Digital Fieldwork

Francesco SpagnoloThe Magnes Collection of Jewish Art & Life

Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley

Jewish Music OnlineAnalog Repositories, Digital Fieldwork

and the Web of Collaborative Tools

Association for Jewish StudiesBoston, Dec. 20 2010

Let’s try to clarify what Digital Fieldwork is NOT… I will use YouTube as an example.

This is what happens in doing “research” on Jewish music in Azerbaijan online. (Link courtesy of Edwin Seroussi)

But on YouTube I can also find…

…my own wife (and primary sources on the development of new Jewish rituals)

…or a primary source on Jewish-Christians co-territorial repertoires in Piedmont, Italy

Way better than the archival recordings I researched worldwide (despite the grungy video)

YET, DIGITAL FIELDWORK

IS NOT THE SAME AS

RETRIEVING AND VERIFYING THE AUTHENTICITY OF

INFORMATION ONLINE…

Analog sources kept in archival repositories worldwide include

• texts (books, articles, etc.) about music• literary sources describing musical practices• musical sources (manuscript & printed music)

• audio recordings• video

Digital sources kept in archival repositories worldwide and in the www jungle include:

(Some of) All of the above:• texts (books, articles, etc.) about music• literary sources describing musical practices• musical sources (manuscript & printed music)

• audio recordings and video+

Catalogs: libraries, archives, music publishers+

Social media content (Some of all of the above, but not only from institutional sources: also

scholars, practitioners, culture bearers, performers, educators, collectors, listeners, fans…)

Institutional Content: The Digitized Book Repository of The National Library of Israel (Music Section)

Formerly known as Jewish National and University Library (JNUL): http://jnul.huji.ac.il

JNUL Digitized Book Repository – Music: A. Z. Idelsohn Vol. 6 (DjVu format)

Institutional Content: The National Library of Israel: National Sound Archives (NSA)Full Catalog - Search Results for “nigun” (best searched in Hebrew)

The NSA is about to launch its digitization project online (currently non-public beta)

Social Media (Crowdsourced) Content: piyut.org.il

Piyut.org.il includes user-contributed content (texts and musical recordings of Hebrew liturgical poems) derived in part from commercial recordings and from the holdings of the National Sound Archives (NSA)

Disparity in access to sourcesaka

another aspect of the digital divide

"easy" access to digital sources online may penalize analog sources available onsite

yet, we all acknowledge that today’s fieldwork needs to include online sources,

including social media

In this presentation, I focus on sounds online

Dubious status of audio sources available through social media:

• lack of metadata, • lack of metadata control

• lack of unifying standard, leading to...

The Very Pressing Problem of Sound Online

How can we negotiate the contrast between:

a. A superb commercial interface (iTunes), dedicated to selling commercial recordings

b. The grim state of the visual representation of sound on the web (an eminently visual platform)

(this includes social media: there is currently no comparable platform to YouTube/video Flickr/images available to sounds)

Options for digital sound online: The Internet Archive (archive.org)

The Holy Quran is the most downloaded audio file on IA

Note:

•Streaming box

•Multiple download options

Options for digital sound online: The Internet Archive (archive.org)

The Holy Quran is the most downloaded audio file on IA

Note:

•Exportable metadata (.xml)

•Support for “comments”

Options for digital sound online: The Internet Archive (archive.org)

Summary: good metadata structure – minimal visualization of sound – EMBED CODES – exportable

metadata (xml) – "comments” – LONGEVITY

Options for digital sound online: SoundCloud (soundcloud.com)

Options for digital sound online: SoundCloud (soundcloud.com)

Individual sound track view (“soundwave” visualization)

Options for digital sound online: SoundCloud (soundcloud.com)

Sound-friendly metadata support

Options for digital sound online: SoundCloud (soundcloud.com)

A host of dedicated applications

Options for digital sound online: SoundCloud (soundcloud.com)

Summary: best metadata – best visualization – no directly exportable metadata – licensing – embed

codes – "comments” & “tags” – LONGEVITY???

Options for digital sound online: YouTube (youtube.com)

Summary: Worst metadata – visualization via images (stills, slideshows, videos) – embed codes – no directly exportable metadata – licensing – "comments” & “tags” – LONGEVITY? (google) –

ANNOTATIONS – VARYING LEVES OF PERMISSIONS

Options for digital sound online: content-specific aggregators

Black Sabbath (Idelsohn Society)Aggregates culturally-specific content from social media (including YouTube &

SoundCloud), a dedicated platform-specific application (iPhone), and marketing tools

Options for digital sound online: content-specific aggregators

Summary: Horrible metadata – visualization via images (stills, slideshows, videos) – no directly

exportable metadata – no licensing – "comments” & “tags” – LONGEVITY??? – ANNOTATIONS via Social Media Aggregation – dedicated app – blurred lines between

content and marketing are confusing

Where is fieldwork in all this?

Music online offers a platform for collaborative fieldwork

But it currently requires making some choices regarding

- Metadata structures- Platform

How collaborative fieldwork can, well, work:

The adoption of flickr.com by the Library of Congress and a host of other institutions worldwide joining the Flickr Commons established de facto a standard for images

How collaborative fieldwork can, well, work:

Flickr’s support for exportable metadata standards, dating tools, geolocation, tags (also machine-generated), licensing, comments, varying levels of permissions AND annotations

looks like an excellent model for sounds online

Digital FieldworkEmerging practice, based on:

• collaborative tools & research practices rather than digital sources alone

• notion of distributed rather than centralized knowledge brought forth by the digital humanities

pilot projectJewish Digital Narratives

of The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and LifeBancroft Library, UC Berkeley

Digital FieldworkAgents of collaboration may include:

institutions scholars

librarians & archivistspractitioners,

culture bearersperformerseducatorscollectors

listeners & fans…

Digital FieldworkThe absence of a dedicated tool may actually present

us with the opportunity of crafting one that supports all of the following:

Sound-specific metadata structure – dating tools – geolocation – sound-friendly visualization – embed

codes – exportable metadata – "comments” & “tags” (including machine-readable tags) – annotations options – longevity (aka digital preservation) –

licensing (including CreativeCommons)