 Hi everyone, my name is Pam Hatchfield. I'm an objects and sculpture conservator and I serve as the coordinator for held in trust of four year collaboration between the National Endowment for the humanities and the foundation for advancement and conservation. This project takes a look at the challenges and opportunities facing preservation and conservation of cultural heritage through the lens of critical issues facing many areas of the field today. We are so grateful to have this opportunity to speak with you a bit about this project and its relevance to you and your constituents. The challenges of preserving digital media are as you know better than anyone immense. We hope you'll find the project useful, even inspirational as we navigate our way forward into the future. So I will give you a brief background on the scope for the project, and my colleagues Linda Todic and Paul Maciej will dig deeper into the needs and priorities that the digital technology working group identified. Next, we gathered a steering committee of experts in the field and allied professions to identify areas of study, develop working groups and an advisory council of allied organizations who could help develop and guide this work. And here you see the areas of study that we investigated in black and the broad concepts which impacted them all. Some of these working groups are more conceptual in nature, like philosophy and ethics, inclusivity and equity, engagement and communication. Others are more functional if I can use that word focusing either on the tools that we use to treat, examine and document, like digital technology, science and technology. Collection care and preventive conservation, education, professional development and leadership and field investment infrastructure and health all focus on the infrastructure of the field, how we learn practice and fund the work of preservation and conservation. And that leaves climate crisis and environmental impact which surely overshadows and profoundly impacts what we are able to do, how we do it, and how we will work in the future. In fact, it was seen as so critical and fundamental that we immediately created a supplemental project to held in trust called climate resilience resources for cultural heritage. It is also funded by the NEH and is ongoing right now. These working groups develop comprehensive reports in each area, focusing on specific short term medium term and long term needs. Next. So for example in the case of digital technology here's a very abbreviated example of what the implementation of one goal would look like and Paul and Linda are going to go into this with you in some detail. You can see that this is just one of their three goals and within that goal there are short term mid term and long term approaches that are very specific in nature. Next. Long form reports will fill out the bare bones that you've seen with lots of detail and ideas for initiatives but if I had to distill the 260 odd page report into one sentence, it would be represented by this statement of vibrant and resilient future for preservation and preservation depends upon the development of new highly collaborative paradigms and structures grounded in social justice equity and environmental action. Next. So I invite you to check out the held interest website you'll find the full report there summaries of the reports and a link to view the national convening for held interest, which was held at the Library of Congress last April. And here is the QR code on the right, if you want to take a look. And now Linda and Paul will give you a deeper look at the findings of their working group. Thank you Pam. So, the working group digital technology research and practice, Paul Messier and I, Linda Todich we are the co chairs of the group. And this was one of nine reports in the held interest project. Next slide. We identify the working group identify three overarching issues with digital technology. Number one is that the field of cultural heritage preservation we have to adapt the preservation and conservation needs of technology driven works of art objects artifacts images experiences, what can be technology driven works of art or any object. So think about film video audio images which use a camera to create them digital work software based works works created by AI. All of those were created by using some kind of technology to create them, but you also need technology in order to view them to access them to use them and you need technology then to preserve these objects also over time. So this was really one of the very critical aspects of the or issues that we identified. And then related to this of course is then you have these objects, if they're analog originally they're going to be digitized or you have born digital objects. So you need digital preservation solutions in order to keep these the content that is on these objects alive, because again we want to focus here with digital preservation on preserving the essence, the content that is then embodied within a digital file within or created or used objects. So, but oftentimes these solutions to digital to do digital preservation are beyond the means of even the most well resource collecting institution, and then even inconceivable at the smaller grassroots based community based archives. We have digital objects, we have been problems in preserving those digital objects. And then the third one is that related to this is but digital technology can be very helpful in creating new tools new methodologies in order to analyze not only and finding in the digital objects, but also then in even the physical conservation based or physical objects that need that could use these digital technologies and tools in order to analyze them to provide more data collection and access to objects. So those are the three overarching issues that we identified in the report. Next slide please. So, we'll go through the three critical areas of focus. Number one is preserving these technology based cultural heritage objects. So as you know, because you are alive now that audio visual media that was captured. It captured our history and culture for much of the 20th century and going into the 21st century. And as the film, the video, the audio, the images still images that we have the computer based works, but a lot of that media is on analog media, and it must be digitized for the content that is on those carriers to endure and be used in the future. Then we also have content that is captured as born digital was born as a digital object. So the infrastructure of collecting organizations can be just