The Conference on World Affairs Archive Online: Digitization and Metadata for a Digital Audio Pilot

摘要

The University of Colorado Archives holds a substantial collection of audio recordings from the Conference on World Affairs (CWA), held annually at the University since 1948. Recordings of Conference sessions from the 1950s to the present comprise approximately 8,000 hours of material on reel-to-reel, cassette, and audio-only VHS tapes. In 2009 the Archives, along with other units of the CU Libraries and the offices of the CWA, began the pilot phase of a project to digitize these materials to make them accessible to the public. Between December 2009 and March 2010, the pilot produced 80 digitized recordings, with 15 receiving full metadata provision and presentation in the CU Digital Library in time for the 2010 Conference on 05 April. This paper describes the history and significance of the Conference and the collection; the project team; the planning and funding of the pilot; physical characteristics of the collection; the digitization rationale, specifications and process; metadata design and creation; and delivery of the content to the public.