Uniform linking of heterogeneous film collections
The “AVefi” project explores the automatic matching of film data
BERLIN, DÜSSELDORG, GÖTTIBGEN, HANNOVER, 20 March 2024 – Access to information is the key to progress and innovation. And today, the most important information is machine-readable. This fundamental insight is at the heart of the AVefi research project, which aims to automatically match metadata from the film holdings of different institutions. AVefi stands for “Automated interlocking system for audiovisual holdings via uniform film identifiers”.
The AVefi film infrastructure project, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG), began work in early 2024: AVefi is a collaborative effort involving the partners TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and University Library, the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen (SDK), the Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung mbH Göttingen (GWDG) and the Filmmuseum Düsseldorf (FMD), located in North Rhine Westphalia’s state capital.
Clear references between film components
Audiovisual works tend to be catalogued differently in each institution, so metadata matching does not always produce clear results. The aim of the project is to develop a web-based system for the allocation of Persistent Identifiers (PIDs). These can be used to automatically and uniquely relate films and their versions to each other. This will make it easier to find film elements stored in different archives and bring them together for restoration purposes, for example.
With its user-friendly search and editing interface, AVefi will be a valuable addition to the existing range of (film) identifiers, (standard) data and platforms – such as Filmportal, EIDR; GND, Wikidata and NFDI4Culture services.
Antje Dittmann from SDK, one of the main initiators of the project: “A key factor in the success of AVefi has been our ability to attract so many partners from the film industry to this research project.”
Margret Plank, project leader for TIB, is delighted to see the project come to fruition: “In developing the interlocking system, we are combining the information infrastructure expertise of TIB and GWDG with the specialist know-how of a number of renowned film archives and film-based academic communities in a new way.”
Professor Dr Malte Hagener, Professor of Media Studies at the University of Marburg and Head of the Marburg Center for Digital Culture and Infrastructure – MCDCI, substantiates its support as a partner in practice from a research perspective: “The development of uniform film identifiers will have a positive impact on the searchability, reusability and comparability of published datasets. The development of PIDs – Persistent Identifiers – for film works is important, not least because they provide a basis for linked open data and semantic web applications.”
Kick-off workshop in Berlin
At the kick-off workshop in Berlin in mid-January, the network and practice partners presented and discussed their joint working principles and defined different roles in various specialist groups. In addition to an overarching steering group, there is already a specialist metadata group and a technical group. A fourth group will be made up of data providers and advisory representatives from specialist communities.
The project is now focusing intensively on the development and implementation of the interlocking system, with a particular emphasis on ensuring data quality and user-friendliness.
AVefi is being funded for two years – from 11/2023 to 10/2025 – and builds on the “Archivierungsstrategie für audiovisuelles Material” (Archiving strategy for audiovisual material) project (2019-2021) by SDK and the Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB). The aim is to ensure a seamless continuation and perpetuation of the research project.
About TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and University Library
The TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology in Hannover is the German national library for all areas of engineering, as well as architecture, chemistry, computer science, mathematics and physics. In its specialist fields, it provides national and international researchers and industry practitioners and – as a University Library – students, researchers and teaching staff from all faculties of Leibniz Universität Hannover as well as interested local citizens with literature and information in both printed and electronic form. The library has outstanding collections of fundamental and highly specialised literature on science and technology. TIB conducts applied research and development to optimise the services it offers.
With its TIB Portal, the library offers a search and order portal for specialist and research information with a focus on science and technology at www.tib.eu. Knowledge objects such as audio-visual media, 3D models and research data are also integrated in the portal. www.tib.eu
Wissenschaftlicher Ansprechpartner:
AVefi project team
Matti Stöhr | Sabrina Silbernagel (TIB)
Email: contact@av-efi.net
Phone: +49 511 762 19505
Weitere Informationen:
https://tib.eu/av-efi – Go to project website
https://www.tib.eu/en – More information about the TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology
https://av.tib.eu – Go to TIB AV-Portal
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