overwhelmed by managing all the storage video files as you might know can be very large. That can just overwhelm the infrastructure and even the largest and well funded institutions. And then you have to do the digital preservation actions to keep that content viable for future generations. So the challenges with this first topic is you need to choose since there's just so much analog audio visual content that needs to be safe that was created and that should be safe appraisal and selection of those objects to be digitized must be performed. And you need specialized equipment again as all technology based you need the expertise, and you have to have the large data storage capacity. And then you're going to be adding all of the new digital objects are created from the analog originals to the tsunami of the born digital objects that collecting institutions are receiving and you have to do ongoing maintenance and preservation of these digital objects. So first you need to choose unfortunately you have to choose you can't preserve everything that's on the analog audio visual content. So organizations must make hard decisions. Number two is then once you do have these digital objects, then you have insufficient data storage and migration, migration meaning not just migrating perhaps a born digital file or object that can become obsolete so you have to migrate it to a newer format but also then you have to refresh the storage media that is storing that digital content your hard drives the solid state drives your LTO that has a direct impact on the environment, partly through the server energy use if you're using servers to store your data, and also of course the waste because you must refresh the storage media over time. And so what do you do how do you recycle that waste. You're also then by using data storage media, you're helping or contributing to depleting the earth of its rare earth materials, because that is all required in manufacturing the data storage media, which is why you waste and recycling is very critical for organizations to know about so we can try to reclaim some of those rare earth materials off of the data storage media. The third challenge is just the limitations for digital preservation because digital preservation requires people. It's not just software, it's not just technology requires staffing it requires software and hardware to manage these digital objects over time that requires funding it requires resources. Next slide. So the opportunities to meet these challenges are that we identified our number one is to try to consolidate digital preservation knowledge into a core national online resource, because people who work in digital preservation. They pretty much know what has to be done, but sometimes it's hard to find resources to help, then these organizations to do that ongoing digital preservation that is required so some kind of knowledge base in a consolidated resource would be very difficult. Number two is then to increase training into the preservation focus on practical applications, not expensive and opaque difficult to use software or systems to do digital preservation but focus on what can you do now with your existing staff with your infrastructure with their existence and chose to train people to your staff so that they know how to use these tools. Number one is to establish cooperative data storage and waste recycling. So data storage. So again, you have efficiencies of scale. If there can be shared data storage that is secure and can go and will exist for a while for time, then try to establish the data storage facilities, try to have and then to really reinforce the importance of a waste recycling and have resources to know so people know where to go for a waste recycling. And then the fourth opportunity is to improve on cataloging systems so we know what do people have what do the organizations have, and to have standards for not just cataloging but also what are the standards for these digital objects are being created. What are some of the formats that can be used. Next slide please. So the critical area of focus number two so there are three will go through number two is, which I made a slight reference to before is the sustainability of community based archives. So community based archives are critically important to document the lives of histories of culture of a community not just larger institutions deciding what should be saved but the community is defining itself and what is important for it to save for into the future. They are very self sustaining because quite often, for the most part they are not attached to an institution. So, while the community archives space the same issues into preservation as their institutional colleagues, but they have more challenges that are directly related to funding for the most part that further threaten their carefully documented histories. Next slide please. They have more challenges, money, financial sustainability. It's hard for these community based archives to secure and store traditional government large foundation grants, because oftentimes these larger funders. They don't give funding to the smaller organizations because the smaller organizations don't have the infrastructure to manage their grants. They don't have an adequate data storage. So they're storing these smaller archives or institutional, I'm sorry community based archives are storing just on hard drive sitting on somebody's desk. They oftentimes do not have multiple copies or redundancy of the data stored elsewhere. So if they lose a hard drive or that hard drive fails they lose their cultural heritage, because that drive has failed. So they need data storage support. So what happens then is number three is the challenge where because they don't have the infrastructure to do the digital preservation or to store their files properly. They then put up their assets their content up into social media and into Facebook and Instagram or they have a website, which is fine because that provides access and at least something it's going to be a smaller resolution files better than nothing. So that isn't digital preservation, but oftentimes these archives, they that is their only opportunity that's their only chance to save their works. Next slide please. So the opportunities here for the field to help these community based archives is number one funding and number two funding. So number one increase and diversify the funding for the community based archives we have seen some fabulous examples already by the IMLS NEH and the Mellon Foundation and there needs to be more and perhaps to encourage more