Digitization of Uganda’s Musical Cultural Heritage:

Lessons from the Digital Music Archive, Makerere

University

Agnes NamagandaNovember, 2011

Makerere University is the oldest University in East Africa-established 1922. It became a fully-fledged Institution of Higher Learning and National University in July1970.

At the heart of the University is MakLib founded in 1940. It is a legal depository library of Uganda and United Nations materials.

MakLib has 400,000 volumes of monographs and 82,000 volumes of bound serials.

MakLib serves a population of approximately 40,000 users, consisting of about 3,911staff, 35,000 students and external users.

Background

The Uganda Broadcasting Corporation

The Uganda Museum (1908)-Field recordings and musical instruments

The Uganda Popular Music Archive Project (2002)-Commercial recordings

The Global Music Archive (2003)-Traditional music

Archiving Initiatives in Uganda

Overview

Makerere University Digital Music Archive is a multi-media archive for traditional, popular and art music, recited word, dances and stories and recollections of musicians and dancers of Uganda.

(http://musicarchive.mak.ac.ug)

Makerere University Music Archivehttp://musicarchive.mak.ac.ug

The archive fosters the educational and cultural role of Makerere University through the preservation and access to music and oral traditions.

Function

Music scores, manuscripts and transcriptions

Personal stories and recollections of musicians and dancers

Legal music deposits

Field recordings (contains a huge collection of Klaus Wachsmann and Peter Cooke)

The Collection

Sample-Analogue collections

LPs

By 2004, MakLib had made initial contacts with digitization projects (under collaborative linkages with Tufts University; the University of Tennessee and the University of Bergen)

USDL is the first comprehensive digitization project at MakLib

An interdisciplinary committee Noted that documentation of Uganda’s musical

cultural heritage was not accessible Envisaged an Archive for documenting,

preserving and disseminating Uganda’s traditional music to scholars and other researchers

Makerere University Digital Music Archive

Conception

Library ManagementUgandan Ethnomusicologist, researcher & Associate professor at Makerere University

Music LibrarianMusic ArchivistDigitization LibrarianLibrary CataloguersCollectors-EthnomusicologistsDICTs

Experimentation

NORAD

The American Embassy in Uganda

The Grieg Academy, University of Bergen

The University of Bergen Library

Support & Funding

Makerere University & University of Bergen

MakLib & University of Bergen Library

The Grieg Academy & MDD

The American Embassy

The British Library Sound Archives

Collaborations

2004: Library conceives idea2005: USDL project2006: USDL launched2006: Collaboration established2007: NORAD funding arrived2007: Partitioning of the Archive2008: Music Librarian travels to Norway2008: Software installation & pilot project2009: Digital Archive launched2010: Collecting of field recordings

Activities

Reel-to-reel playerCompact Cassette playerAmplifier, sound cardTurntableApple computersField recorderScannerPrinterEarphones

Equipment

Reel-to-reel player

Phonograph Turntable

Dspace

Amadeus Pro

Toast 11 Titanium

iTunes

Software

Customization of default template in Dspace

Creating communities & sub communities

MARC21 (Printed materials)Dublin core

Metadata

Is the conversion of analogue records to a universal computer readable language

Why digitize?Access Preservation Original media was fragile playback equipment was scarce

The original condition is threatened !

Digitization of Music

It is crucial that the process results in files in the right format and right quality so they can be reused and secured for the future!

Each recording was converted to more than one computer file

Sampling rate (44.1 kHz)Sample size (16 bits stereo)

Conversion-Sound recordings

Each photograph is scanned at archival quality (8-bit gray scale with a jpeg reference image)

Black & White photographs were scanned at 8-bit

Coloured pictures were scanned at 24-bit

TIFF files are scanned from textual data

Photographs

Internally accepted standardsEnsure that bits/bytes can be reused in future

Audio .aiff (preservation) ; .mp3 (Access)Sheet music.tiff (preservation) ; .jpeg (Access)Video.avi (preservation) ; .mp4 (Access)

Formats (Preservation & Access)

Formats for preservation and access

Preservation Access/promotion

audio .aiff .mp3/.wma

(Compressed file format)(Windows Media Audio)

Sheet music .tiff .jpg, gif (Tagged Image File Format)

(lossy compression for digital photography)(Graphics Interchange Format)lossless data compression technique to reduce the file size without degrading the visual quality.

Joint Photographic Experts Group

video .avi mov, mp4 (mp4-allows streaming over the Internet).

(Audio Visual Interleave files support multiple streaming audio and video)(mov- compressed multimedia format often used for saving movies and other video files)

A group of three ethnomusicologists-Four major regions (North, East, Central and West)

So far:835 items of audio recordings1100 items of video recording1000 photo items/objects

Collecting & collections

All Library registered usersExternal users pay library feesOPAC (Finding aid)Digital music repositoryRestricted access to some sound recordings

Listening and viewing facilities (workstations)

Access

Digital Music Repositoryhttp://dspace3.mak.ac.ug:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/13

The listening section of the archive is insulated and has listening cubicles or booths

for good acoustics. 

Copyright is a complex issue that strongly impacts the selection of materials for digitization

Technology has a short life cycle (technology requirements)

Human resource developmentProject Communication Teamwork & team building crucial Building partnerships & collaborations

Lessons Learnt

Procurement planning is vital to avoid unnecessary delays

The budgeting process should take into consideration staff costs-motivation

Lessons Learnt Cont’d

Need for constant migration

Create an online streaming repository

Building partnerships with cultural heritage institutions

Training & re-training staff

Way forward

Digitisation provides visibility and access to this unique collections and a historical context for the appreciation and understanding of Ugandan musical cultural heritage.

Therefore there is need to continue the journey on this revolutionary path towards preserving the musical cultural heritage. Challenges should be addressed and opportunities embraced in preserving and promoting access to information.

Conclusion

Thank you