IPI digital print workshop

The Image Permanence Institute (IPI) at the Rochester Institute of Technology will conduct a workshop, “Aesthetics, Craft, and Care of the Fine Art Digital Print,” from July 30 to August 3, 2012, in Rochester, New York. This five-day workshop is intended to provide a basic introduction to all aspects of digital prints and will cover the history and application of digital print technologies, the fine art ink jet printing process, color management theory, calibration of monitors and printers, the effects of different software settings and imaging workflows on the quality of digital prints, and digital print identification. This basic understanding will provide the underpinning for recommended handling, enclosure, display, and storage techniques. The instructors are Ryan Boatright and Caroline Barcella of the Atelier Boba in Paris, France. Presenters include Jim Reilly and Doug Nishimura of IPI.

The workshop costs $1,595, which covers course materials, lunches and breaks, but not travel and housing. Class size is limited to 15 participants. For more information, go to https://www.imagepermanenceinstitute.org/imaging/fine-art-digital-print-workshop.

IU media blog

The Indiana University Bloomington (IU) Media Preservation Initiative (MPI) has launched a blog about its progress toward preserving IU nonprint media holdings. The initiative is building on two reports that identified the preservation challenges and possible solutions, Media Preservation Survey (published in 2009) and Meeting the Challenge of Media Preservation: Strategies and Solutions (published in 2011). The blog currently describes the MPI organization and recent activities.

To access the blog go to http://mediapreservation.wordpress.com/.

Preserving digitized books

Portico, a digital preservation service provided by ITHAKA, and the Cornell University Library have published Preservation of Digitized Books and Other Digital Content Held by Cultural Heritage Organizations. The 72-page report is the result of a grant from “Advancing Knowledge: The IMLS/NEH Digital Partnership” to determine if the steps we are taking to protect our digital content are sufficient. Portico and Cornell analyzed prior reports and interviewed staff at organizations involved in creation of digital content.

Some major themes emerged from the research: partnerships to create digital content are common, access to high-resolution master files is not usually straightforward, connection of metadata to master files can be tenuous, content management processes and controls are often weak, and organizations often do not have digital content sustainability plans in place.

The report goes on to offer advice for pre-preservation analysis and planning, implementation of backup and byte-replication, and digital preservation, along with a reference model for an Open Archival Information System, a management model for cultural heritage organizations, and implementation choices.

The report is available as a free PDF at www.portico.org/digital-preservation/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/NEH-IMLS-D-book-model.pdf.

Viewshare.org

The Library of Congress (LC) announced a new domain name for its instance of open source Recollection software. The new site incorporates additional functionality and reflects an increasing commitment by LC to this platform for providing customizable access to local digital content.

For more information, go to http://viewshare.org/.