Digital Photo Archiving Policies

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Digital Photo Archiving Policies Practices at
U.S. Daily Newspapers By Quint Randle, Brigham
Young University Lucinda D. Davenport, Michigan
State University Howard Bossen, Michigan State
University
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• The recent shift to electronic imaging represents
  photographys most radical change since the
  medium was invented in the 1830s and has had an
  overwhelming effect on the creation and
  preservation of visual images.
• -- John Verity, Does Film Have a Future?
  Business Week, 15 November 19931.

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• One of the most important and straightforward
  ways in which people understand the past is
  through historical visual images.

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• Photographer Ralph Pyke stressed that it is the
  responsibility of photojournalists to document
  society and to preserve its images as a matter of
  historical record.
• -- Ralph E. Pyke, Digital Images and
  Photojournalism, PSA Journal 64, no. 7 (July
  1998) 22-23.

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• Much of this preservationof the times and
  societyis the collective archives of newspapers.

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• However, preserved photographic images might be
  lost forever if archival software and hardware
  equipment become archaic to future generations.

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• Archiving policy also plays a major role in
  preservation saving digital images creates a
  completely different set of circumstances
  compared to analog film archiving.

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• Part of a larger study, this part of the project
  examinedfrom the photographers
  perspectivearchiving policies and practices at
  U.S. daily newspapers.

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• In doing so we hoped to better frame the problem
  of archiving and also see how technology was
  playing a role in the problemor the solution.

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• Our previous paper showed that the transition
  from film-based photography to the use of digital
  cameras is approaching 100 at U.S. Daily
  Newspapers.

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• Few studies in either the academic or
  professional literature or on web sites
  concentrated on newsrooms transition to digital
  photography .

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• Limited storage and awkward filing and retrieval
  systems are the result of new and immature
  technology other problems include limited
  budgets and inconsistent policies.
• Many images are deleted because of inadequate
  space on the flash card and/or the server used
  for storage.
• Shahira Fahmy and c. Zoe Smith, Photographers
  Note Digitals Advantages, Disadvantages,
  Newspaper Research Journal 24, no. 2 (Spring
  2003) 82-96.

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• Photographer and consultant Peter Howe observed,
  in the era of digital photography, for example,
  the picture of President Clinton hugging an
  insignificant intern would never have been found.
  It simply would not have been preserved.

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• Numerous authors have noted the concern that
  technology on which news-oriented content are
  stored may no longer exist in the future.

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• Happened in other areas
• Losing the 1960 U.S. Census data
• the Combat Area Casualty file containing P.O.W.
  and M.I.A. records for the Vietnam War
• Public Land Law Review Commission data
• Department of Health and Human Services records.
• Jeff Rothenberg, Ensuring the Longevity of
  Digital Documents, Scientific American (January
  1995) 42-47.

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• RQ 1) What are the archiving practices and
  policies related to digital images?
• How developed are archiving policies?
• b. How and where are the images being stored?
• Who is primarily responsible for archiving
  digital images?
• d. What are the motivations behind archiving?

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• RQ 2 What are the activities and policies
  regarding retrieving archived images?
• a. How often are the archives accessed?
• b. Who has access to the archives?
• c. Are images from the archive available for sale
  to the public?

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RQ3) Is there a statistical relationship between
some of the major variables above, other
demographic variables and the level of digital
archiving?
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Method This study comprised a 26-item online
survey to daily newspaper photographers drawn
from the membership of the National Press
Photographers Association (NPPA)
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News photographers and a library archivist were
consulted during the design stage of the survey.
Then, two different pre-tests were conducted
using professional news photographers. Modificati
ons were implemented.
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NPPA email list included 2,544
photographers. Eventual number of respondents
was 832 or 34. If more than one respondent
from the same newspaper the most complete survey
was used. Sampling yielded an N of 362.
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As seen in the research questions, most of the
variables were descriptive or demographic. The
main independent variable was the proportion of
images archived.
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Table 2 Description of Respondents Staff
Positions of Responding Photographers
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Results DiscussionRQ 1 Compared to film
images, what are the archiving practices for
digital photo images? And how developed are the
associated policies?
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Archiving Practices For Film versus Digital
images
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Qualitative Comments

• We save everything. CDs are cheap.
• We have a policy but it does not work. Money is
  the issue.
• We have a policy that seems to work however,
  sometimes finding the raw files can be difficult.
• Our policy covers primarily published images. The
  extent to which unpublished images are archived
  is left up to the individual photographer.
• We have a poorly designed policy that is
  followed.

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Qualitative Comments

• Pictures chosen for publication are archived in a
  searchable CD-ROM database, all images from a
  shoot are burned to CD and filed in a drawer
• It's a MESS!!!!!
• Combination of on site server and then to DVD
  periodically when the server is full.
• We burn multiple copies on CD. One copy stays in
  office, one goes home with photo editor and one
  goes home with photographer. We archive published
  photos separately from all raw images, but burn
  three copies of each.

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Qualitative Comments

• Librarian archives published images, photographer
  edited unpublished images.
• Images are archived in two places. A librarian
  archives those images downloaded into the main
  system by the photographers. Photographers also
  archive their takes separately.
• Photographer writes and saves cd with all frames.
  librarian saves all frames entered into our
  system for viewing in other words only selects
  are tagged by librarian and photo editors for
  systems to write to cd for the juke.
• Imaging department, the personnel responsible for
  outputting the photos.

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Qualitative Comments

• Partially for history, partially for resale and
  also so we can incorporate archive material into
  future stories.
• The paper's archives exist as a source for file
  images, my personal images exist both for those
  reasons and because some work might be included
  in future portfolios.
• I learned a valuable lesson from the example of
  the infamous Monica Lewinsky hugging Bill Clinton
  photo. We just never know when that random photo
  from a random event will take on new interest or
  meaning.

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Results DiscussionRQ 2 What are the
activities and policies regarding retrieving
archived images?
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Results DiscussionRQ 3 Is there a
relationship between the proportion of digital
images archived and circulation size, staff size,
archiving policy or other demographic variables?
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Zippo!
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Why?
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Discussion
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Published Images
SearchableTechnologyPolicy
Non-SearchableTechnologyPolicy
Unpublished
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Policy Followed
Good Policy
Bad Policy
Policy Not Followed
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Sustainability

• Physical and software characteristics of the
  storage medium.
• CD, DVD
• Servers
• Upgradeability of software

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Policy

• Which images?
• All
• Published
• Considered for publication
• Other?
• Combination of above to different technology, by
  different staff.

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Search-ability

• Search-ability is two-dimensional Software and
  policy.
• Software that provides for search and retrieval
  by keyword or tags.
• The amount of information to be included?
• Being done at all?
• Date, photographer, etc.
• I.Ds, keywords.
• Captions.

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Training Time

• Communication and follow-up.
• A good policy that is not followed can sometimes
  be worse than a bad policy that is followed.

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Concerns Expressedin photographers comments
The longevity of any particular electronic file
format The stability of any archiving
systemCompany policies that require deletion of
unused imagesThe time it takes to fully
annotate records and have a logically designed
and fully searchable archive system
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Next StepAdditional studies should address
concerns regarding stability of digital storage
and retrieval systems hardware and
softwareCreation and communication of policy
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Thank you Quint Randle Quint_Randle_at_byu.edu
Lucinda Davenport ludavenp_at_msu.edu Howard
Bossen bossen_at_msu.edu
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