving images in their collections must
always be aware of what formats they have and how they can be viewed. For
example, in a previous position in Philadelphia, I had some two inch tapes, a
format for which there were only three playback decks in the entire city. Before
I lost access to this type of machine entirely, I hurriedly had the tapes dubbed
into a 3/4 inch format which I did have a deck for. Although the transfer cost
me a small amount of image quality - an increasing problem for each successive
Ãgenerationå of dub removed from the original - I ensured that the image could
be accessed for years to come.
Like other archival materials, once access is granted to a patron one must make
sure that the format is handled properly. In this case, this pertains not only
to the actual handling of the item but also to ensuring that the playback decks
are in proper working order. If not, they could irreparably damage the tapes.
You Need a Scorecard: Formats
It is important to recognize that some tape formats are more useful than others,
although not for the reasons you might think. Clearly, one inch tape is one of
the more archival alternatives on the market - it is broadcast quality, and
perfectly suited for use as a master (i.e. a first generation dub that would be
used to dub all successive generations from.) But one inch uses an inconvenient
reel format that involves bulky recording and playback equipment.
A much more convenient format is 1/2 inch VHS. It is very easy to handle, so
widely used that it is likely to have a very extended phase-out period should it
ever be superseded by another technology, and so easy to dub that most people
with the right equipment could do it themselves.
But VHS is not a broadcast quality tape, as anyone who watches shows like
Americaås Funniest Home Videos can attest - so it is not a viable format to
create a master copy on. Nonetheless, VHS still has significant archival use
because its relatively low cost and ease of handling make an ideal format for
dubbing viewing copies onto. When you want to provide access to your images
while still protecting the original, VHS is a great choice.
Currently, one of the best marriages of convenience and quality is the Beta SP
format Beta SP is a cassette format, and aside from the higher cost of tape and
equipment, it exhibits many of the advantages of VHS. Yet it is a broadcast
quality tape, approaching the level of the one inch format Beta SP is the choice
of the production people here at NHL Productions, and is one of the better
alternatives you can use for producing masters.
Seeing All of the Ice: Intellectual Control
At NHL Productions it is critical that we be able to quickly access the images
we wish to retrieve. To do this, we, like many archives have a computerized
cataloguing system. The software we use, SISCOM (out of Boulder, Colorado), is
specifically designed for logging moving images.
This software allows us to include many different types of parameters in the
search. For example, we can access parameters like what kind of event is
documented, when the event took place, who was involved, which television
station recorded the event, how tightly framed the shot is, and from what angle
it was shot
But even with these specific search parameters, you can still spend a lot of
time viewing a 60-minute tape for the few seconds of action that your customer
wants to use. Here is where the value of a tailored software product really
becomes evident It has the capability of logging events by the time code that
most current production-quality formats employ, so we can quickly that one
perfect shot of that one magnificent play. The time this feature saves us on our
searches more than offsets the added time this Ãitem-level descriptionå
philosophy costs us during the initial cataloguing - not to mention the good
will rapid access accrues with the customer!
Same Game ... Just Different Uniforms
As you can see, many of the basic concerns of the moving image archivist are
similar to those of other archivists. The difference comes in the details.
Instead of dealing with patrons mistreating documents or acidic paper, moving
image archivists are concerned with poorly maintained machines mutilating tapes
and lost generations of images.
to top of 1995
AN EYE ON THE PAST, A WINDOW TO THE FURTURE: YESTERDAY ÃS FASHIONS AT THE
BUTTERICK ARCHIVES
by Sherry Onna Handlin, The Winthrop Group
In 1863, inspired by his wife Ellen as she bent to the time-consuming task of
designing clothing for their son, Ebenezer Butterick created a cardboard
template for childrenås clothes. Soon, the first sewing patterns -designs for
men and boys - were being cut, folded, and sold by the Butterick family from
their home in Sterling Massachusetts. Three years later, in 1866, Butterick
began manufacturing womenås dress patterns in New York City.
Ebenezer Butterickås invention had a significant and far-reaching effect - it
greatly democratized American fashion. Before the introduction of his
home-sewing patterns, the world of New York and Parisian fashion remained the
exclusive domain of the wealthy. However, the advent of Butterickås guides
-along with innovations in sewing technology -made the latest styles accessible
to men, women and children throughout 19th-century society.
Threads in Time
The Butterick Archives was created over 25 years ago, and today contains a rich,
diverse collection of source materials which chronicle the his/her story of
fashion from 1863 to the present. In addition, Butterick publications address
areas of social history as well as tracking political and economic developments
through the decades. A particular strength is the way these writings reflect the
transformation of womenås lives and roles in society. How issues like health,
education, child care, nutrition, physical culture, arts, and the sciences were
treated in Butterick publications helps to reveal how peopleså lives were and
continue to be impacted by social change.
