CASE STUDY

Presented by Zofia Syrek, Director of Operations

CSG Workshop – Library Systems Collaboration – January 7th, 2009

Overview

• SFI Background and History

• VHA (Visual History Archive) Overview and Interface Demo

• Current State of Technology

• Preservation Efforts and Access

• Education and Outreach

• New Content - Other Genocide Collections

• Strategic Vision and Future of our Technology

Page 1 of 30

Our Mission

“To overcome prejudice, intolerance and bigotry – and the suffering they cause – through the educational use of the Institute’s visual history testimonies”

Brief History: 1994

Schindler’s List

After filming Schindler’s List, Steven Spielbergestablished in 1994 the Survivors of the Shoah VisualHistory Foundation to record and preserve thetestimonies of Holocaust survivors andwitnesses.

Initial Goals:

• Give a voice to Holocaust survivors and other witnesses• Full life story• Create and preserve an archive for history and education• Provide survivors with a copy of their testimonial

Testimony Collection: 1994 – 2000

One of the largest digital video library in the world:• 52,000 Videotaped Testimonies• 105,000 Hours of Viewable Video

• 56 Countries• 32 Languages

Through efforts of:• 2,000 Interviewers• 1,000 Videographers• 70 Regional Staff

Testimony Collection: 1994 – 2000

Experience Groups

• Jewish Survivors ca. 49,000

• Rescuers and Aid Providers ca. 1,100

• Sinti and Roma (Gypsy) Survivors ca. 400

• Liberators and Liberation Witnessesca. 360

• Political Prisoners ca. 260

• Jehovah’s Witness Survivors ca. 80

• War Crimes Trials Participants ca. 70

• Survivors of Eugenics Policies 13

• Homosexual Survivors 8

Testimony Collection: 1994 – 2000

56 countries

Argentina Australia Austria Belarus Belgium Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Brazil Bulgaria Canada

Chile Colombia Costa Rica Croatia Czech Republic Denmark Ecuador Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Israel Italy Japan

Kazakhstan Latvia Lithuania Macedonia Mexico Moldova Netherlands New Zealand Norway Peru

Poland Portugal Romania Russia Serbia and Montenegro Slovakia Slovenia South Africa Spain

Sweden Switzerland Ukraine United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Venezuela Zimbabwe

Testimony Collection: 1994 – 2000

32 languages

Bulgarian Croatian Czech Danish DutchEnglish Flemish French German Greek

Hebrew Hungarian Italian Japanese LadinoLatvian Lithuanian Macedonian Norwegian

Polish Portuguese Romani RomanianRussian Serbian Sign Slovak Slovenian

Spanish Swedish Ukrainian Yiddish

Indexing Phase: 2000 – 2006

• Utilization of z39.19 standard (guidelines for the construction, format and management of monolingual controlled vocabularies, initially established in 1974)

• Creation and utilization of over 50,000 keywords and indexing 1 minute segments

• Optimized manual cataloging and indexing resulting in workflow of 2 hours of processing for each 1 hour of video

Page 1 of 30

Indexing Phase: 2000 – 2006

• By January 2006, the entire archive, almost 52,000 testimonies was digitized, catalogued, and indexed

• The names of the 1.2 million individuals, 40,000 geographic places, and 10,000 experiences mentioned in each testimony are also indexed and searchable

• A web-based user interface (search tool) – the Visual History Archive

Creation of the Visual History Archive

Page 1 of 30

Move to USC: 2006

Permanent HomeTransfer of copyright to USC

Preservation of archive and access in perpetuityMaintaining mission and core programmatic activity

Page 1 of 30

Visual History Archive

OVERVIEW

• Occupies 135TB of Storage

• 105,000 of Viewable Video

• Available through subscription to Internet2 users (currently 16 institutions have signed up)

• Accessed through the VHA interface (Demo)

Page 1 of 30

Visual History Archive

Current – Full VHA Access (16) Forthcoming – Full VHA Access(4) Current – Video & Data Only (1) Potential – Full VHA Access (11)

