Building open source audiovisual collections management systems on Samvera

Abstract

Building and using an open source community-supported system to manage audiovisual materials for a digital archive/library has many advantages and challenges. Being able to dictate the features, have a system speak to specific needs, and have staff on hand that can change or fix problems is certainly appealing. Embarking on this effort with an established open community, such as Samvera, has the advantages of a robust community of developers and service vendors to turn to for help. Managing needed customisations to core code base, keeping track of updates and contributing to the community, however, is challenging. For WGBH, a public television station with a robust 60-year archive, most customisations are due to the use PBCore to structure the metadata of the audio-visual items. This paper focuses on WGBH’s efforts to build a system for its Media Library and Archives based on the Samvera digital repository framework and its Hyrax and Avalon Media System ‘products’.