One of the strongest elements of the collection is its visual materials. For
example, the 19th-century illustrations in Butterick magazines - the remarkable
engravings and chromolithographs of notable printmakers like Louis Maurer and
the Curriers - shed light on the history of printmaking and publishing in
America. And the fascinating cover art - the work of such accomplished artists
as Maude Humphrey Bogart, F.X. Leyendecker, Karl Kleinshmidt, Ert~, and others -
exhibits extemely high quality graphics.
Highlighting Butterick publications is The Delineator, a wide-ranging magazine
that ran from 1872-1937 and was published in several languages. The Delineator
printed the work of leading artists, authors, and other public figures. Its
contributors included Theodore Dreiser (who edited the publication from
1907-1910), Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ida Tarbell, Julia Ward Howe, Edith
Wharton, Ethel Barrymore, Marie Curie, Rudyard Kipling, Woodrow Wilson, and many
others!
From Historical Resource to Creative Catalyst
Putting out an Archives Memo from Butterickås collection means dipping into a
treasure trove of many textures: publications, patterns, slides, artwork, and
artifacts, to name a few. The one-page Memos are occasional publications which
highlight the content of the collection, and point to potential uses. The
Archives, as part of the Promotion department, is meant to be a source of
inspiration for people throughout the company who are working with contemporary
ideas and trends. Vintage materials can aid in the recall of older design ideas,
and also lend a feel for past periods to current company projects. This includes
in-house publishing as well as cooperative and international projects.
The most recent Memo (Fall 1994) presented an overview of the growth of women
and athletics in America. Through the depiction of the attire worn for specific
activities such as dance, gym work, horseback riding, basketball, and tennis,
information regarding the development of the actual discipline itself was
revealed. The topic of athletic wear of the past is echoed by current concerns
about achieving greater health and vitality through a balanced approached to
physical exercise. The pursuit of harmony through physical and psychological
awareness continues to be a constant natural resource for us all.
Donåt Toss That Leisure Suit!
To discover the Butterick Archives is to experience the thread of his/herstory
in relation to the expansive concerns and contributions of women to society and
world culture. The variety of imagery and text evokes many responses: humor,
nostalgia, respect for great design, and a recognition of elegance in its many
forms - all sharing their creative past with the present.
to top of 1995
OF DEAD MOVIE STARS AND MIDNIGHT PHONE CALLS: SERVING THE REFERENCE NEEDS OF A
GLOBAL ORGANIZATION
by Amy Fischer, Corporate Archivist, Procter & Gamble
"Whatås the right-to-publicity law in Italy for photos of dead movie stars? We
want to use the Archiveså photos of them applying makeup in our advertising."
"Our biggest customer in Australia is doing a promotion, and needs to create
Matchbox cars with the Vicks VapoRub logo. Tomorrow"
Questions like these are increasingly familiar to corporate archivists in North
America. At Procter & Gamble, requests from outside the United States now
represent about a quarter of our reference activity. As corporate archivists, we
recognize the need to change in order to meet the changing needs of our
companies. As our companies establish foreign operations, this means adapting
ourselves to serve international users.
Of course, international subsidiaries and joint ventures are nothing new; P&G
established its first international subsidiary in 1915. But the overseas growth
of North American companies really began in the postwar decades of the 1950s and
l960s. Until recently, the employees responsible for that growth were still
employed and able to provide historical perspective and serve as the corporate
memory. But as these original players retire, current employees are beginning to
rely on the corporate archives for historical information.
In light of these reference trends, I contacted the corporate archivists at six
multinationals to get a feel for what constitutes state-of-the-an reference
service for their global constituencies. For them, it all starts with
Who Are The Users? What Do They Need?
International users may not know the archives exists, and may arbitrarily
contact anyone at headquarters they know. If the contact is familiar with the
archives, the foreign user is in luck, but if not an information need goes unmet
The importance of outreach -or at least consciousness-raising - can not be
overemphasized.
The corporate archivists I spoke with about international reference service
reported seamless transitions between domestic and international users - that
is, domestic employees relay questions from foreign operations. In some cases,
cultural variances prevent employees from approaching the archives because it is
seen as part of the "Corporate Headquarters" - some vast unapproachable entity.
In others, non-English speaking employees will relay their requests through
another person.
