by Saadia Raines

The Veterans History Project was created by Congress in 2000 as a permanent collection of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The collection is a primary source for researchers, educators, and scholars to gain an understanding of military life through the personal accounts of veterans who dedicated their lives to this country. The materials donated to the collection are original, un-edited audio and video-recorded interviews, photographs, letters, diaries, journals, military documents, maps, and unpublished memoirs.  An interview with Andrew Cassidy-Amstutz, archivist for the VHP, gives a behind-the-scenes look at the conversion and preservation practices that bring these stories to life in a digital environment.

SR: What is the initial process of the materials donated to the VHP?  

ACA: There is a six-month processing period that allows VHP staff to fully incorporate collection materials into the LC’s permanent collections. All incoming collections are tracked after VHP receives them and verified to ensure that they meet VHP’s acceptance criteria. As a part of this process, collections that do not meet VHP’s acceptance criteria are returned to the original donor with suggestions on how to create an acceptable submission. Donors and veterans who successfully submit a collection will receive an acknowledgement postcard within eight to ten weeks of receipt.

However, with approximately 75-100 collections arriving each week, it is necessary for VHP staff to place all incoming collections into a queue for eventual processing to maintain the chronology of when they arrived. After all, each collection that VHP receives is important to somebody and VHP staff aim to treat each collection in the same way. After a collection has worked its way to the front of the queue, a processing technician creates a record for the veteran in VHP’s collections database and enters the accompanying information from the Biographical Data Form, Audio and Video Recording Log, Photograph Log, and Manuscript Data Sheet into that record.   After all of this occurs, the newly processed collections are moved to VHP’s climate controlled storage area in the Adams Building. Every day the VHP online searchable database is refreshed with the new collection record information made available for discovery by researchers.

SR: What is involved in digitizing the print and audio-visual materials of the collection?

ACA: The Veterans History Project approaches digital preservation from many different angles. Our initial goals for digital preservation were the long-term preservation of obsolete formats (VHS, DAT, microcassettes, etc.) and curated access via VHP’s online Experiencing War features. This work was primarily accomplished using a combination of internal Library resources and external vendors. Collections were identified for digitization/digital preservation and the entirety of that collection was then made available for public access on VHP’s website.  However, over the past 15 years of VHP’s existence, we have seen more than a few technologies rise in prominence and then fade towards obsolescence such as what is currently occurring with CDs and DVDs. This has necessitated a change in perspective regarding digital preservation within VHP. The bulk of VHP’s A/V materials arrived on either CDs or DVDs and some of them are now over 10 years old.

With no information about the failure rate of the CDs and DVDs in our archive, after I started with VHP in 2012, I assumed that the content of many of our oldest CDs and DVDs would be irretrievable. I instituted a workflow to extract the content from VHP’s oldest CDs and DVDs using a Ripstation (a device that automates the extraction process for batches of optical discs).  This workflow worked well as a proof of concept, but with 75-100 new collections arriving every week and approximately 40,000 optical discs in VHP’s archive, it wasn’t sustainable. Additionally, there were other tape-based carriers in VHP’s archive that were encountering similar difficulties, such as MiniDV, Hi-8, Digital8, etc.

To begin to resolve this, VHP requested monies from the Library to send additional A/V material out to external contractors for digitization/digital preservation. This would allow VHP staff to continue focusing on smaller batches of content to be digitized for our Experiencing War features and reduce the burden on VHP’s existing equipment (which is still regularly needed to verify the contents of incoming A/V collections). Using external contractors also had the additional bonus of allowing VHP to receive access copies and digital preservation masters simultaneously.

After the digitized collections return to the Library, the quality of the digitized copies is reviewed prior to ingest into the Library’s digital asset management system, CTS. After that process is complete, the digital preservation masters are sent to long-term storage and the access copies are made available for public access on VHP’s website. By implementing this new strategy, VHP has been able to jump from approximately 15,000 collections online to approximately 35,000 collections online in the past two years.

SR: What are some of the challenges that are faced in digitizing this large collection?

ACA: Some of the challenges associated with VHP are also some of its strengths as well, in my view. For example, to allow for the widest participation rate possible, the guidelines for submitting content to VHP are very broad to account for differences in equipment availability, technological familiarity, etc. between donors. However, this also means that VHP can truly claim to be representative of the first-person perspective of American veterans from WWI onwards due to our flexibility and our willingness to work with donors on how to submit their collections.

Similarly, VHP is different from a traditional archival collection in many ways. As a part of the American Folklife Center, we are one collection among many (even though we operate much like a separate custodial unit). When VHP receives new collections, they often lack original order and can seem fragmentary when compared against the entirety of a veteran’s service. Additionally, VHP relies on donors to provide the bulk of the descriptive metadata about specific veterans using the forms in our Field Kit. If the information isn’t provided, VHP staff usually do not have the time to search through collections for additional details that might have been unintentionally omitted. Due to this limitation, VHP collections are not fully discoverable since the provided descriptions do not convey the entirety of a collection’s contents.

However, since VHP is responsible for the custody of only one collection within the larger context of the American Folklife Center, we have the ability to process our collections in more depth than a traditional archive. For example, as a part of VHP’s processing workflow, VHP staff place submitted correspondence into separate acid-free bond paper folders and individually label all submitted photographs in our collections database. This allows VHP staff to perform detailed queries against our collections database in response to researcher inquiries.

SR: What advice would you give to librarians and other information professionals interested in managing a digital conversion/preservation project?

ACA: Be prepared to learn! While the basics of digital preservation have been applicable everywhere I’ve worked, each institution has used different workflows, equipment, software, etc. Heading into a job with an open mindset and a flexible attitude is usually as helpful as a familiarity with the institution and its workflows.

In a similar vein, keep copious notes! Unless you are continuing an already established workflow, it will often take a significant amount of trial and error to determine the best tools, settings, or steps to reach your goal. Having a record of what you’re already tried will help in several ways. For example, you won’t accidentally duplicate a previous attempt and you’ll be able to take your notes and document your final workflow more easily than if you attempted to document it from scratch.

Communication is key! While I do spend a portion of each day working individually, I often need to work with other VHP staff, Library of Congress employees, and other professionals to troubleshoot a problem or collaborate on a shared project. Being able to effectively communicate your project or problem to different audiences will not only help them help you more easily, but you also might gain a deeper understanding of your own work as you share it with others.

Finally, be patient! It is not uncommon to experience setbacks even when dealing with an established workflow. Additionally, there are times when your workflow might seem repetitive or monotonous and you might be tempted to take a few shortcuts to speed the process up. Do not follow through with this idea! Significantly more work is involved in correcting a missed step or two than in following the original workflow.

Although, sometimes the work involved in ensuring the digital preservation of the Veterans History Project’s collections can seem never ending, in the end, it is worth it knowing that my work is preserving the stories of America’s veterans for researchers and future generations.