is opportunity number two, creating multi funder initiative. So as some foundations might find it more owners as mentioned before in the challenge to provide large grants to establish organizations, then perhaps then there could be a re granting agency considered for example how clear is working with the Mellon Foundation in the clear recordings at risk project. So there could be more examples of this kind of re granting agencies I think that could help community archives. So the next thing we would be to develop a national online resource or network of community based archives. This can be helpful because right now to find a community based archive is pretty much, you know, just hit or miss you're looking is just serendipity you find out about it, you being a researcher or somebody is interested, but having an online resource or a network where then organizations or the public can search here for a particular topic and they say, Oh, these other archives might have content on a similar topic in a different community. And then that helps all of us because then we find out about other communities that we didn't even know where I had even thought about might have existed so a national online resource that can help people find these community based archives is also very important. And then the fourth opportunity is to develop an open source content management system that will then help these archives to be able to catalog to provide access to what they have in their collections. This can be a cloud based SAS a software as a service. It has to be something simple because the vast majority of these archives community based archives do not have it support, but this is an opportunity that could be met. And so now I believe I'm going to pass it over to Paul to discuss the third critical area of study. Perfect. Thanks Linda. My name is Paul Messier I run the lens media lab at Yale University. And what I'm going to be speaking about is our critical area focus number three which is expanding collections based knowledge creation. Linda was talking about the imperative for preservation of technology born analog and digital media. This group, this subgroup came was looking actually ahead and looking and thinking about how can we harness new and emerging technologies to build meeting around collections. You know, we're thinking about scale. In this case, if you might be familiar from art history, the term close looking where you look very carefully at a singular object and try to understand all the details of its manufacture where it's how it fits into sort of an art historical context. This is kind of the opposite end of the axis of close looking. We're trying to think of collections really as data sets. And if we think about collections as data sets both of a single collection that is centrally located. We can find patterns in that collection. But what if we can start, you know, if we have these data sets what if we start linking across institutions, both regionally nationally internationally. And what patterns can we find their patterns about regional trade practices patterns that talk about spheres of artists that inform on spheres of artistic practice and influence. These are the kind of patterns that we're thinking and we kind of are shorthand to describe this is seeing at scale. Humans are pretty good when it comes to comparing one object to another object or maybe five objects, but we can't hold 5000 objects, the material properties of 5000 objects in our head. We need technology, data science data viz to really grasp the these these large scales that we're anticipating to do this work of course that is going to require really meaningful cross disciplinary collaborations and really engaging new fields that traditionally necessarily work in the cultural heritage preservation realm. And by that I mean data science statistics, data visualization. People with machine learning backgrounds. We need entry points for this broad array of expertise to come into the cultural heritage preservation sphere. Next slide please. And let me get my next here we go all set. So challenges to accomplish this this grand vision. Basically modes of data collection and retention, our existing infrastructures are built around largely unpublished technical data that relate to singular objects. Not really on the creation of publicly accessible data sets that span multiple objects within and across collections. Right now, our analytical equipment is extremely expensive and as it has a high learning curve to master. It's not be operated typically by a by a museum or, you know, a library technician. And so that's the instrument itself and the expertise to operate it. Those are obstacles really for for rendering data from collection objects. We have to think about brought. How do we make these instruments, or maybe new generations of instruments more accessible. Also, that came out of our discussion, an interesting aspect that came out of the discussion was, okay, we have these collaborations. Well, how do collaborations really break down and fail. And usually it's around, well, we haven't aligned incentives. So at a university where I work, you know, the incentives for somebody working in the humanities is very different than for somebody working in the sciences. They have different reward structures, and that holds true for people working professionals working in collections curators, preparators, librarians, they have different motivations as well, and getting those and getting that out on the table like what's in it for me kind of thing is a really important thing for a healthy collaboration. Everyone needs to get something. And then there's this other sort of problem that we've got, which is, you know, there's, it's the the culture is changing a little bit but it's slow. People just think of their data as their data, and they don't tend to want to necessarily share it with a community. And that's something that it's, it's changing. Like I said, but it's still a pretty significant obstacle. May I have the next slide please. This fear, what are the opportunities. Well, first of all, I mean, we, we don't really maximize kind of routine encounters with objects with with creating data in mind. For example, we routinely photograph objects as part of a cataloging, you know, museum, museum library archive cataloging. But if, if, if the photographs aren't made to a specific standard, then we can't really compare things like color across that data set. But if they were, on the other hand, made to a specific standard. And we can start, and you know, my lab has done experiments along