In these instances the archivist, by not knowing who the ultimate user of the
information is, may not be able to bring the full resources of the archives to
bear on what the requester really needs. This breakdown in communication
emphasizes the significance of adequate reference interviewing. Nuances of
language and culture invariably lead to misunderstandings, which places added
importance on clarifying exactly what the client is asking as well as why they
need the information in order to eliminate subsequent rework.
Global users, obviously, cannot stroll into corporate archives to obtain
historical information, and the concept of overnight delivery does not exist
when sending materials across oceans, date links, and political borders. We
inadvertently find ourselves becoming experts of customs laws, which differ
widely between countries.
I learned the nuances of Japanese customs law the hard way when half of an
exhibit I had shipped a month ahead of time was not released from customs until
the day after the exhibit opening. Despite the combined expertise of P&Gås
customs offices in both the U.S. and Japan, no one knew that items of historical
antiquity over a certain monetary value could not be received by just anybody.
We had to scramble to locate specific employees to personally claim the items
from customs.
Most archivists I spoke to rely on e-mail, and corporate e-mail networks in
particular, to receive requests from outside North America. While e-mail is the
preferred method for receiving requests, the fax is the favorite for sending the
information to answer them. When the need for real time communication arises
thereås the long-distance telephone call, an option which is prone to creating
more misunderstandings than it resolves, usually expensive, and always
inconvenient. I have lost count of the number of times I have struggled to stay
awake and coherent in order to reach an Asian colleague at the start of their
business thy, late into the night for me.
While there is no sure remedy for avoiding miscommunication in any phase of the
reference transaction from the interview to the thank-you letter, experience and
common sense can provide a few helpful guidelines. The archivist should talk to
as many people as possible, as often as possible. Documenting every action taken
- what is being sent, to whom, when, and where - is crucial. Itås also important
to make sure the user has reasonable expectations about delivery times - users
should plan for several days to pass before they receive any material that can
not be faxed or emailed. And do not - repeat, do not - lose that sense of humor
when things start to go awry.
What We Can Do For Them
Procter & Gamble is fortunate in that its foreign operations are not shy about
contacting the Archives directly. Over 50% of the international requests
received by the P&G Archives are from advertising or public relations people
requesting information and images for press kits or live press events to support
the launch of a new product and traveling product exhibits to individual country
organizations. For our Japan Max Factor business, the Archives supported the
product launch by hosting visiting beauty magazine editors at the Max Factor
Museum. We also created an exhibit of product advertising and photographs, which
was displayed in Tokyo for a month and viewed by 38,000 visitors. An archivist
was also present at press conferences to serve as "historical experts" and guide
VIPs through the exhibit.
At P&G, the businesses realized that promoting the history of Max Factor would
raise its credibility with the press and consumers, and the Archiveså support of
these marketing activities helped acquaint the world with the Max Factor legacy.
Other corporate archivists reported similar uses of their collections by
international users. Kraft Foods, Inc., for example, reported that most of their
overseas requests are for visual material and product histories to support
marketing efforts.
Another important use by P&Gås international clients is studying previous
product bunches to copy successes and learn from failures. For example, P&Gås
overseas operations have studied share growth resulting from third-party
endorsements of company products in order to recreate those successes in their
countries. Conversely, the P&G Archives have already received requests from
domestic brands wanting to recreate other countries successes, and we realize
that we have to document these overseas efforts in order to better serve our
U.S. clients in the future.
Some of the most important international requests have nothing to do with
specific product marketing. The Archives is often called upon to help translate
the culture and values of the company for potential joint-venture partners or
key international customers. For these requests, we talk to these people
one-on-one, provide tours, and provide them with information emphasizing that
P&G is an established company with a long and successful history. In countries
where our competitors may be 200 years old, demonstrating that P&G is not a
fly-by-night newcomer - and that it cares enough about its history to maintain a
corporate archives - carries significant marketing weight.
This fact is not lost on other multinational corporations as well. The Motorola
Archives took the proactive step of translating their company history into nine
languages, and selling it through their catalog museum store. The staff at the
Phillips Petroleum Archives created a ready-to-show exhibit of the companyås
history for its Puerto Rico offices.
Meeting Future Needs: Who Does What?
As information providers, archivists need to become familiar with these global
users not only to better serve their current needs, but to anticipate and meet
their future requirements. This means identifying and acquiring significant
historical material from both domestic and foreign operations.
It is almost a truism that a good records management program is crucial to
obtaining documentation from international subsidiaries. However, for companies
without a comprehensive records management program ¿like P&G-this is more
difficult in this scenario, it is important for archivists to cultivate contacts
with key overseas players.
