tonisant

The preservation of audio CDs is something that is slightly different from the preservation of CDs containing data other than audio. Data on audio CDs cannot be easily cloned for preservation, as the music industry has lobbied the main operating system developers to curtail the duplication of CDs to crack down on the mass production of pirate copies. While this is understandable from an intellectual property perspective, it is rather problematic from a preservation viewpoint.

I have scoured published documents in this area but there are no comprehensive examples of best practice related to data preservation from audio CDs. There are guidebooks on the preservation of the CDs themselves but next to nothing about the preservation of the data on the audio CDs. This area requires urgent attention because audio CDs may contain at risk and decaying audio data on a fragile medium. Certain types of audio CDs are nearing their end of life faster than others.

At the SPRUCE London Mashup in July 2013 I proposed the creation of a workflow model for the preservation of audio CDs. Working mainly with Peter May (British Library) and Carl Wilson (OPF), with input from other developers at the mashup, we established that the main problem that needed to be resolved was the fact that there was no open source tool to easily create a disk image or clone of data on an audio CD.

While this may seem like a straightforward project, it took no fewer than three experienced developers working on this problem many hours before a practical solution was proposed, based on cdrdao. (See: an outline of the initial solution)

Having resolved the basic need to create a clone or disk image from an audio CD, the next step in this project was to explore how to catalogue the disk image and its contents, as well as normalise the audio files into the standard BWAV format. This was supported by a SPRUCE award (funded by JISC) covering the period August-October 2013, involving Carl Wilson and Toni Sant, with the participation of Darren Stephens from the University of Hull. Through further consultation with digital forensics experts at the British Library and elsewhere, as well as systematic development, this project has addressed this issue directly.

Once the fundamental open solution was in hand, our attention could be turned to the development of a four-step workflow model for the preservation of audio CDs. The four steps are as follows:

1.    Disk Imaging (stabilizing the data)
2.    Cataloguing (through individual Cue sheets)
3.    Data Ripping (normalising the data)
4.    Open access to the catalogue (outputting the metadata)

Working with a specific dataset (see: an outline of the dataset) this project is now able to provide a practical workflow model utilizing the solution proposed during the London SPRUCE mashup as a tool for steps 1 & 3 called arcCD.  An example of good practice has now been established in this under-explored area of preservation. All materials produced for this project are available on GitHub. Darren Stephens is also integrating further development on outputting the metadata into MediaWiki for easy access and editing of the catalogue, as part of his PhD research project entitled 'A Framework for Optimised Interaction Between Mediated Memory Repositories and Social Media Networks.'

The initial dataset used for the development of this project is managed by the Malta Music Memory Project (M3P), which seeks to provide an inclusive repository for memories of Maltese music and associated arts, ensuring that these are kept in posterity for current and future generations. M3P is one of the projects within the Media and Memory Research Initiative (MaMRI) of the University of Hull and it is facilitated by the M3P Foundation, a voluntary organization registered in Malta.

The Malta Music Memory Project (M3P) seeks to provide an inclusive repository for memories of Maltese music and associated arts, ensuring that these are kept in posterity for current and future generations. M3P is one of the projects within the Media and Memory Research Initiative (MaMRI) of the University of Hull and it is facilitated by the M3P Foundation, a voluntary organization registered in Malta. There have been some difficulties in getting members of the public to engage actively with the M3P, and in particular to contribute to the project wiki (a MediaWiki installation) rather than just reading it. Meanwhile there are myriad relevant resources and conversations taking place on Facebook. Researchers are currently putting considerable effort accessing and curating these resources on Facebook, but need to find ways to encourage others to do so themselves. Encouraging sign-up to the wiki using Facebook Connect and easing the migration of content from Facebook to the wiki has been identified as a way to achieve this.

At the SPRUCE Glasgow Mashup a proof of concept was developed by Patrick McCann (DCC – University of Glasgow), Anthony Micallef-Grimaud and Toni Sant (MaMRI – University of Hull) for extracting content from Facebook to MediaWiki, where it can be better curated and preserved. (See: an outline of the issue + an outline of the initial solution) It builds on the existing Facebook Open Graph Extension, which is used to authenticate users to the wiki using Facebook. Upon authentication, custom JavaScript extracts information from the user’s Facebook profile and uses it to populate their User Page in the wiki. Having demonstrated that it is possible to transfer data from Facebook into MediaWiki, the next step in this project was to produce a usable tool with expanded functionality. This was supported by a SPRUCE award (funded by JISC) covering the period July-October 2012, involving Patrick McCann and Toni Sant, with the participation of Darren Stephens from the University of Hull.

Firstly, the functionality demonstrated at the Mashup was refined by enabling the presentation of Facebook data in a more human-readable way and providing the user with full control over what information from their Facebook profile is placed on their wiki User Page. This was then packaged as a MediaWiki extension for ease of implementation. Additional functionality has been added to the extension to enable the retrieval of other Facebook resources, principally photographs and photo albums. However, this function still needs development beyond the rudimentary  Eventually, it is intended that this functionality will be made available via a bookmarklet allowing the user to transfer Facebook photos (and whole albums) they’re currently viewing to the wiki with minimal effort. The development of this function has proven to be rather complex, not only because of Facebook’s API but also because issues of data protection and privacy need to be considered throughly to ensure the creation of an appropriate tool. Particular attention has already been paid to what data it is appropriate for a user to be able to retrieve with reference to Facebook’s Terms of Service, particularly with regard to comments on resources, and this is evident in the current build of the MediaWiki extension.

This version of MediaWiki extension is available via the SPRUCE Repository on GitHub. It has been documented at MediaWiki.org following an introduction to the international WikiMedia GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) community at their annual gathering at the British Library in September 2012. It has also been implemented on the M3P wiki where comments and observations on the beta phase are being gathered in a targeted way from a small number of beta testers.  Furthermore, to ensure that the software developed for this project doesn’t remain in perpetual beta, Darren Stephens will now be integrating further development on it into his PhD research project entitled A Framework for Optimised Interaction Between Mediated Memory Repositories and Social Media Networks.