Searching and browsing film archives – The European Film Gateway approach

Cultural Heritage 2009Cairo, Egypt 6-8 December 2009

Pasquale Savino – ISTI-CNRFranca Debole – ISTI-CNR

Georg Eckes - DIF

• growing number of digitisation projects and repositories of digital collections need for a registry of collections, items and film-specific authority files

on a trans-institutional, trans-national level• Lack of common standards for database & record structures suitable for

the needs of film archives need for common interoperability standards

• flickr, youTube etc. influence user expectations, digital libraries initiatives are on their way challenge for film archives to go along

• lack of knowledge and best practices when it comes to dealing with IPR issues in the context of web-based access need to join experiences

Initial Situation:Why a European Film Gateway?

Goals and Objectives:What is EFG supposed to achieve?

• build a „digital showcase“ for collections of Europe‘s film archives and cinematheques• Moving images: Films and film clips, trailers etc.• Images: Posters, images, stills, drawings etc.• Text material: Reviews, correspondance, censoship

documents etc.• Sound material: Interviews etc.

• make collections accessible through a common access point

• create a registry of digital objects and filmographic authority records

• link Europe‘s film archives and cinematheques with Europeana and operate as an “Aggregator” for Europeana

• make more than 700.000 photographs, posters, texts, audio documents, films and film clips covering more than 100 years of film history accessible by 2011

Objectives

• Defining a metadata schema which is able to describe the complexity of EFG data structures, relationships, and content and that can support search and browsing capabilities

• Joining archives and filmographies and support export of complex metadata structures (OAI-PMH)

• Cleaning and consolidating data from heterogeneous sources

• Enriching content (tagging archival resources and filmographic editing)

• Clearing rights where necessary

Providers of ContentDeutsches Filminstitut – DIF (coordinator) FrankfurtDEUCinemateca Portuguesa – Museu do cinema Lisbon PRTCineteca del Comune di Bologna Bologna ITADet Danske Filminstitut Copenhagen DNKFilmarchiv Austria Vienna AUTIstituto Luce Rome ITALa Cinémathèque Française ParisFRALichtspiel - Kinemathek Bern Bern CHELietuvos Centrinis Valstybés Archyvas Vilnius LTUMagyar Nemzeti Filmarchívum Budapest HUNNárodní Filmový Archiv Prague CZENasjonalbiblioteket Oslo NORNederlands Filmmuseum Amsterdam NLDTainiothiki tis Ellados Athens GRC

Providers of Infrastructures, Services, and TechnologiesAssociation des Cinémathèques Européennes (initiator) Frankfurt/BrusselsDEU/BELCNR-ISTI Pisa ITAEDL Foundation The Hague NLDEremo srl CupramontanaITAFernUniversität Hagen Hagen DEUreelport GmbH Cologne DEU

20 institutions | 13 countries | 11 languages

Partner Institutions:Who is behind EFG?

Goals and Objectives:What is EFG supposed to achieve?

Definition of a common interoperability schema

• Approach – The schema was designed taking into

account the specific application scenario– Looking at existing models, in order to

take into account previous experiences and to simplify the schema mapping

– The model is based on the User needs defined in EFG

– Maintain a compatibility with ESE in order to simplify the ingestion process into Europeana

The EFG Metadata Schema

The EFG Metadata SchemaAn AV Creation Corresponds to a Cinematographic work as defined in EN 15907.

Main elements:• Identifier• Title• Record Source• Identifying Title• Country of Reference• Production Year• Keywords• Description• Note• UserTag • ViewFilmography

The EFG Metadata Schema

An AV Manifestation is the physical embodiment of an audio visual creation. For example, it may contain the different national versions, different productions of the same AV Creation.

Main elements:• Identifier• Title• Record Source• Language• Dimension• Duration• Coverage• Format• Rights holder• Provenance• Thumbnail• Note

The EFG Metadata Schema

An Item contains a reference to the external resource. For a single AV Manifestation we may have several Items stored in different archives.

