Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal February 2004 Volume 2 (1)

Archive service

Moving images online

Ann Beaton describes the project to put the Scottish Screen Archive online, which was launched recently.

Moving images offer a unique glimpse into the past, recording people, places and ways of life very different to those of today. It is the responsibility of the Scottish Screen Archive to locate, preserve and, ultimately, to provide access to this diverse record of Scottish life. The Archive recently launched its access catalogue online, opening up information about titles in the collection to everyone.

Background

The collection spans a wide range of mostly non-fiction content, ranging across topical, documentary, educational, promotional, industrial and amateur material, including significant broadcast and Gaelic language production. There is an archive of written materials concerning the history of Scottish film production and a collection of related photographs, oral history, ephemera and publicity material.

Since its inception in 1976, the Archive needed to view and appraise the huge volume of donated material. The appointment of the first professional librarian in 1990 facilitated the replacement of old card catalogues with detailed computerised records. This led to speedier, improved access to information. In 1999, funding from the Heritage Lottery enabled three full-time cataloguers, working alongside technical and administrative staff to identify, catalogue and process a backlog of c.13,000 cans of film. The culmination of this two and half year project meant that, with most of the collection documented, it was possible to plan for greater access.

Archive staff, particularly those working in access and enquiry provision, were consulted on what information would be useful and appropriate to prepare. The decision was taken to concentrate on those titles that were preserved and copied onto a viewing format, be that film and/or broadcast standard video. A clear idea of what fields we would include in the web catalogue came out of these internal meetings, informed by issues such as data protection, copyright and whether the information would actually be relevant.

Moving from an in-house customised database to a catalogue that was going to be published for all to see obviously had implications for interoperability. The Archive catalogue conforms to the cataloguing rules set out by FIAF (International Federation of Film Archives) and the new personality and organisation indexes were created according to the National Council on Archives Rules for the construction of personal, place and corporate names. There was some concern over presenting the subject index online as this had been developed in-house to satisfy the unique needs of the researcher and to capture the content of the films. Consultation over indexing practice among members of the Film Archive Forum was carried out (it represents all of the public sector film and television archives that care for the UK’s moving image heritage). Due to the timescale, staff resources available and the lack of a common standard amongst the archives involved it was impractical to move to a new standard such as Unesco Thesaurus or Library of Congress subject headings.

Web development

The Archive benefited from having a clear idea of what we wanted from an online catalogue prior to consulting web designers. The functional working database of the Archive with administrative and technical detail would be stripped down into a user-friendly, enhanced access catalogue with supporting contextual and image content.

The website was developed using Scottish Screen’s current provider, Screenbase Media Ltd. An online business plan, site architecture, content specification, design specification and technical specification were agreed upon. Colleagues from New Media and Marketing were invaluable in helping with areas outwith the immediate concerns of catalogue data, such as setting up the e-commerce facility, the practicalities of hosting selected moving image clips on a separate server and branding ideas.

The online business plan addressed the objectives for the site and agreed on success measures. User groups were assessed, broadly falling into non-commercial or commercial. They ranged across the television industry, commercial/independent production companies, the general public, education / community and reminiscence use, museum / exhibition (non-theatrical) customers and those requiring material for a film festival / screening. There was also a need to reach out to those people who were not aware of the work of the Archive. Success would be measured in terms of visitor numbers on the site, increased enquiries generated as a direct result of the website, increased sale of pre-packaged and made-to-order videotapes and expansion of the catalogue itself. Further marketing initiatives would be developed soon after the launch event and when statistics had been analysed.

The site architecture was drawn up, offering a graphic representation of pages on the site. A detailed content specification outlining where information would be located and the reasoning behind it was produced. The creative brief dictated the ‘look and feel’ of the site. This had to complement the current Scottish Screen design, yet offer search functionality and a fresh identity centred around a catalogue. Two main user communities were addressed on the home page: the interested browser coming to the archive for personal and recreational use, and the experienced researcher working in the media industries. There was some discussion over the branding and domain name for the site, with ‘Archive Live’ and ‘Scottish Screen Archive Access Catalogue’ being identified as appropriate. An important concept for the site was that it had to be visually exciting, capturing the diversity of moving images in the Archive and not simply a textual reference tool.

The functional specification proved the biggest challenge as it detailed exactly how the site would work. A listing of fields to be published was agreed, and certain modifications and additions were made to the existing catalogue. The data for the web catalogue would be uploaded from the Archive directly to the web developer’s server and imported into their version of the database. This resulted in a customised solution delivering an online catalogue with easy to navigate contextual links to biographies of Scottish exhibitors and film makers, production companies and institutions as well as an online ordering and payment facility for certain video titles. The detailed search form was designed to service the demands of researchers and those with an idea of what they were looking for, with the option to perform searches across single or combined fields. The browse option guided a less experienced user to various ways into the catalogue with a ‘topics’, ‘places’, ‘subjects’, ‘videos for sale’ and ‘all titles’ listing offered. In addition, still image files and Quicktime moving image clips were built into the functionality of the site so that potentially every title could have a picture and a clip featured on its catalogue record.

Launch

The launch was held at the National Library of Scotland with Minister for Culture, Frank McAveety as the principal speaker. Scottish Screen’s Chief Executive and Archive Curator outlined the possibilities this new resource offered to the widest range of people in Scotland and beyond. Cameron Stout, winner of Big Brother 4 and his brother, BAFTA Award winning television presenter, Julyan Sinclair gave their personal illustration of how film in the archive evoked memories of their childhood on Orkney and offered a unique and immediate form of historical record. Press coverage of the event was comprehensive, on television and in newspapers.

The future

The experience of putting the Archive’s accessible collection online has been incredibly satisfying. Many of the detailed records can now be explored all over the world at any time. People can read detailed shotlists describing the content of a title, explore lists of related films by selected Scottish film makers and production companies and arrange to view or purchase footage. The website has enabled people to do their own research. Films of Clyde steamships and shipyards, flickering images from the late 19th century featuring Queen Victoria at Balmoral, early experiments in X-Ray photography, footage of ‘Nessie’ or the evacuation of St. Kilda in 1930.

A positive effect of the catalogue has been the increase in requests for specific titles for personal use, rather than lots of orders for pre-packaged video titles available to buy online. Whether it is the Riding of the Marches in the Borders, a family Christmas celebration, a whisky advert from 1897 or amateur footage of the Beatles playing the Caird Hall in Dundee, people are finding something that relates to their life and experience. The commercial user is also using the site as an effective research tool and finding easy to access footage to edit into a TV programme without have to wait for Archive staff to query the catalogue on their behalf.

User statistics underline the popularity of the site and plans for the future include mailing registered users with news and information, increasing the number of moving image clips and improving the detailed search functionality. Better links will also be made to information gateways and websites concerned with reflecting the richness and diversity of Scotland’s Culture.

Scottish Screen Archive:

Telephone enquiries: Monday to Friday 10.00-12.00 and 14.00-16.00. Outwith these hours researchers are welcome to fax or email their requests. (0141 337 7400; fax 0141 337 7413; archive@scottishscreen.com)

Catalogue website:
www.scottishscreen.com/archivelive

Ann Beaton is Librarian, Scottish Screen Archive.

Information Scotland Vol. 2 (1) February 2004

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