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• Files ingested from a dropbox are properly handled when the masterfile management strategy is set to 'move' #2903
• Batch ingest emails are sent successfully, even when items are deleted by users before the job completes #2892
• Manifest files are deleted after reading and before any processing has happened to avoid race conditions or other errors #2919

For any questions or assistance, please email us using our contact form.

or join our discussion:  avalon-discuss-l@list.indiana.edu

Or find us on Slack at: 

Avalon Slack team: samvera.slack.com/messages/avalon

Joining a Slack team requires an invitation, but anyone can generate an automatic invite to the Samvera Community slack channel using the following form: Samvera Slack invite

Avalon Media System is proud to announce the successful completion of integrations between Avalon, a Samvera solution bundle for audio and video management, and OHMS, the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer.

Libraries and archives host rich collections that include audio and video recordings of oral histories and interviews, often first-hand accounts of events important to cultural memory.  While many of these recordings have languished in formats that made them inaccessible to researchers and, in many cases, the public, the combination of OHMS and Avalon can make these oral histories accessible and manageable, leveraging open technologies designed specifically for the specific needs of libraries and archives.

The integrations, developed by AVP (formerly AVPreserve), will enable media managers to use the latest version of OHMS to index or connect interview transcripts with video or audio media, managed and stored in the robust Avalon Media System via Avalon's JavaScript player API.  Paired with the powerful time-based search, discovery and navigation features in OHMS, the final product will create a package complete with transcripts and menus derived from user-created metadata, ready for display.  

Douglas Boyd of Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries states “Indiana University is the first institution besides the University of Kentucky to make a significant contribution to the OHMS code.  We are always looking for ways to make OHMS a more effective solution and the incorporation of Avalon represents significant step forward for OHMS and Avalon.”

This work was supported by the Indiana University Office of the Bicentennial as part of Indiana University’s Bicentennial Oral History Project.  Avalon Media System is developed by Indiana University Libraries and Northwestern University Libraries, with support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  OHMS is developed and managed at the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries and was made open source and free through support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. 

For more information regarding Avalon and OHMS, please contact Avalon at:  http://www.avalonmediasystem.org/contact

Avalon is seeking your input to help us create Avalon Media System specific training.

You can tell us what areas would be of the most use for your team when it comes to training, and what works best for you in terms of delivery.  

Just fill out this brief survey to give us some ideas.  The survey should only take about 5-10 minutes to complete, and if you have additional ideas for what we could offer, we're all ears.

We'll follow up soon to let you know our plans!

If you'd like to discuss training in more detail or have other topics of discussion, as always, please use the following channels

• email the list-serve at:  avalon-discuss-l@list.indiana.edu
• if you're a Samvera Community member, just look for us on Slack at #avalon
• or contact the Community Manager directly at:  ryan dot steans at northwestern dot edu

Jon Cameron (Indiana) hosts and Adam Arling (Northwestern) stars in Sprint Demo #153 

See our first public demo of the IIIF stand-alone player

View here

Runtime:  6 minutes, 30 seconds

Avalon will host the second Avalon monthly forum on Wednesday, June 13^th at 4:00 Eastern.

Topics will include:  

• Northwestern University – Avalon for e-Reserves Media Distribution (Molly Zolnay and Natalie Pelster)
• Avalon and IIIF for Video (Adam Arling and Brian Keese)

The Forum will last approx.. 30 minutes.

If you can’t make it, we’ll be posting the presentation video to the Avalon Demo site within the days following.  (Our first Forum is here.)

To join the Meeting:

https://bluejeans.com/730726712

To join via Room System:

Video Conferencing System: bjn.vc -or-199.48.152.152

Meeting ID : 730726712

To join via phone :

1)  Dial:

                +1.408.740.7256 (United States)

                +1.888.240.2560 (US Toll Free)

                +1.408.317.9253 (Alternate number)

                (see all numbers - http://bluejeans.com/numbers)

2)  Enter Conference ID : 730726712

Under a grant from the Andrew A. Mellon Foundation, Indiana University is partnering with AVP and WGBH Educational Foundation on behalf of the American Archive of Public Broadcasting to configure Avalon Media System to ingest, manage and provide access to 70+ years of digititized public broadcasting content.

To see the full press release, please visit the American Archive of Public Broadcasting website.

Inaugural Avalon Forum

May 2, 2018 - 4:00 PM Eastern, 1:00 PM Pacific

• Duration:  Approximately 30 minutes
• Who should attend:  current users of Avalon Media System,  those who are considering Avalon as a solution for managing the audio and visual resources of their organization.  Librarians, archivists, administrators, developers, DevOps and SysAdmins - if you are working with audio and/ or visual media, we'd love to hear from you.

The Avalon Forum is a new, monthly webinar series providing the Avalon Community with an opportunity to learn about:

• the direction and development of Avalon
• community activities and opportunities
• how your colleagues are using the system

and, we hope you will take us up on the opportunity to speak directly to the Avalon team, ask questions and tell us about the challenges you're facing as you take on video and audio.

