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Audiovisual Self-Assessment Program

Audiovisual Self-Assessment Program (AvSAP)

Do you have stacks of audiocassette tapes and no idea what to do with them? Do you want to know the best way to store your 16mm film collections and are unsure where to start? Do you have a limited preservation budget and want to spend it in the best way possible to preserve your audiovisual media items? The University of Illinois Library has developed the Audiovisual Self-Assessment Program (AvSAP) to address these and other media-related needs. The goal of AvSAP is to educate those who need assistance in caring for our shared cultural heritage AV materials while providing extensive assistance with distilled, centralized information about these materials.

AvSAP exists to assist cultural heritage institutions with audiovisual materials in their collections and staff who have little to no training in audiovisual preservation. AvSAP is also an excellent tool for those with experience with AV materials and its informational and advisory components can help fill out areas where the AV preservation expert could use some refreshers. Our goal is to help collections managers develop a prioritized preservation plan as well as educate them on extending the lives of their collections with the resources at hand. The scope of material AvSAP covers are: film, videotape (open-reel and cartridge based; analog and digital), audio recordings (extending from cylinder grooved media to disc; analog and digital) and optical media such as CD and DVD. AvSAP does not address issues related to still photographic processes or prints.

The Decision List

AvSAP is designed to generate suggestions on how to improve the preservation of collections and offer a prioritized preservation list or "decision list" based on the answers received from the self-guided survey which users complete. This list helps the user to more effectively make targeted AV preservation decisions with a limited budget. The decision list also aids the user in tracking the conditions of their AV collections.

Use and Downloading

Flexibility is a key component of AvSAP. Collection managers can decide if they'd like to download the program and host it on their own SQL server, if a server is available at their institution. They may also elect to work with AvSAP as a web-based interface; entering collection data via a web browser, with data archived by the University of Illinois.

Assessing Your Collections

The program collects data on repository, collection and item-levels and can be utilized to assess an entire repository on an item-level, or used for larger collections by working with a sample of a larger collection. Users answer these survey questions to evaluate several factors: repository and storage environments and item format, access, value.  As with any assessment, the more detail that is provided about collections and items, the more targeted and useful data is produced by the tool.

AvSAP is designed to be used by people with little to no training in audiovisual preservation. Its interface is informative and educational - providing extensive help in the form of informational "pop-ups" that a user can access while completing the survey. These information pop-ups will provide additional information (both graphic and textual) about issues related to general AV materials, identifying formats, issues specific to particular media and glossary information. The pop-ups also serve to clarify survey questions.

Archon: Partner Project to AvSAP

Archivists and programmers with the University of Illinois Archiveshave built the base of AvSAP program using the open-source archival description tool Archon. The use of Archon as the foundation of AvSAP benefits each project in that they work independently or cohesively, providing description support and additional functionality to the end user. For more information about the Archon project, please see the Archon Project homepage.

Who Developed the AvSAP

The University of Illinois, led by the University of Illinois Library has several departments that will serve as test-beds and advisers for the project: The University of Illinois Archives, WILL AM/FM/TV, The Spurlock Museum, University of Illinois departments such as the Department of Dance, The Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and the Illinois Heritage Association. A generous National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS) supports the project. The development of the program began in May of 2007 and the project will be completed in the Spring of 2010.

Other Audiovisual Assessment Tools

The AvSAP exists as part of a growing tapestry of audiovisual assessment tools. These other tools fit very specific and important niches in the world of audiovisual collection and preservation. If you find that the AvSAP doesn't fit the needs of your institution, we recommend you consider some of the following tools.

The AVDb, created by ColumbiaUniversity

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/services/preservation/audiosurvey.html

FACET, an assessment tool for audio collections, created by IndianaUniversity:

http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/projects/sounddirections/facet/index.shtml

The ViPIRS tool, created by New YorkUniversity

http://library.nyu.edu/preservation/movingimage/vipirshome.html

Contact Information:

More Info Coming Soon: We are in the initial research stages of the project and we plan to add updates and functionality to this website, so please check back with us regularly. In the meantime, take a look at our links for more information about audiovisual preservation information.

This project is supported by a generous grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent federal agency that grows and sustains a “Nation of Learners” because lifelong learning is critical to success.

For comments on this page contact: Preservation & Conservation

Last modified by: Annette Morris on 6/24/09