Surveying 105,000 audio visual magnetic media items

What’s Utaina?

National Library, Archives New Zealand and Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision are working together on a joint project known as Utaina, to convert physical audio and visual media into digital formats to preserve the country’s audiovisual heritage for future generations.

Getting prepared with a survey

Ahead of physically sending collection items to the Memnon team based in Lower Hutt, Wellington for digitisation, lots of work is being carried out behind the scenes. The busy team of Library Assistants are well underway in surveying the approximately 105,000 audio visual magnetic media. These range from cassettes and videos to phonographic records and open reel tapes. Each format has its own special requirements in handling and surveying.

Physical checks of each item

The surveys involve taking every item off the shelf to physically assess. The Library Assistants check:

• the physical condition of the item,

• that the catalogue records are correct, and

• provide any additional information that Memnon has requested for digitising, such as format or speed.

This work is crucial, as any issues or amendments need to be addressed prior to the items reaching the digitisation stage.

Caring for the items during physical checks

During the physical checks, the Library Assistants adhere to collection care standards to ensure the items are properly cared for and don’t sustain any damage. For each new format type, a session is run with the Senior Conservator Sound, Bronwyn Officer, to demonstrate correct handling. This differs between formats.

For example, phonographic records need to be held by the edges to avoid interfering with the grooves, while cassette tapes can be held by the plastic body of the tape, taking care to avoid the exposed tape at the bottom. Just like all collection items, these are taonga and are treated with care and respect.

Updating catalogue records

Where catalogue records need modifying, or the physical condition needs a conservator’s attention, those items are flagged in the survey. Lists are generated, and the items moved to the appropriate workstream.

We love barcodes

During the surveying process each item is given a barcode. This ensures that items don’t get lost as they move between the collection stores and the digitisation studio. Each item’s barcode will be scanned at every step in the journey in to a logistics tool. The item will be scanned:

• leaving the collection stores

• arriving at Memnon’s digitisation studio, and

• again on return.

Paired with this tool is the library’s standard practice of updating an item’s location on the catalogue or collection management system. This way, the item can be tracked at every step of its journey and a record is created of where and why it has changed location.

Joys of surveying

One of the joys of surveying has been coming across gems tucked away within the library collections. A couple of highlights in the phonograph collection have been the unexpected Yodelling down under: 33 golden greats, and (Trapped in life) x 2 by John Mewhinney, which features on the cover sleeve an image of Wellington city in which you can spot the ongoing construction of the National Library building on Molesworth Street.

The National Library featured on the cover of (Trapped in life) x 2. Ref: Norton Phono q 433. Alexander Turnbull Library. Photo by Cassie Richards.

Essential workers

The Library Assistants who have been carrying out this work are invaluable to the Utaina project. The information they are recording will deepen our understanding of our holdings and collections, greatly aid Memnon in efficiently digitising the huge collection of AV material and accelerate our capability to preserve our AV collections for future generations.

Thanks

Thanks to Cassie Richards for her contribution to this blog. Cassie Richards is a Library Assistant at the Alexander Turnbull Library.