But you canåt know the players without a scorecard. Not surprisingly, archivists
I spoke to knew less about their companyås overseas business than the domestic
side. If a corporationås foreign operations are a patchwork of subsidiaries,
joint ventures, and minority partnerships acquiring that scorecard could be nigh
well impossible. Even under the aegis of the same company, divisional structures
outside the U.S. may be organized completely differently.
At P&G we consider international networking as part of our basic outreach
function. For example, because I worked closely with P&Gås United Kingdom public
relations staff on a project, they understood my needs and referred me to
employees who had worked in the U.K. for companies P8cC) had acquired. These
contacts have been rich sources of historical information and materials
documenting acquired brands. By understanding the structure of P&G in each of
the geographic regions where we do business helps us identify appropriate people
to contact for records with long-term retention value.
Reflections on Distance Servicing
The growth of the global economy should serve as an incentive for archivists to
plan for the needs of international users. The problems of distance, language,
and differences in corporate and social cultures challenge archivists to find
creative ways to offer top quality reference service.
So what is the best a global corporate archives can hope for? It is not
practical to train archivists in the language and cultures of the countries
where a company does business, and few companies will grain the archivist
resources to travel to every company location to publicize the archives! But
archivists can begin to analyze international userså needs and plan staff and
budget resources to match. They can learn from experience which methods of
conveying information work better than others. They can encourage users to
inform their colleagues about the archiveså services. And they can remember that
sensitivity and patience go far to bridge cultural and language gaps.
to top of 1995
A CHOICE PROGRESS? OR PERPETUAL INFANCY? THE PIVOTAL ROLE FOR CORPORATE ARCHIVES
IN GLOBAL MARKETING OPERATIONS
by J. David Nail, International Marketing Consultant
George Santayana wrote in his The Life of Reason "Progress, far from consisting
in change, depends on retentiveness ... when experience is not retained, as
among savages, infancy is perpetual." I would expect that most business
archivists paraphrase this concept many times as they elaborate the particular
contribution their services can make to corporate goals. But as an outsider to
your profession, Santayanaås quote had little meaning for me beyond the highly
academic -until about six years ago.
It was 1989, and I was named Marketing Vice President of the International
Division of Aetna Life & Casualty, and insurance and financial services giant
based in Hartford, Connecticut. I had spent the previous 31 years in various
field and home office positions with the companyås domestic life insurance
operations -selling insurance, supervising insurance agents, and developing
agents training materials.
In my new role I was charged with the responsibility of supporting the marketing
and distribution efforts of Aetnaås ten affiliated companies in South America,
Central America, Europe, and Southeast Asia. It was in this capacity that I
discovered the invaluable role a strong archives could play in assisting a
company fulfill its corporate mission.
Turning Back the Clock
In many parts of the world, the multiple uses of life insurance products are
virtually unknown. For example, in parts of Asia, nearly 90 percent of the
population has no coverage whatsoever. However, as the economic boom being
experienced there progresses, the middle class - traditionally the buyers of
life insurance-will experience a corresponding level of growth, thus presenting
a tremendous sales opportunity for a life insurer.
We quickly recognized two important elements in these underdeveloped markets.
First, there was limited insurance expertise resident in many of the nations.
Second, the level of insurance marketing sophistication was, in most locales,
less than that in current domestic markets. In these foreign markets, the
insurance products that appealed to potential buyers were somewhat localizedå in
structure and, in many ways, quite similar to those sold in the United States
ten, twenty, and thirty years ago. Of more importance, the sales and marketing
techniques of that era were also applicable in these new markets.
Priming the Pump
Most international marketing executives like myself donåt know what treasures
the archives might hold, so it shouldnåt come as surprise that archivists may be
equally unfamiliar as to what items would be of interest to "us". Here are some
thoughts that might help get a productive
two-way relationship started.
History - Every employee of a non-U.S. affiliate is interested in the history of
the company they now represent. An historical time-line marking important
company events, complemented with still and moving images, will help place the
parent companyås history in the context of their own.
Marketing - Material once used in the States can have a whole new life in an
emerging market While you may not know what might work in a particular culture a
simple reminder of what you have can jog a memory and save a significant amount
of new development expense. Do make the effort to inform International of what
you have, because the "Re-creation of the Wheel" concept is never more prevalent
than in the penetration of new foreign markets.
Sales Training - Selling, with minor cultural differences, is the same most
everywhere you go. Therefore, sales training material - lesson plans, examples,
scripts - can all be used as a starting point for developing affiliate-specific
training programs.