Access Sites: Current, Forthcoming and Potential

Page 1 of 30

Political Science, 10

Anthropology, 5

Arts & Literature, 5

Freshman Seminar, 5

German or German Studies, 5

Religious Studies, 6

Film Studies & Cinematography,

7

History of Art, 1

Latin American Studies, 1

French Studies, 1

Comparative Literature, 1

Comunications, 2

Education, 2

Eastern European Studies, 1

Sociology, 4

Women & Gender Studies, 4

Business, 1

Jewish/Judaic Studies, 16

History, 24Courses using the VHA by discipline

Visual History Archive

Page 1 of 30

Current State of Technology: 2009

SUN VIDEO DEMO

Preservation Efforts

USC Shoah Foundation Institute is undertaking amulti-year, multimillion dollar effort to preserve and provide access to the testimonies in the Visual History Archive:

Videotape deteriorates after 20 years

Advanced dual robot technology• Sun storage robot• SAMMA tape robot

Preservation output:• MJPEG2000 (75mbps,a new standard in broadcasting)• MPEG-2 (5mbps, DVD quality)• Window Media file (1mbps)• QuickTime file (1mbps)• Flash file (1mbps)

8PB of storage

51,682 Testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses in 32 Languages

Master: Beta SP Tape: Analog Format: 234,986 tapes in archive

Sub-Master: Digital Betacam Tape: 76,647 tapes in archive

3 mbps MPEG-1: 135 Terabyte online by subscription, fully catalogued and indexed video database

Video preservation and access at USC Shoah Foundation Institute Today

$8 Million funded preservation project from 2008-2014

`

End-User

High Volume Video Tape Master Quality Digitization Station

Output from Betacam SP tapes: Mjpeg 2000 at 75mbps, MPEG-2 at 5 mbps, Quicktime at 1 mbps, Windows Media at 1 mbps and Flash at 1 mbps

A master and sub-master copy of all file types are kept online on two 4

Petabyte tape robot archives

Blue-Ray, DVD, Tape Duplication Stations

Visual History and Online Archive plays and searches all

testimonies

Access and Education

The Online Archive – Internet Presence

Approach:

Students are the main audience, guided by teachers

The Institute is embracing the opportunity to reach students in a more direct manner because of the high percentage using the Internet for school projects and activities.

Begin by building a prototype

A prototype will enable the Institute to test its assumptions through market research and then employ an iterative approach to create the final version.

Build one prototype that can have multiple variations

By building a system that is flexible and can be adapted for various audiences and partners, the Institute can expand its reach and serve different constituents.

The strategic plan called for a sharper focus on the Institute’s international work. Using a filtering process,the Institute identified 12 priority countries in which to focus its efforts.

Education: International Programs

Priority Countries

Croatia Russia

Czech Republic Slovakia

Germany Ukraine

Poland

Previous Activity New Activity

Argentina Germany

Australia Hungary

France Italy

International Visual History Program (IVHP): Create local partnerships with leading educational organizations and governmental entities where Institute provides testimonies/edited clips and example lesson and partner invests in teachers to create lessons addressing local needs.

Fully-managed: Fully manage the creation of an educational program including teacher training and distribution of materials through outsourcing.

Wholesale: Create partnerships with existing leading organizations who create educational resources based on the testimonies and/or edited clips and guidance from the Institute.

Three engagement models

Education: International Programs 19 of 12

International Programs: Ukraine

• Teacher training for Encountering Memory began in October 2007. • The training team from the All-Ukrainian Association of History and Civics Teachers,

“Nova Doba,” in cooperation with the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies, conducted seminars in each of the 24 regions of Ukraine and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

• In summer 2008, 40 to 60 educators attended a train-the-trainer session.

• 2,557 teachers trained nationwide (as of 11/20/08).• Teachers using the Encountering Memory guide have

reached 14,156 students in over 400 schools throughout Ukraine.

• The training program plans to reach a total of 3,000 educators by the end of 2008.

Map Legend:Numbers on the left: Total educators trained in each regionNumbers on the right: Total students reached in each regionMap image source: www.toukraine.info/Images/Articles/map_en.gif

International Programs: Germany

Freie Universität Berlin is developing secondary-school resources based on the archive to meet demand from high-school educators looking for materials.

As an outcome from the strategic plan, SFI, with the Center for Digital Systems (CeDiS) at Berlin’s Freie Universität, is organizing a 2.5-day partner and educator workshop, May 13-15, 2009.

