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AMICO Annual Members Meeting 2001
Final Report

Joint Editorial and Technical Committee Meeting Report

  1. AMICO Library Export and The Museum System (TMS)
    2.

    Members shared their experiences with the TMS export, and voiced a hope that it would work more easily next year.

    One of the main issues in the implementation of the TMS Export report is the lack of consistency between the Members' varied usage of TMS fields. To get a sense of the scope of this problem and to provide input into future discussions with Gallery Systems, Members were asked to share their practice with AMICO.

    ACTION:

    • Members to annotate a copy of the TMS report specification indicating whether their data is in the default field that TMS is specifying.
    • AMICO staff to analyze the state of the problem(s).
    • AMICO staff to contact Gallery Systems President Jay Hoffman (perhaps with Members) to review strategy for implementing fixes to the TMS export.
    • Meeting between Gallery Systems TMS development staff and AMICO Members to be arranged for September 2001 on the east coast.

  2. Other Systems Export
    3.

    There was a brief discussion of export experiences from other systems. In some instances, the process seems relatively seamless, in others, significant hand-work is involved.

    ACTION:

    • The Technical Committee survey will ask for further information about this process, for AMICO follow-up and review.

  3. Antenna Audio

    AMICO has an agreement with Antenna AudioTM to make sound files available in The AMICO Library.

    We have begun with Permanent Collection Audio, as this is the most straightforward in terms of rights and identification. Antenna has provided us with spreadsheets listing the files available; these have been reviewed by Members, who have added accession numbers where possible. AMICO then requested the identified files from Antenna. AMICO will use the accession numbers provided by each Member to link the Antenna-provided audio files with works in The AMICO Library.

    3.1 Antenna Audio Sampling Rate

    Antenna Audio has provided files for inclusion in The AMICO Library on audio CD. These need to be sampled for Web delivery.

    AMICO suggested mpeg audio (mp3), sampled at either 256kbps or 128kbps. There were no objections, though there were concerns voiced about file size for editing purposes, and it was agreed that AMICO would remain flexible and attentive to feedback about the file quality and size as members begin using the linking tool.

    AMICO will create metadata records for all Antenna Audio files when they are sampled.

    ACTION:

    • AMICO will encode Antenna files for distribution in 128kbps mp3 format. We have the potential to change to another sampling rate later if members take issue with file size or quality.
    • Metadata records will be created for the audio files when the audio is pulled from the CD and encoded to an mp3 file as part of an automated process. File size, default copyright statements for the Member/Antenna, and track length will be contained in the metadata.

    3.2 Antenna Audio File Review

    Members have requested an opportunity to review audio files, and ensure that they are linked to the correct work, prior to their incorporation into The AMICO Library. A new tool to support this will be integrated into the AMICO Contribution Management System (CMS) at http://update.amico.org.

    The Antenna Audio linking tool will be accessible in the CMS via the File Submission menu and will be similar in appearance to the View Files tool. Audio files for the appropriate member, if available, will appear in a table with each row containing one file. Within each row, the columns will consist of:

    Filename A link showing the name of the audio file in the format MEMB.AA.YEAR.CD#.TRACK#.mp3. Clicking the link will access the file.
    Track Name The name of the track that the file represents, as provided by Antenna Audio in the spreadsheets reviewed by members.
    GG# Proprietary Antenna identification number as it appears on both the media received by AMICO and the spreadsheets sent out by Antenna. This value will not be exported as AMICO data; it is used as secondary verification of a track's contents.
    AID A link showing the AMICO AID value for the work that the member has recommended to AMICO as the likely corresponding work for the current audio track. The thumbnail for this work will also appear in this column. Clicking the link will open the record for the given AID in the Record Editor. Another link below the AID value named "Change" will allow the member to change the AID to another value.
    Action Two radio buttons will appear in this column, allowing the selection of either "Link" or "Delete" for the current audio file. The "Continue" button below these radio buttons will cause a new page to load, differing depending on the choice.
    Link A page asking for the data values for the Related Multimedia Group (RMG): Related Multimedia Relationship (RMR), Related Multimedia Description (RMD), and Related Multimedia Link (RML) values will be loaded. Defaults will be filled in for RMR, RML, and for most of RMD:
      RMR IsReferencedBy
      RMD Antenna Audio: Permanent Collection Tour (default value, customizable for all of a member's files on request)
      RML MEMB.aa1234.mp3 (the name of the file)
    Delete A page asking for verification of the deletion.

    Files that have been linked or deleted will appear in a list below the pending files on the main Antenna Linking Tool page, showing their status, track name, GG#, AID (if linked), and providing the option to delete/undelete a file that has already been linked/deleted.

    ACTION:

    • The Antenna Linking tool will be available for use by Members in the CMS by the beginning of July and members will be emailed when their Antenna files are ready for linking.
    • Guidelines for the use of the Related Multimedia Group (RMG) for linking Antenna Audio will be posted to the Editorial Committee List.

  4. Contribution Schedule for Next Year

    5. The Technical & Editorial Committees jointly decided to modify the contribution schedule to allow more time for AMICO to process submissions and handle problems.

    ACTION:

    • Preliminary contribution lists will be due October 1.
    • Full Contributions will be due on March 1.

  5. Contribution Management System http://update.amico.org

    AMICO has one window of opportunity each year to make enhancements to the Contribution Management System. This comes in July / September, right after the Library edition is shipped, and before we begin receiving contribution lists for the next edition.

    5.1 Feedback

    Members were asked for suggestions for new features and enhancements to existing features that would make contributing to The AMICO Library easier.

    ACTION:

    • Feedback on the CMS and suggestions for functional improvement will be requested via the Technical Committee Discussion List in the near future.
    • Members are encouraged to respond quickly, as input is most helpful before the new CMS design doc is completed.

    5.2 Tools for Members

    Two Web-based tools have been used by AMICO staff to index The AMICO Library.

    • The Object Type (OTY) Standardization Tool helps Members correct non-standard Object Types and moves terms not on the Editorial Committee list to the Classification Term (CLT) field.
    • The Date Indexing Tool facilitates indexing of Object Creation Dates (OCT) which were not parsed (either by the member or by AMICO's data loading scripts) into Object Creation Start (OCS), Object Creation End (OCE), and Object Creation Qualifier (OCQ) values.

    ACTION:

    • These tools will be made available to members as a part of the CMS re-design.

 


Last modified on  October 10, 2001