these lines, we can start looking through using algorithms to look at the standardized images and the image sets and get an idea about the condition of the of a collection. You know, where is it on its, its, where is the collection going in terms of its, you know, March through time. And we can classify individual objects and we, in terms of their condition, and we can classify really with the same algorithm, thousands of objects by condition. And that's, you know, again, simply leveraging something that's routinely done and, and, and bringing it up to a certain standard for repeatability and interoperability. As I was mentioning instruments, you know, x-ray fluorescence spectrometers and, and, and scanning electron microscopes I mean some of the great institutions in the world are privileged to have access to these analytical pieces of analytical and the people to run them. But not every museum, every archive, every collection community library has access. And we want them to be part of this for for this idea to work this idea of creating data sets that we can interrogate broadly, we need a really broad base. And so, making a priority of accessibility, maybe, in fact, creating new generations of instruments that are mobile, that are inexpensive, and that have any, you know, relatively simple learning curve. People can contribute to these large projects they can push data up to the cloud where it can be analyzed. And, and there, and there, they can see their objects and context with other, you know, participants within within a project this ecosystem that we're thinking about. And I think the last kind of opportunity that we that we focused on really advocating for the fair attribution and credit for collaborative work that spans disciplines. So to create these partnerships and programs that will provide entry points for a much broader base of scientists, engineers data science imaging specialists that can help us build and conceive of really the next generation of tools and architect these new data pipelines. So I think I'll pass it back to Linda to conclude. Thank you. Alrighty, so all the different working groups of the health and trust report we were going we were all charged with also that okay you make these recommendations, describe the opportunities but then, okay, try to put the goals, the strategic goals that would be that the field could take within the short, medium and long terms and you can see the date ranges there to advance the state of digital preservation and research for cultural heritage. Next slide please. The goals and goal number one is basically to define and communicate these frameworks the standards the benchmarks to guide the preservation of this technology based cultural heritage that Paul and I just gave an overview of. This can include to build a centralized resources and knowledge base. This can be used to buy stable institutions so it won't just be up for a couple of years and go away and needs to be up there for a while and have it situated where organizations people can contribute to the centralized resource. Develop cooperative data storage and digital preservation infrastructure to help these organizations and in particular the community based archives, and to increase funding for audio visual digital digitization projects. I mentioned this analog material it was not intended to last forever it is at high risk. And so there needs to be more funding, even though there currently has been an increase in funding there needs to be even more to so that this content can be digitized so that the content. That's on these characters can be carried forward for other generations. Next slide please. Goal number two is to innovate and foster new modes of collections based knowledge as Paul was just describing. This can include maximizing the existing opportunities for collection scale inquiry as Paul said seeing at scale. Collaborate in the creation of new data pipelines prioritize accessibility and cross disciplinary approaches. Goal number three build partnerships to lower costs and environmental impacts. Nobody can do this all on their own. There needs to be partnerships. So to develop guidelines on a waste disposal for cultural heritage organizations large and small. How is it that these organizations how can we all become part of the circular economy which is so critical so that we can lower our environmental impact by using all of this digital stuff that we create and we use. Part of this can be including to establish a national network of regional e-waste facilities so people know where they can go to responsibly dispose of their e-waste and also recycle by use exchanges. And to pilot affordable accessible cooperative data storage and asset management options asset management can be like managing your assets your digital assets as well as like cataloging and providing access to the content to separate things. And then to have these cooperative efforts have a lower environmental impact because again you then have efficiencies of scale. More people using one resource means that each individual organization doesn't need to do this on their own. Next slide please. And the final goal is to advocate for and build sustainability of community based archives. So again to encourage potential funders to establish programs for general operating support not just project based support but keep these community based archives alive through a general funding. Advocate for the creation again for funding of a significant rebranding program to streamline the funding for these community based archives to create an accessible centralized directory database of community based archives so they can all find each other and so it would be easier for the public to find them. And to launch a software as a service or SAS based content management platform for community based archives to help to manage their own content. Next slide please. So in conclusion, we all strongly recommend that you download the full report for health interest it's a really interesting read here's a URL for you to download it. We're happy to have given you the overview of the digital technology section that Paul and I were involved with, but please do read the entire report if you can. If you have questions for Paul or myself or contact emails are here. If you have questions or comments on the entire health interest report. We have an email there for hit at cultural heritage.org and so thanks Pam and Paul for participating in for all of us to present all of you and think all of you for watching this video to learn more about the digital technology part of the report.