In this first Forum, we will provide a history of Avalon, describe current efforts and share our plans for future development.  We'll also discuss how we're working with the Samvera and Hyrax Communities, how you can participate to help ensure Avalon grows in useful directions, and provide opportunity for community feedback.

In future installments of the Avalon Forum, we'll be showcasing how your colleagues are using Avalon Media System.  We'll also discuss opportunities for outreach, training and other ways we can enhance the Community. 

We hope you'll be ready and willing to spotlight the good work at your institution or organization.

Ways to join the Avalon Forum:

In Spring 2018, The Avalon Team will begin work on Avalon 7.  As we move down this pathway, we want to invite you to join us, and help build a better Avalon!

As part of our commitment to the Samvera Community, Avalon 7 will be developed as a feature-parity-plus re-architecting of the Avalon 6 solution bundle.  Rather than developing a stand-alone and redundant Samvera stack, this version will utilize Hyrax/ Samvera as the underlying core.  In doing so, Avalon will focus on development of audio and video access and delivery technologies, leaning on the trusted capabilities of Hyrax and Samvera.  

Benefits will include: 

• allowing adopters to learn and manage fewer stacks
• allowing adopters to consider utilizing a single Avalon/ Hyrax instance for IR and other repository needs
• synchronicity between Avalon and Hyrax development 
• Avalon development team participating in and advancing Hyrax development
• Avalon feature developments resulting in contributions back to Hyrax

We are now seeking members of the community interested in joining us in co-developing Avalon 7. 

How you can participate:

Community Sprint Cycles

Sprint Cycles will last about 6 - 8 weeks, broken into regular, bi-weekly sprints, at which time contributors can join us or step away.  Community Sprint Cycles will not begin until April, but if you would like the opportunity to become familiar with Hyrax, as well as the Avalon feature set, we would very much like to discuss your interest.  

Pull Requests

Further, we are aware that many potential contributors may not be able to work on our timeline or may wish to work in short bursts on particular areas of interest.  If you prefer to work on individual pieces of Avalon, even out of band from the sprint cycles, we can certainly welcome the expertise of the community. 

For Non-Developers

Developing a system requires the input and know-how of a wide-variety of experts.  If you would like to join us in a role such as: 

• Quality Assurance/ Testing
• product feedback
• metadata oversight
• media or music librarian... 

 Your participation can help make Avalon a system that meets the needs of an even wider community.  

Stay in the Loop

To see what is occurring with Avalon, and to get an idea where we're headed, please visit the Avalon Roadmap.

You may also wish to join our communication channels, or review our project progress.  

To let us know you'd like to consider joining us in Avalon 7 Development - please fill out the survey at the link:  https://goo.gl/forms/BnhYyHW5xMbBeliR2

If you have any questions, please just let us know:  avalon@dlib.indiana.edu

-Ryan Steans

Avalon Community Manager

• The Avalon Media System team is proud to announce the release of Avalon 6.3.  
   
  This version is now available for download at the Avalon Media System GitHub.  
   
  Co-developed at Indiana University and Northwestern University, Avalon 6.3 delivers several new features requested by the community.  
   
  Media Player Upgrade
  Version 6.3 utilizes the latest version of MediaElement.js, stepping away from RTMP and moving to HLS.  
  • Adobe Flash Player no longer required for media playback - users may now view video in HTML5-based formats, meeting modern browser requirements
  • A loading indicator displays in the Media Player while content loads, alerting users to status
  • More intuitive navigation thanks to a refresh of look and feel for the Media Player
   
  Playlists
  • Users can now create their own "Tags" for playlists.  This feature enables users to better organize, "search for" and "sort by" playlists
  • Save preferences for sorting of the playlist index page, allowing users to return to a persistent view of the playlists each time they log in
   
  AWS Support
  Refactoring of the components necessary for better deployment and operation of Avalon on Amazon Web Services 
   
    Improved Batch Ingest Functionality
  • During batch uploads, users can now re-upload metadata via spreadsheet to sort out issues prior to publication 
  • Improved batch ingest operations allow for large numbers of items to upload with greater ease
  • System emails regarding failure of batch ingests are now more explicit regarding the source of the issue
   
  Bug Fixes and Minor Changes
  • Playlist items no longer intermittently skip
  • Issues with LTI login have been resolved
   
  Version 6.3 completes the majority of the work planned for Avalon 6.  While users can expect the Avalon development team to issue maintenance releases and minor improvements, in February 2018, development focus will shift to Avalon 7 (please stay tuned for additional announcements and how you can participate!).
   
  Avalon 6.3 release notes: https://github.com/avalonmediasystem/avalon/releases/tag/v6.3.2
  Avalon upgrade instructions:  https://wiki.dlib.indiana.edu/display/VarVideo/Upgrading+Avalon
  Avalon documentation:  https://wiki.dlib.indiana.edu/display/VarVideo/Documentation
   
  Development of Avalon is supported in part by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
   
  For more information on Avalon Media System, please visit our website or contact us:
   
  http://www.avalonmediasystem.org/
  avalon@dlib.indiana.edu