Main elements:• Identifier• IsShownBy• IsShownAt• Format• Provider• URI• Country• Note

The EFG Metadata Schema

Examples of Non AV Creations are pictures, photos, correspondence, books or periodicals

Main elements:• Identifier• Title• Record Source• Keywords• Description• Date Created• Language• Note• UserTag

The EFG Metadata Schema

A Non AV Manifestation is the physical embodiment of an Non AV Creation.

Main elements:• Identifier• Title• Record Source• Type• Language• Date• Digital Format• Physical Format• Geographic Scope• Coverage• Rights holder• Provenance• Thumbnail• Note

The EFG Metadata Schema

An Agent is an Entity that can perform an action.There are three agent types:

•PersonIdentifier, Record Source, Name, Date, Region of Activity, Place, Sex, Type of Activity, Note, ViewBiography

•Corporate Body•Group

The EFG Metadata SchemaPublication eventE.g. a public screening, broadcast or a public release on a physical distribution medium or online•Elements: Identifier, Record Source, Type, Date, Regional Scope, Place, Event Name, Exhibition organizer, Publisher, Access conditions, NoteDecision eventAn event in which a manifestation of a creation was evaluated by a censorship body or an accredited rating agencyIPR RegistrationAwardProduction eventExamples are dates and locations where castings took place or dates and locations of shootings or other recordings

An example of the use of theEFG Metadata Schema

• Title: “2001: A Space Odissey”• Record Source: IMDB• Identifying Title: “2001: A Space Odissey”• Country of Reference: • Production Year: 1968• Keywords: Science Fiction, HAL, intelligent

computer• Description: “Mankind finds a mysterious,

obviously artificial, artifact buried on the moon and, with the intelligent computer HAL, sets off on a quest”

An example of the use of theEFG Metadata Schema

• Title: “2001: A Space Odissey”• Record Source: IMDB• Identifying Title: “2001: A Space Odissey”• Country of Reference: • Production Year: 1968• Keywords: Science Fiction, HAL, intelligent

computer• Description: “Mankind finds a

mysterious, obviously artificial, artifact buried on the moon and, with the intelligent computer HAL, sets off on a quest”

• Title: “2001: Odissea nello Spazio”• Record Source: “Cineteca Nazionale”• Language: IT• Duration: 141 min

• Title: “2001: A Space Odissey”• Record Source: “MGM”• Language:EN• Duration: 160 min

An example of the use of theEFG Metadata Schema

• PersonRecord Source: IMDBName: Stanley KubickRegion of Activity: UKSex: maleType of Activity: directorViewBiography

An example of the use of theEFG Metadata Schema

• Title: Poster• Record Source: IMDB• Keywords: Used in Italy• Date Created: 1968

An example of the use of theEFG Metadata Schema

• Title: Review• Record Source: IMDB• Date Created: 1968

An example of the use of theEFG Metadata Schema

• Title: Poster• Record Source: IMDB• Keywords: Used in Italy• Date Created: 1968

• Title: Review• Record Source: IMDB• Date Created: 1968

Linking resources• Title: Poster• Record Source: IMDB• Keywords: Used in Italy• Date Created: 1968

• Title: Review• Record Source: IMDB• Date Created: 1968

was reviewed in

was advertised

directed by

played by

Linking resources

Advanced search for film title

Person page for Peter Lorre

Time scheduleJune 2009 Metadata schema finalised

June/July 2009 Test ingests from first 5 archivesAugust 2009 Testing and further ingestsAutumn 2009 First test ingests from EFG to

Europeana possibleSummer 2010 EFG portal public launchUntil August 2011

Consolidating film work and personauthority files, linking objects to

authority records, further ingests

Expected results

• Agreement on common interoperability standards for film archives and cinématques

• Best practices for rights identification

• A single access point to the digitised collections of Europ’s film and audiovisual archives

• Access to Europe’s film heritage through Europeana

Thank you!

Further information can be found at the EFG web site

http://www.europeanfilmgateway.eu/