National Archives of Norway hits 13m record mark as part of a national digitisation project to make all microfilm archives available online to the public:

Kodak today announced that the National Archives of Norway has scanned around 13 million microfilm images as part of an innovative project to digitise a considerable part of its holdings and make all information contained on microfilm readily available to the public via the Internet. 

Three NextScan Eclipse 300 Rollfilm production level scanners, exclusively distributed and supported by Kodak in EMEA[1], are being used to digitise microfilm information stored in the archive, with one Kodak i1860 high volume scanner purchased to scan paper records. The equipment was supplied by long standing local Kodak reseller, Kibi Norge AS. 

In total, it is expected that around 15 million microfilm images will be scanned with the project expected to be completed soon. A huge and varied range of records will be made available online including probate and court records, parish church registers which list births, baptisms, still births, death and burial records, along with marriage registers, immigration and vaccination information.

(Via News Blaze.)

Of C’s and D’s – Ta-Nehisi Coates:

The first thing I learned is that even stupid music really does sound much better if you play it on a record. It sounds—I don’t know quite how else to put this—like actual music. At least it sounds that way to me. The way a supermarket in a run-down neighborhood, where the retail strategy hasn’t substantially changed since 1976, will always look to me like an actual supermarket. (As if someday the Whole Foods veil of illusion will fall away and I will find myself wheeled backward, by an affectionate giantess, down the aisle of a Giant Food … )

(Via The Atlantic.)

DISMARC – A digital music archive catalog

In which library can I find the book I´m looking for? The answer usually can be found quickly by using the digital library catalog OPAC. But when I ask, in which archive can I find recordings of maori music from New Zealand, I even don´t have a database to search for. But only until recently …

Supported by the European Commission the DISMARC project has opened up the way towards a digital music archive catalog, uniting more than 40 european institutions and music archives within archives of radio stations, museums and universities. 

Read more here.

Obituary: Bernie Andrews:

In his dimly-lit production cubicle, Andrews painstakingly strove to secure the best performance possible from his musicians, frequently letting them overrun their strictly allotted studio time. His nocturnal working habits earned him a reputation as a nine-to-five man — 9pm until 5am.

After these sessions, instead of lodging the master tapes in the BBC library, Andrews invariably — and crucially — took them home. This was in breach of the rules, but it meant that much precious material escaped the BBC’s infamous policy of “wiping” tapes to save money.

(Read more in The Telegraph)

Classic Film Buffs Rejoice: Sony Unveils On-Demand DVDs:

"Dollars" and other films are now available on DVD — even if only one customer wants them.

Performances by Anne Bancroft, Kirk Douglas, Omar Sharif and other silver-screen stars are available digitally, but too many of their films lack enough fans to justify, from a commercial standpoint, the printing of entire runs of DVDs leaving unfulfilled those viewers who would pay for them.

Making matters worse, some — by no means all — fans of those classics lack the equipment or inclination to stream or download movies to their television sets. What’s a movie studio to do?

To solve this long-tail riddle, Sony’s Columbia Classics’ new Screen Classics by Request department will manufacture any film from a catalog with 100 titles for starters, in the DVD format, accepting orders by web or phone. Titles available at launch include The Pumpkin Eater (1964, Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch), Footsteps in the Fog (1955, Stewart Granger, Jean Simmons), The Juggler (1953, Kirk Douglas), I Never Sang For My Father (1970, Melvyn Douglas and Gene Hackman) and Genghis Kahn (1965, Omar Sharif).

Movie buffs who might be really into movies from 1955, and who know more about Jean Simmons than Gene Simmons, might not to want to stream or download them, and even many technologically adept movie buffs might prefer the DVD format for any number of reasons. Sony’s on-demand DVD manufacturing service will deliver long-tail, classic movie content to the niche that wants it in a way they can use — making, rather than losing money in the process.

However, Sony’s Screen Classics by Request service stops short of delivering films by Blu-Ray, digital download, or digital stream, limiting the options of those classic film buffs who have invested in the latest equipment or otherwise know how to stream internet-delivered content on a television, for example, with a Media Center PC or Mac Mini.

These films will “not initially [be available on Blu-Ray or for digital download], but this is something we are contemplating based on available technologies, future capabilities, and consumer demand,” reads the company’s FAQ. (Why wouldn’t Sony just partner with Amazon or Netflix, where customers already go to look for movies? We’ve asked, and hope to have an answer soon.)

Overall, this is a good thing for movie buffs and Sony’s Columbia division, because it makes classic films available to those who want them, on a format just about anyone can use (after all, computers have DVD slots). We know businesses have to think about dollars, but if Sony had film conservation, rather than just commerce in mind, it would gamble on pure digital delivery, rather than on manufacturing bits and sending them via the postal service, and might end up expanding the market for these films.

Instead, these films cost $19.94 — plus shipping.

(Via Epicenter.)

Okay, so the reason I’m reposting this article is partly to underline how close the film industry comes to realising the historic worth of some of its content, and – if it’s possible to make commercial gain out of it, they’ll find some way to do so – even if it’s niche content for a small number of ‘film buffs’.

And while it’s a bit of a hamfisted attempt ($20 plus postage for a DVD rather than a digital copy, say via iTunes or Netflix), it does illustrate the incredible potential to keep culture in circulation and preserved for future generations as a result of the inherent advantages of digital media for such purposes.

Roly Keating delivers his keynote speech at FOCAL

Late last year, I was involved in a research project with the BBC’s Audio and Music Interactive Department. It was about how specialist music fans connected with the BBC with regard to that kind of programming.

You can read what we came up with as a result of that research, but for me, one of the key lessons was the problem of the word Broadcasting as a defining and totalising concept for the BBC – that is, the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Because the BBC’s role, in a digital sphere, is no longer simply about making content and pushing it out there to audiences. It’s about acting as a resource for public media. That’s not to say they shouldn’t do broadcasting – but that the broadcasting should be part of a bigger concept of British Public Media (and BPM’s got a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?).

The way in which the public uses media – including music (which is a media form, a topic I’ve discussed elsewhere) – is no longer simply as ‘audience’. And because of that change, the BBC is heavily implicated in accommodating that change.

Part of that change is about archives. How media are preserved, how they can be accessed and how they can be used as a springboard into new creative works.

I was very interested to see Roly Keating’s first keynote speech since being appointed as the BBC’s first Director of Archive Content. Video of the speech is definitely worth a watch.

Importantly, he says:

[We want to] position the BBC as still, we hope passionately, a broadcaster – still doing those great schedules night after night, still galvanising audiences, bringing people together, being the soundtrack of lives and so on – but being more than a broadcaster: also emerging in some sense… as a resource for the nation.

Keating makes the point that this is a long-term project, rather than a quick fix – and underlines the fact that this will require strong partnerships across commercial and public media industries. I’ll be interested to see the role music will play in this resource – and the extent to which recording companies drag their feet or outright refuse to cooperate with such a venture.