the Mad Information Scientist in: RECOVER ANALOG and DIGITAL DATA! DOROTHEA SALO an adventure in action-packed minutes! 6 Hi, I’m Dorothea from the U-W Madison iSchool, also known as the Mad Information Scientist, and I’d like to tell you about RADD: “recover analog and digital data.”

When we left the MAD INFORMATION SCIENTIST last episode… When we left the Mad Information Scientist last episode

I was teaching a course called Digital Curation

H. Michael Karchis, “Service” https://www.flickr.com/photos/hmk/15318591498/ CC-BY, cropped and desaturated which was designed as a service-learning course

Travis/Caitlyn H, “Service Project” https://www.flickr.com/photos/wittcogmbh/12706691645/ CC-BY, desaturated where students went out into the world with what they were learning to solve real problems real people had.

Toshiyuki IMAI, “Floppy disks” https://www.flickr.com/photos/matsuyuki/2607912618/ CC-BY, cropped Marcin Krzyżanowski, “Floppy HD” https://www.flickr.com/photos/krzakptak/335533724/ CC-BY, cropped jm3 on Flickr, “Blue VHS Tape!” https://www.flickr.com/photos/jm3/48372842/ CC-BY-SA cassettes, “TopHits01” https://www.flickr.com/photos/cass_ette/2739381629/ CC-BY The problem was, we kept running into a class of problems we couldn’t solve, problems of rescuing stuff off obsolete physical media.

Sarah, “(340/365) TOO SOON! FAR TOO SOON!” https://www.flickr.com/photos/dm-set/4200760617/ CC-BY, cropped OH NO! We’re doomed! oh no! we’re doomed!

… but WHAT IF we had the equipment? but what if we had the equipment?

They said I was… Andrew Butitta, “MAD” https://www.flickr.com/photos/aperture_lag/8555436371/ CC-BY-SA They said I was mad! Mad!

but we built it! but we built it…

olarte.ollie, “detective” https://www.flickr.com/photos/ollieolarte/3028314931/ CC-BY-SA, cropped students… students from my digital curation class who determined the minimum viable equipment load based on media that the school had, and budgeted that out

Ray Bouknight, “250/365 ~ Bibimbap” https://www.flickr.com/photos/raybouk/8651118010/ CC-BY equipment donors… generous equipment donors who contributed so much to the stone soup we were making

the Laboratory Library… the iSchool’s Laboratory Library, which made space for all this and has staunchly supported it since

and the Mad Information Scientist! Sarah Joy “Dismantling the hard drive” https://www.flickr.com/photos/joybot/9450736512/ CC-BY, cropped and me, the Mad Information Scientist, who built it all

Gavin Schaefer (untitled) https://www.flickr.com/photos/uxud/3396427350/ CC-BY, cropped There were challenges with cable acquisition and management

Medisave UK, “Plasters” http://www.medisave.co.uk/ CC-BY and injuries, fortunately minor and all to me

WE BUILT IT! but we built it!

And they came! and they came!

Ludovic Bertron “Wedding Cake Figurines” https://www.flickr.com/photos/23912576@N05/2942523255/ CC-BY, cropped (we do a thriving trade in wedding videos)

Two goals: HELP OUT FIX STUFF Earlier this year we were fortunate to receive a campus grant from the Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment, which had two goals: help some worthy organizations out with A/V digitization, and fix some of our equipment.

Hey Paul Studios “State of Wisconsin Map Pillow Hand Embroidered in Green” https://www.flickr.com/photos/robscomputer/4416375864/ CC-BY, background removed, desaturated So over the summer and continuing into the fall, two iSchool students and I worked on digitizing various kinds of A/V from Cedarburg, the Wisconsin School for the Deaf in Delavan, Langlade County Historical Society, community television station W-Y-O-U in Madison, and Mineral Point library and archives… including, I have to say this, it’s completely mad, an actual eight-track tape with an oral history on it.

darkday “Reel to Reel” https://www.flickr.com/photos/drainrat/16805128001/ CC-BY, cropped, desaturated And just last weekend I had a professional in to fix up our donated reel-to-reel players, which weren’t quite THIS bad but definitely needed the help. So this has all been great! RADD exists, it’s been getting plenty of good buzz, it’s making itself useful… … but the story isn’t over yet.

But what about OUR DISTANCE STUDENTS? What about our distance students, who live as far away as the Middle East? They can’t come to Madison on a whim.

But what about SMALL COLLECTIONS in SMALL ORGANIZATIONS? And what about tiny collections in small organizations that aren’t just going to up stakes and come to Madison? I mean, I’m sure you’ve had the experience of talking to somebody with amazing stuff who just doesn’t want to let it out of their sight.

This? This is not going anywhere! (And actually this is an old photo, I’ve got quite a bit more equipment now.)

OH NO! We’re doomed! Sarah, “(340/365) TOO SOON! FAR TOO SOON!” https://www.flickr.com/photos/dm-set/4200760617/ CC-BY, cropped oh no! we’re doomed!

Fear not, professionals! The MAD INFORMATION SCIENTIST has a plan… Fear not, professionals! The Mad Information Scientist has a plan…

PROUD PRAVDA Over the next year I’ll be building, documenting, and usability-testing two kits, one called PROUD “Portable Recovery of Unique Data” for digital media, another called PRAVDA “Portably Reformat A/V to Digital from Analog” for A/V.

Robert Freiberger “5dmk2-0927” https://www.flickr.com/photos/robscomputer/4416375864/ CC-BY, cropped We’re going to see how much of RADD we can pack in a box for shipping… creepy mood lighting optional BUT AWESOME.

PROUD and PRAVDA are made possible by IMLS grant number SP-02-16-0015-16 I’m super-grateful to IMLS for making PROUD and PRAVDA possible, and if the idea intrigues you and you want to copy it, PLEASE DO. I’m mad enough to want you to, I will even help you do it! Just let me know, so that I can tell IMLS that this idea they’ve taken a chance on is paying off.

thanks for learning about: RECOVER ANALOG and DIGITAL DATA! Copyright 2016 by Dorothea Salo. This presentation is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license!