Distribution Management Development ¿ DMD has become a highly sophisticated
activity for businesses here in the States. Many of these programs, be they
created in-house or acquired from outside vendors, can be of extreme value to
your companyås personnel in developing countries.
A word of caution, however: If these programs have purchased from a vendor, be
sure the contract with that organization does not restrict the programås use to
just the parent company. Should that be the case, an additional fee may be
required to extend its use - and translation - to an overseas affiliate.
Anticipating Future Needs
In my experience, there have been times when I couldnåt find materials that I
remembered using successfully in the 1960s and Ã7Os, which brings us to a second
domestic point I urge you to actively cultivate key members of the domestic
marketing operations of your companies. Encourage them to furnish you with
copies of items similar to those mentioned above as they are developed.
This will be a never-ending task, and frankly, I suspect, a thankless one which
wonåt be assigned a high priority by executives in your company. But keep trying
- it still pains me when I think about not being able to locate three particular
items from the Ã60s that Aetna never retained, and which had to be "re-created"
for Southeast Asia.
I would also suggest that you contact your companyås foreign affiliates and
gather materials from them. Obviously, it will be necessary to have a fairly
accurate description -in English - of the foreign language material that you
receive, a demand that will only make the acquisition process more difficult But
itås likely that these materials will be re-used as your company enters
countries with similar cultures, so itås worth the added effort
And remember - not all "good ideas" come from the States. At some time in the
future, your domestic customers may discover some real gems in the ideas youåve
collected from emerging markets around the world.
A Stitch in Time
Over the years I have enjoyed an excellent relationship with Aetnaås Archives,
one which has been of great value to me as Iåve worked with the sales and
marketing operations of companies around the globe. I would strongly encourage
those of you whose companies have international operations to develop working
relationships with the executives charged with world-wide marketing
responsibilities.
to top of 1995
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF SERENDIPITY: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING QUICK, FLEXIBLE, AND
PROACTIVE
by Susan C. Box, Corporate Archivist Phillips Petroleum Company
This is a story about how sometimes, no matter how hard you plan or work your
contacts, your success can hinge on something as unpredictable as who you sit
next to.
Last June, I attended a reception with a senior vice president at Phillips that
afforded me the opportunity to mention to him that the first employees the
company had hired in Norway were beginning to retire. I pointed out that this
created an interesting opportunity to use oral history to discover if there were
differences of opinion on the licensing and construction negotiations between
the Norwegians and their American counterparts now retired in the States.
He suggested I write a brief proposal for him to look at. At the time, I thought
he wasnåt that serious and so I didnåt follow up right away.
Two months later we bumped into each other in the hail at corporate
headquarters, and he stopped me to ask about the proposal. He indicated that he
was indeed serious about the project, as he thought he could learn things that
would be applicable to negotiations in other countries. I quickly wrote the
proposal, did background research, and formulated 30 questions as a starting
point I then met with him again to review the project, questions, and proposed
budget
In September I found myself on an airplane to Dallas as the start of a trip to
Norway and England. On the plane was another Phillips vice president who
casually inquired as to my destination. When he heard about the project he
insisted that I go to Belgium and get the story on our chemicals subsidiary as
well.
Since my trip was "on explorationås nickel," I told him that he would have to
pay for his part of the of the journey. I also pointed out that I had no
background material from which to devise my questions.
Where Thereås a Will
He returned to his seat and called his secretary on the airphone. The next thing
I knew he was back at my seat with a charge number, names of people to interview
in Overjise and Tessenderlo, Belgium, and an admonition to "Get to work!"
Needless to say, I did!
Phillipså travel department changed my reservations, my assistant sent
background material to my hotel in Stavanger, Norway, and I spent an entire
weekend working on questions for Belgium. Thank goodness it poured rain both
days! I returned with 17 hours of interviews on tape, and the prospect of
several more to do in the U.S. I was also able to take advantage of time in
various Phillips offices to review their records systems and send back files
that more appropriately belonged in the Corporate Archives.
A Win/Win Scenario
There were several winners here: the original executive, because the interviews
turned out better than expected - I suspect that we will learn that there really
is a difference between employee perspectives on the same company issues, based
upon nationality; the executive that "piggy-backed" onto the project, because it
cost him only one sixth of the total bill; and of course the archives, because
it gained increased exposure and credibility on both a corporate and
international level.
The moral of this story? Take advantage of every opportunity you have with
"funding agents" - executives with authority - to discuss your projects. Donåt
give up writing proposals even if you are downsizing, because itås probably a
permanent condition. Who knows, you may find yourself in seven European cities
for 14 days - all expenses paid!
