Archon and Archivists’ Toolkit to be integrated
It was announced today within the Archon forum that Archon and the Archivists’ Toolkit will be integrated in order to combine the best features of both. I will be watching this project with much interest. I have tried both applications, and I have a definite preference for Archon. I sincerely hope that this strengthens Archon, rather than weakening it.
I can think of strengths that could be gained from this integration. A GUI could be a nice addition. The folder view in Archivists’ Toolkit is nice as well. I also hope that these development efforts will also lead to a new platform that supports union catalogs from the outset.
There are dangers in the combined efforts as well, in my opinion. I hope that the nice, clean PHP code used in Archon doesn’t get mucked up with some sort of integration with Java, which I hate with a passion. I think using a great deal of Java would slow development and reduce the ability of many to do customization. Did I mention that I hate Java? I also hope that development isn’t stymied due to a lack of competition. Competition is always good, even when it’s between open source products. I also hope that Chris Prom’s influence on the project is undiminished. Chris’ two American Archivist articles on the EAD Cookbook and user interactions with finding aids set up a solid research foundation for the entire Archon project. Without his research, the project would not have been as good as what it is.
Still, this project holds promise, and I think the outcome will probably be good for archivists.
Baptist Church Minutes
I often work with genealogists who are looking for information about their Baptist forebears. Back in March, I spoke at a Second Saturday Workshop in Frankfort, Kentucky that was jointly sponsored by the Kentucky Genealogical Society and the Kentucky Historical Society. Below is a brief handout that I created for the occasion. It offers a few tips about finding and using Baptist church records for genealogical research.
Open Source Solution for Converting Video and DVD
Are you thinking of starting a video conversion project? If so, you may be interested in taking a look at the newest release of an older video conversion tool.
Handbrake has been around for quite some time. It is a free and open source video conversion tool that is available for Windows, Apple, and Linux. In previous releases, Handbrake was merely a DVD ripper that many people used to convert DVDs for use on their iPods, PSPs, or cell phones.
I have used it before, but I never really considered it a good candidate for use in an archives because it just converted DVDs. However, the latest version (0.9.3) of the software makes it an ideal solution for using in an archives, because it now supports video format conversion. In other words, Handbrake will allow you to convert videos between formats. Their developers state on the wiki that “HandBrake can accept almost any sort of video file you can throw at it, although with exotic fare, things can sometimes be a little rough around the edges.” It is able to encode videos as MP4, MKV, M4V, OGM, and AVI.
Handbrake also includes a nice set of presets for encoding to devices like iPhones, iPods, and gaming consoles. Do you want to add an iPod friendly copy of some historical video you’ve converted to DVD to your institutional repository? You don’t want to take the time to learn what all of the different audio and video encoding options are? That’s not a problem, because Handbrake has them baked right in.
One other nice feature Handbrake offers is a command-line interface. What this effectively means is that with just a little bit of script-fu and a spare workstation, you can convert a whole mess of video files. Of course, you could also do this the easy way, because the graphical interface has a nice queue available as well.
The need for archiving social media illustrated
This morning’s Twitter outage illustrates the reason that social media archiving is needed. Notice also in the article updates that both Live Journal and Facebook were having problems as well. No one knows when this type of outage could be catastrophic and result in substantial data loss. And that can happen. Even organizations that generally take data preservation seriously are susceptible to data loss and serious downtime. For example, LFPL was pouring water out of their servers just yesterday.
Now, today’s outage appears to be caused by a denial-of-service attack, so data loss will probably be minimal. But other types of digital catastrophes can cause data loss, and the data lost may be culturally and sociologically significant.
By the way, if anyone needs ideas for what to do while Twitter is down, here’s a few suggestions. They beat working on a Twitter archiving app right now. Can’t connect to the API.
What Bloggers Think about Preserving Blogs
My friend Robbie Sagers addressed the topic of social media preservation in a post on Justin Taylor’s excellent blog today. In light of Robbie’s post, I thought I would point out a poster on Blogger Perceptions on Digital Preservation that was presented at the Joint Conference on Digital Libraries back in 2007. Some of the more interesting data from the poster includes:
- Over 43 percent of the respondents attempt some self archiving of their blogs
- Nearly 71 percent of the respondents believed that their blogs should be archived
- Nearly 50 percent of respondents believed that preserving the audio and video embedded in a blog was important
- Over 30 percent of respondents believed that archives and libraries had an obligation to preserve blogs in general
New Software for Preserving Blogs
I just found out about ArchivePress, and I cannot wait to see how this develops. Basically, ArchivePress hopes to be a tool to be used for preserving weblogs. It will be built on WordPress. I’ve been waiting for something like this to come along ever since I posted this and this back in 2007 — when I had delusions of grandeur about building something similar.
Found in the Archives: On Baptists and Barbecues
Today, one of my colleagues found the following in an August 10, 1805 entry in the Minutes of the Elkhorn (KY) Association of Baptists (Volume 1) which we have in our manuscript collection.
Quere from Glen’s Creek. Is it right for Baptists to join in an assembly at Barbecues on the 4th of July? Answered No.
I may have some repenting to do 
Of Libraries and Librarians
I’ve been behind on my blog reading (and posting) lately. School and family crises will do that. I just read John Blyberg’s post on the Darien Statements on the Library and Librarians. I found the whole post thought provoking, but I especially enjoyed the bullet points of things librarians must do under the Preservation of the Library section. My favorite was “Endorse procedures only if they guide librarians or users to excellence.”
This is the list of things they fill compelled to do at Darien. Are there things that you, personally, would add or eliminate from the list?
The Gorgon
Today’s mythological monday creature is the Gorgon. You may read Topsell’s description of this fearsome creature here.
of Lice, and how to kill them
This new series of posts will take simply quote peculiar sections of Edward Topsell’s The History of Four-Footed Beasts. Some of the work deals with mythological creatures, such as Satyrs, and most of my posts will do likewise. However, today’s post deals with an ever pertinent and interesting topic, ridding your horse of lice.
They be like Geese Lice, but somewhat bigger, they will breed most about the ears, neck, and tail, and over all the body. THe comve of poverty, and the Horse will be alwayes rubbing, and scratching, and will eat his meat, and not prosper withal, and with rubbing he will break all his mane and tail. The cure, according to Martin, is thus; Anoint the place with Sope and Quicksilver, well mingled together, and to a pound of Sope, put half an ounce of Quicksilver.
That’s right folks. There’s no cure for lice like a mixture of soap and mercury.
