June 2007 Archives

Perhaps the biggest challenge of in maintaining any of the Through Our Parents' Eyes websites is keeping them current with changes in technology. Since the late 1990s, the Learning Technologies Center has been using a system to capture and convert video into the Real format. We're always trying to move from products that lock us into proprietary formats to more open formats. This summer we are attempting to convert Through Our Parents' Eyes audio and video to MPEG4.

One place you will find this is on Encounters: Our Columbus Legacy, a 1992 KUAT production featuring Big Jim Griffith. We have hosted short video clips from Encounters since the late 1990s. They were captured and converted to Real at a time when most people lacked high bandwidth Internet access, such as cable modem and DSL. Veronica Rodriguez, a senior Media Technician in the LTC, worked from our original VHS tape to re-digitize Encounters and convert the video to the MPEG4 format. Veronica is now working on our Arizona Illustrated clips featuring Big Jim Griffith.

The additional benefit to converting or re-doing these video clips is that once they are in MPEG4, they can be podcast as well. BTW, have you subscribed to our podcasts? If not, all you need to do is click on the iTunes 1-Click button located in the upper right area of the blog's homepage and it will automatically start your podcast subscription and download the most recent episode. All you need is a copy of Apple's free iTunes. Check it out and let us know how you like it.

On May 31st, you saw the entry "Memorial Fountain, ~1919" featuring an image from a Tom Marshall photograph taken after the fountain's dedication. Garry Forger, of the UA's Learning Technologies Center, walked over to the Memorial Fountain this afternoon and captured the color image to the right of Tom Marshall's. Garry's picture enables us to see some of the changes to the area west of the fountain over the past 87 years. Garry plans to shoot the fountain again when the fountains are running. He says that he was there recently and could tell that the fountain jets are now placed differently.

click either image to download a larger copy

On May 23rd I wrote an entry called Seredipity Strikes telling about the Balopticon Model C slide projector and box of approximately 150 glass lantern slides that Louise Foucar Marshall left to Patricia Stephenson's mother and have been in her possession since Patricia's mother passed away. Gary Macender made a 360 degree QTVR of the Balopticon Model C that you can view in QuickTime. If you are new to QuickTime VR, follow the above link and when it displays on your computer in QuickTime, click and drag the image to the left or to the right.

I received an email from the archivist at the Frances Willard Historical Association who confirmed that the slides copyrighted by the National Christian Women's Temperance Union were out of copyright. I had posted a query about this to a listserv I am on and someone forwarded to her. Another example of the sense of community that you find on the Internet. When I complete making JPEGs images from the TIFFs created last week, I'll burn a copy for the Frances Willard Historical Association.

My next step is editing the TIFF images into JPEGS of 600, 400 and 160 DPI, and creating of descriptive and technical metadata. I put a draft together this morning from one of the slides. Check it out and if you have suggestions please send an email.