As presented by Joanna Kaliszewska at the FIAT/IFTA Media Management Seminar in Stockholm, 23-24 May 2019.

1. Rights management in
FINA’s Digital Archive
Joanna Kaliszewska

2. FINA – the new begining
• National Film Archive-
Audiovisual Institute was
created by merging two polish
cultural institutions in 2017.
• Polish National Film Archive
was the biggest film archive in
country – it owned over 600
000 analog and digital film
carriers;
• National Audiovisual Institute
was an institution dedicated to
preserving and supporting the
audiovisual and audio
broadcasting production.

3. Both organizations had their
own digital preservation
systems and the
characteristics of stored data
were different, with only few
similar standardization
solutions.
In 2017 resources of both
companies were merged.
After that, the idea of creating
FINA’s new archival digital
database came along.

4. Resources and standards
After the fusion, our complete audiovisual
resources became con-generic.
At the moment our archive consists of:
• films and additional materials connected
with film production f. ex. posters,
scenarios, costume and scenography
projects, etc.);
• all kind television productions(reportage,
tv news, programs, magazines, etc.);
• live theatre recordings,
• collection of video-arts or other modern
art audiovisual works,
• radio broadcasts,
• collection of music albums or single
music productions,
• unused production footages and more
audiovisual works.

5. Few words about metadata
• There are few of preservation standards useful for
describing the audiovisual content;
• Creating the digital archive depends on the
individual philosophy of cataloguing the resources;
• In time of highly intensive digitization and
acquiring digital-born productions, flat metadata
models are not efficient enough to preserve
information and AV files;
• Steadily, tendencies to create digital archives in
spatial construction (mostly using FRBR standard)
are getting more recognized as an effective
solution for audiovisual preservation.

6. Choosing the FRBR standard
• During the resources analysis we
unveiled similar elements in all
cinematographic and audiovisual
works. The characteristics of audio
resources also had many common
parts in their source metadata
description.
• We decided to based our metadata
description in digital database on the
CEN EN 15907 norm and FRBR
standard, but we wanted to supply
them with elements from other
standards (f. ex. EBU television
standard or museum description
norms used in the biggest polish
museums such as Polish National
Museum and Zachęta Gallery).

7. PROS and… cons?
• Choosing metadata structure that divides our data into
3 levels of description helps in organizing our
information and, what is even more important from UX
point of view – gives the opportunity to personalize
users work.
• It also helps with adjusting the data from the source
database to the website managing structures for
accessibility purposes of your archive.
• But adapting the specialized standard is demanding
for users – they need to have essential understanding
of audiovisual technical and theoretical knowledge.

8. • TYPE (characterization of the works condition – is it a
monographic work, series or episode)
• TITLES – all types of titles – original, alternative, archival
• DATES – for production, realisation, premiere, publication, etc.
• LANGUAGES – original laungage of work
• +CONTENT (synopsis, short description, archival description,
editorial description, genre)
• +AGENTS (cast, credits)
• IDENTIFIERS (unique identifiers for the objects)
WORK
(abstract entity)
•Type of realisation (pre-release, generation, etc.)
•Format (digital, 35mm, magnetic tape)
•Language of the manifestation (lector, dialouges,
subtitles )
•Colour and Sound
•+EVENTS (digitisation, restoration, publication)
•+AGENTS (publisher, distributor, creator)
MANIFESTATION
(realisation of the
Work, release or
version*)
•Instantiation type (generation of analog film reel, type
of digital file, etc.)
•Unique conditions of described object (analog and
digital)
•Acquisition information
•Access condition
•+EVENTS (conservation)
•+AGENTS (users and employees)
ITEM
(physical or digital
object)
WhytheFRBRstandard?

10. FINA’s resources
• Legal deposit of every polish
cinematographic production - for safety
• Collections received from the film and
television studios - with complicated legal
status
• Pre-war materials
– Silent films
– Lost owners

11. • Co-productions with individually
established rights
• Audiovisual restorations produced with the
EU subventions
• Resources donated to the archive by its
owners
• !! Carriers for one title coming from
various backgrounds (with different rights
assigned to them)
How to describe all of highly detailed
metadata with one data structure?

12. How to desing the data?
• Be aware of all the
necessary conditions
to properly describe
your data
• Learn the
characteristics of
described resources
• Closely analyze and
define your users
• Think about your
colleagues!!

13. Defining the users
1. Distribution group
2. Programming
group
3. Editorial/
Specialists group

14. Effects of data analysis
• Data connected mostly with the titles
• Relations between titles and quotes
• License fields defined only as controlled
vocabularies
Rights are described on separate data object,
directly connected with first level of the title
description (WORK)
Some information are virtualized on different
levels as single data fields

15. I(
User-friendly design?
(P.s. It’s a random picture from the Internet)

16. Data structure desinging tips
• Creating the design compatible with basic
and advanced data sets;
• Dedicated access permissions for data
fields and controlled vocabularies as a tool
for restricting data overprovision
• Balancing the amount of information
necessary for the data description
• Working with users as a way for better
understanding your collection’s profiles

17. Construction of the
Rights&Licences object
• Separate sections for the property and
distribution rights
– Additional information about percentage of
rights, dates and previous owners
– List of distribution fields
• Dedicated tabs with license information
– With details of contracts and extra arragments
– Dates and notifications of the licenses

18. Personalization and effectivness
• Sometimes less is more
• Collecting user impressions empowers
designed functionalities
• Connections are extra valuable for the
metadata structures
• Personalization emphasizes the
specialized knowledge of your users