University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Reconsidering technical labor in information institutions: The case of analog video digitization

Lischer-Katz, Zack

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/106088

Description

Title
Reconsidering technical labor in information institutions: The case of analog video digitization
Author(s)
Lischer-Katz, Zack
Issue Date
2019
Keyword(s)
  • Technical labor
  • Digitization
  • Information work
  • Academic libraries
Abstract
"Technical labor is still typically made invisible in the functioning of academic libraries and other information institutions even as they begin to disseminate technical and craft knowledge through makerspaces and other sites of library innovation. This paper seeks to recover one type of technical labor, digitization, as information work that embodies mental and manual activities and is both materially and intellectually productive. This paper draws on findings from an empirical study conducted by the author from 2015–2017 that used qualitative-interpretive methods to study the discursive and material practices of professional media preservationists as they worked to digitize analog video recordings in small-scale, high-quality (""artisanal"") digitization projects. One key finding of this research is that in order to produce ""legitimate"" digital copies within their institutional contexts, media preservationists must coordinate their physical and mental activities to develop understanding of the invisible electrical signals that carry the encoded video information, blending objective and subjective modalities of knowledge. These findings have implications for understanding how the invisible labor of digitization has significant mental as well as manual dimensions, contributing to ongoing debates in information studies and the digital humanities on the relationship between ""doing"" and ""signifying"" in terms of knowledge work."
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press and the Illinois School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Series/Report Name or Number
Library Trends 68 (2). Fall 2019
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/106088
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2019.0037
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2019 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Owning Collections

Library Trends 68 (2) Fall 2019: Labor in Academic Libraries PRIMARY
Library Trends 68 (2) Fall 2019: Labor in Academic Libraries. Edited by Emily Drabinski, Aliqae Geraci, and Roxanne Shirazi.