York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk

Institutional repositories and the moving imagethe York St John experience

Lauren Shipley

York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk

The purpose of our repository is simple: to store, showcase and share York St John University’s intellectual output and special collections.

York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk

Context

• Faculty of Arts – dance, film & TV production, media, music, theatre• Faculty of Business & Communication – communication, counselling, TESOL• Faculty of Education & Theology – teaching practice• Faculty of Health & Life Sciences – sport, psychology, occupational therapy

• Collaborating for Creativity: CETL

• Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings: CETL

• Internal conferences and symposia

Lots of creative things happening with nowhere for the output to go after the project or course has finished

York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk

Approach

• We're mostly dealing with:• Born-digital material• Material related to specific and discrete projects

• Our approach is therefore:• Project-based – we try to get involved at the beginning• Adaptive – we try to cater for the specific needs of the project

• However, we also have:• Guidelines for ad-hoc submissions of multimedia • General policies regarding IP and licensing for video and audio material

• But we can't stress enough:• The importance of a consistent approach to advocacy• The importance of knowing what's going on in the institution

York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk

Technical challenges...

• File format – .avi, .flv, .m4v, .mov, .mpg, .swf, .wmv, something more obscure?

• File size and video quality vs. bandwidth constraints

• Repository managers are not (usually) digital video editors

York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk

...and solutions

• PTFS ArchivalWare (our institutional repository software)

• Built to cope with multimedia• Worked with software suppliers to install additional plugins when required• Software enables archival quality and display quality versions to be stored

• Streaming vs. download; size vs. quality• Find out about the audience for the material before making any decisions

• Work with projects• Get involved at an early stage – define your terms (preferred file format, size limit, etc.)

York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk

Rights challenges...

• Permissions – tracing contributors

• Licensing – Creative Commons? Self-drafted license?

• Intellectual property – Original copyright? 3rd party copyright? Performance rights?

York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk

...and solutions

• Define policies before projects deliver material, if at all possible

• If not, make sure your general policy is flexible but robust • So far most of our audio-visual material has been YSJ produced and devised

• However, we have still had to be aware of:• 3rd party copyright and performance rights• Getting the permissions of all participants• Appropriate licensing models

• It's all about risk management...

York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk

Access challenges...

• Preservation – fast pace of technology makes file formats quickly obsolete

• Version control – keeping track of different copies of the same source piece

• Accessibility – compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)

York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk

...and solutions

• Metadata for preservation and version control• Make sure all relevant file format and player information is contained in the item's metadata

• Rolling review• Monitor items' life cycles by performing a constant review of file types vs. technological advances

• Comply with the DDA• Obliged not to discriminate – provide a transcript and subtitles or, at the very least, a text-only description that can be read by a screen reader