Topics may include: increasing the impact of video visual history lessons; being sensitive and responsive to student reactions; using experiences with video testimony to improve on future educational products; and using technology to support learning with video testimonies.

The workshop will help the Institute work more effectively and establish best practices with partners in creating educational products based on video testimonies from the archive.

New Content: Rwanda Collection

Page 1 of 30

• August 2007: General Assembly organized by IBUKA with representatives of survivor organizations agreed to create the Centre for Genocide Testimony Collection And Research to be called GTR IBUKA

• Mission: To collect, preserve, and disseminate testimonies of the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsis in 1994

• November 2007: MOU signed between IBUKA and the USC Shoah Foundation Institute

New Content: Rwanda Collection

Page 1 of 30

Pilot Phase: 500 Testimonies Time frame: 8 to 12 months Budget: $3 Million

• Testing workflow, methodology, and technology – Proof of ConceptAscertain modifications in order to scale up to conduct and archive at least 15,000 testimonies

• Store preservation copy of the original testimonies [uncompressed digital signal] at USC Shoah Foundation Institute

• Ascertain and plan the integration of testimonies from Rwanda into USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s existing archive

Second Phase: 15,000 Testimonies Time frame: 3 to 4 years Budget: $15 to $25 Million

• Conducting 15,000 testimonies in Rwanda (95%) and outside Rwanda (5%)

• Establish plan and budget for enabling preservation and access technologies onsite in Rwanda

Third Phase (TBD)

• Implement preservation and access technologies in Rwanda

Rwanda: Project Plan Summary

Page 1 of 30

New Content: Rwanda Collection

Size of Maryland

Population: ca: 9.3 million

Groups: ca: 84 % Hutu/15 %

Tutsi/1% Twa

Urban population: 17% of

total population

Life expectancy at birth : 47

yrs

Illiteracy (% of population age

15+) : 50

Average # of children per

woman: 6.1

No. of Vehicles per 1,000

People (as of 2000):  4

1,320 testimonies

3,080 testimonies

6,640 testimonies

Rwanda: Interview Locations

Options to pursuing broad collections:

Conduct new videotaped survivor testimonies: Enables Institute to use its methodologies and technologies adjusted appropriately to fit the subject matter Allows for easy integration into its existing archive due to control of content and format Ability to include particular pedagogical approaches in conducting the testimonies from the start Relatively high start-up costs [e.g. purchasing of camera, accessories, media cards etc.]

Acquire existent collections of videotaped survivor testimonies: Acquire collections of survivors testimonies already conducted but who have passed away Copyright and usage rights need to be resolved adequately

First broad collection: Collection of testimonies with survivors of the Cambodian genocide:

May/June 2008 Discussions with Documentation Center (DC-CAM) in Phnom Penh to collaborate on videotaping

survivor testimonies DC-CAM expressed interest in learning Shoah Foundation Institute methodologies and technologies

August 2008 Agreement reached to have three staff members from DC-CAM intern at the Shoah Foundation Institute

in Spring 2009 Assist the Institute to conduct a number of survivor testimonies locally in the Los Angeles region DC-CAM and Shoah Foundation Institute will share copyright of testimonies to be conducted

N New Content: Broad Collections: Cambodia

Page 1 of 30

Develop an academic institute focused on an interdisciplinary theme such as Genocide Studies, Intolerance and Genocide or Racism and Violence in the Modern World

Develop online tools to drive domestic education (Social networking, video editing tools)

Prioritize and optimize international education programs

Increase access to testimonies around the world through Internet2 sites, sub-collections and a mini-archive

Collect new testimonies of other genocides and related historical events (Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan)

Continue digital preservation strategy

N Strategic Vision and Objectives

Page 1 of 30

Keeping up with the LOC and Hollywood/broadcasting standards for preservations and access (MJPEG2000 and XMF standard)

Implementation of Web2.0 technologies to allow multi-channel distribution (social networking, YouTube, geo-spatial)

Implementation of XML databases to allow integration with external systems and improve scalability for current UI’s (Xquery)

Born Digital Material (file based capture) will provide steady streams of XML metadata with standard digital essence

Implementation of state of the art storage solutions

N Future of Our Technologies

Page 1 of 30

Q&A Time

N Thank You All!