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HEMI HOME | ENG ESP POR | |
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Overview |
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The Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library is a collection that assembles and gives access to rare documentation of social performance. Its content is of wide interest to students, scholars and artists, and supports work in a range of disciplines including history, politics, anthropology, sociology, culture studies, literature and the arts. The Institute defines performance as the many practices and events, dance, theater, ritual, political rallies, funerals, etc. that involve theatrical, rehearsed or conventional event-appropriate behavior. Because such social performance is ephemeral, it is only through a widely available video library that these systems of knowledge—which elucidate content through embodied practice not captured in written accounts—can be fully studied and understood. All of these archives are currently inaccessible for study, and are in danger of disintegrating. The owners and performers are anxious to make them available through the Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library. They will loan the original videos to NYU granting a non-exclusive license, which ensures that they retain all rights to the materials. These materials will be reformatted; for streaming their content in the digital library, for maintenance of a high quality Digital Betacam master file at NYU, and for deposit of a DVD for user access in the NYU Libraries Avery Fisher Center for Music and Media. NYU will return the original videos to the owners along with a copy of the corresponding DVD for their use as a local service copy. Through its wide range of programs and enormous network of performers and scholars, the Hemispheric Institute has access to video archives throughout the Americas. Few of these collections are in libraries, and the owners of the materials are anxious to partner with the Institute to make their holdings more available. The Institute is working through a careful process of selection and prioritization so that the most endangered and most in-demand archives will be the first to be made available. Staff at the Institute identify collections and conduct negotiations with participating archives. The project will have three related areas of development: 1) selection and acquisition of collections by the Hemispheric Institute; 2) metadata production, a collaborative effort of the Hemispheric Institute, NYU Libraries Cataloging Department, and the Digital Library Team; and 3) content production, a collaborative effort of Hemispheric Institute and NYU Libraries Digital Library Team. As outcomes of this project, NYU Libraries will provide access to the video content gathered by the Hemispheric Institute through its website and through the NYU Libraries web-based catalog, Bobcat. The project will also develop a reference architecture and a set of best practices for digital library video production activities usable by other institutions planning digital library video facilities. Apple considers the project so innovative and important that is was featured as a Top Story in September 2005. |
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