Report of the Library Technology Officer

November 2003

Vanderbilt Television News Archive

Off-air recording

95 Evening news programs were recorded and added to the collection
26 ABC Nightline programs added to the collection
6 other special broadcasts were recorded and added to the collection

Web server access

1,023	new customers registered on the website
164,013	total entries in activity log
17,025	views of the home page
6,559	views of the search page
7,984	searches executed
4,578	Calendars viewed
21,572	individual records viewed
26,510	program listings viewed

Abstracting and Database Maintenance

1,896 new records were added to the TV-NewsSearch database bringing it to a total of 733,985 records.
131 programs were cataloged into the database
26,510 records modified.

Visitors

The Archive had a visitor from Michigan State University to view tapes on-site.

Loan Requests filled

47 orders processed in September 2003
Compilation tapes were produced totaling 11.0 hours of content
Duplications of programs were produced totaling 22.0 hours of content

View the Cumulative Table of Statistics for the Archive's activities.

Library Technology Officer Activities

This month, much of Marshall's attention focused on preparing for limiting access to the TV-NewsSearch to subscribers. He re-wrote a number of the programs related to IP authentication and authorization to access the database component of the system. This work resulted in a more technically efficient means for identifying users from subscribing institution, and in eliminating some of the steps that were previously required before using the database. The system now recognizes any user from a subscribing institution and allows access to the database without any intermediate steps. Logging in through a personal account is necessary only when placing a videotape loan request. Statistical counts are gathered and credited appropriately for each institution for both generic and personal logins.

Part of the Video Delivery System that needs to be in place by the January 1, 2004 launch of the subscription-based service includes a high-capacity streaming video server. The cost of the Helix Universal Software to needed for this component of the system was $50,732. The Archive received a grant from a local foundation this month to support the purchase of this software.

Marshall continued working on the technical implementation of the video servers. Steve Davis and other Archive staff worked on making sure that all the Realmedia files for the CNN material digitized to date have been loaded on the video servers.

Meetings and Committee work

This month Marshall participated in meetings of the Library Management Council, the University Librarian's Advisory Group, and OUL staff meetings, as well as meetings to discuss library involvement in campus courseware initiative, and institutional repository issues.

Extra-curricular Activities

Marshall took a week of vacation time in addition to the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Marshall attended the Internet Librarian conference in Monterey, CA. He gave a presentation on tools and toolkits for Web development, was on a panel for "Bright Ideas for the Web".

Marshall Breeding and John Lynch both attended the Association of Motion Image Archivists convention in Vancouver, British Columbia. John participated in a panel on off-air recording and Marshall participated on a panel on grant writing and fund raising.

Marshall's regular "Systems Librarian" was published in Computers in Libraries.