Translations:Het identificeren en beschrijven van audiovisueel materiaal/26/en

Technical properties

• Make: the carrier make/brand;
• Date: the date of the recording on the carrier. Even though it might seem strange to consider the date as part of the technical description, it can add important information in combination with the format and the make for the later digitisation. If you cannot work out when the content (the work) was copied on to the carrier, the date that it was created often offers good guidance as an alternative. Always note the date in the same way, preferably yyyy-mm-dd (year, month, day). If you only know the year, simply note e.g. '1998-xx-xx';
• Playback time: the total carrier playback time. It is advisable to always note the total playback time for the carrier and not the length of the content run time. It's possible, for example, that there might be writing on a label stating that a recorded lecture lasts for 30 minutes, but there could be 15 minutes of empty space on the carrier first, or maybe the recording started while the audience was still arriving. There might even be another relevant recording following on from the initial recording, of another activity that isn't noted on the original label. So if you only digitised the first 30 minutes, you would miss some of the content. Always note the playback time in the same way, preferably hh:mm:ss (hours:minutes:seconds), so a carrier with playback time of an hour and a half (90 minutes) is noted as '1:30:00';
• Deterioration phenomena: audiovisual carriers deteriorate, sometimes even faster than paper documents. Note down any signs of decay as much as possible because these can determine the priority with which an item needs to be digitised. Common problems include mould, cracks, tears, a vinegar smell, or a white powdery substance on magnetic video and audio tapes (these are the first signs of so-called 'sticky-shed syndrome', the decomposition of the binding layer on these tapes). If there don't appear to be any signs of deterioration, note 'None';
• Recording speed: for ¼" audio tape, note the speed at which the tape was recorded in cm/s, e.g. 2.38 cm/s, 4.76 cm/s, 9.53 cm/s, 19.05 cm/s, 38.1 cm/s, 76.2 cm/s, etc.;
• Reel/cassette: for ¼" audio tape, indicate whether the tape is wound on a reel or cassette;
• Noise reduction: for audio cassettes, note the type of noise reduction used, e.g. Dolby A, Dolby, B, Dolby C or Dolby S;
• IEC type: for audio cassettes, note the type of IEC, e.g. EIC type I, II, III or IV.