Today we are diving deeper into the world of digital preservation in our visit with Crystal Sanchez, digital archivist for the Smithsonian Institution. So far, over the past two years and sixty six episodes we’ve visited with all kinds of folks involved in different aspects of preservation of works of art — but something we haven’t really looked at closely is the infrastructure that makes all of this possible. Without proper digital preservation storage, systems, procedures, protocols, and the people to build and maintain all of this — time-based media conservation would be impossible.  Crystal is just one of those people — at the Smithsonian she is responsible for managing a Digital Asset Management system that serves 22 Smithsonian Museums, even including the zoo. In this chat we’ll hear all about how this works, and what it takes to maintain a system like this, as well as the winding path that led Crystal from mathematics, to film studies, and finally to digital preservation.

Links from the conversation with Crystal
> https://www.si.edu/tbma/
> https://www.si.edu/openaccess

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