Resources for Archivists

This project is a collaborative community effort to build a central repository of local historical digitized news. We hope it will serve as a model for other communities to build their own archives of local news content. If you think your collection should be a part of the Boston TV News Digital Library, contact us for more information.

Tools | Legal Guidelines | Workflows | Documentation | Dissemination | User Feedback

• Blacklight - An open source catalog system we use to edit and publish our metadata.
• Filemaker - Database software we use to capture the metadata we create.
• Wordpress – Software we use to create static pages and blogs for the website.
• Google Groups - Google's list serv and shared web space that we are using for project management across our four partners.
• GitHub - A web-based hosting service for software development projects. You can see this project's development on our GitHub page.
• PBCore - A metadata schema for audiovisual material that we use to store our data in xml.

• Flowchart of Legal Questions about Digitizing News Archives, WGBH and Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic
• Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries, Association of Research Libraries and American University Center for Media and Social Impact, January 2012
• Copyright & Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, & Museums, by Peter B. Hirtle, Emily Hudson, and Andrew T. Kenyon, Cornell University Library, 2009 (CC BYNCND 3.0)
• Copyright Term and Public Domain in the United States, 1 January 2014, by Peter B. Hirtle, Cornell University Copyright Information Center, 2014 (CC BY 3.0)
• Legal Issues in Mass Digitization: A Preliminary Analysis and Discussion Document, United States Copyright Office, October 2011

• Description Writing Workflow
• Digitizing On Demand Institutional Workflow
• Guidelines for Description Writing
• Guidelines for Prepublication Review
• Rule for Requesting Additions to Subject Authorities List
• Transcription Formatting Standards

• The project reports will be published at the end of the project.

• "Opening the Archives for Access" at the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) 2010. WGBH Legal’s Jay Fialkov provided an overview of copyright and Christopher Bavitz of Harvard’s Berkman Center presented on their work for our Boston TV News Digital Library: 1960–2000. Chris outlined 4 sections of law that the Berkman report will address: copyright, trademark, state law (privacy, defamation, etc.) and con­tract law. Both panels were well received for their practical bent. Download the PowerPoint Slides:
  • Jay Fialkov — Understanding Copyright Barriers (ppt)
  • Christopher Bavitz — Legal Issues for Media Archivists (ppt)
• Press Release (PDF) describing the Boston Local News Digital Library: 1960-2000
• Boston Globe article from 07/09/2011 with a clip reel highlighting the collections

As one of our target audiences, we value the opinions of the other archivists and librarians who use our site. Our main goal is to make our content accessible in the best way possible. If you have any comments of suggestions please take our user feedback survey.