2024-02-12 Avalon User Roundtable Meeting
Meeting Time
Monday, February 12th at 1 PM EDT
Zoom Link
https://iu.zoom.us/j/84620830059?pwd=bWo3R081M3BtaytFMjZnS0FzQkd2dz09
Agenda/Notes
Avalon user survey
MSU theming demo from Sruthin
dml.test.lib.msu.edu
still in the process of ingesting content
really wanted Avalon to look very similar to their main website
heavily customized the look and feel of the main menu
also customization on search results page - theming of facets matches other uses of facets on MSU site, search results
Changed “select” and “selected items” to “bookmark” and “bookmarked items” and using a bookmark icon, rather than trying to select with a checkbox and then trying to find an action or submit button to actually do something
Also themed the playlist page
Challenge: how to merge updates from Avalon with custom local theming
made a them within the blacklight themes folder and all their .scss files are within that folder. These will live independent of upstream changes
still had to modify template files that come from Avalon, for example, calling MSU footer instead of Avalon footer. Probably changes like this sprinkled into 6 or 7 template files. This will require a merge of local changes when upstream files change
The goal was to touch the least amount of files possible
What would make this easier for MSU?
ArchivesSpace is an example - can install custom theme as a plugin, so all custom code is in a plugin that sites on top of ArchivesSpace code, with that done in a config file. All they need to change is one setting in a config file.
ArchivesSpace also uses Ruby on Rails / Solr, so similar stack
No set date for go live yet, but at least hoping for end of semester
Use of PBCore
Anyone use PBCore as part of their workflows for AV materials?
Interest in export as PBCore (in bulk) from Avalon? Other bulk export?
PBCore survey from GBH - not related specifically to Avalon, but general questions about future development / educational opportunities for PBCore.
7.7 update
hope to tag next month
PDF transcripts (UMD)
UMD is adding PDF transcripts
batch ingest of PDF transcripts didn’t work; this is known issue - not able to batch ingest transcripts or supplemental files
think it is typed transcript
Have a future project planning phase to add transcript for all video and audio files in Avalon
Updates/questions from other institutions
Sruthin: is there any written documentation for specific steps needed to install Avalon on m1 Mac chip? They are also having some issues with a colleague who has a Mac but does not have an m1 Mac.
If default containerized install doesn’t work on Macs, then perhaps we should have some documentation for that.
Kee-Young (UMD): Found that sometimes the time showed by Avalon after upload for duration does not quite match the actual duration of the media item in the player.
duration display (on the results list) is metadata that is stored from ffmpeg on upload
the duration in the player is coming from the streaming server; this is always correct for the actual media playback.
Jon reports that sometimes the file may say it is one length but after transcoding, it is not quite that length.
Jason has noticed something similar at NEC sometimes
Future agenda items?
Discussion of transcript searching for next release
Demo of LTI integration with course management system
Potential conversation around upgrade process for institutions that have been using Avalon for awhile (how to handle code customizations, etc.)
Bulk metadata editing discussion - what are the needs for this in Avalon? Are there tools in the community that could be re-used to help?
Summary of survey responses
Attendees
Jeannette Ho (Texas A&M, cataloging & metadata)
Chris Wammes (BGSU, IT manager)
Sruthin Gaddam (MSU)
Kee-Young Moon (UMD)
Jon Cameron (IU)
Emily Lynema (IU)
Jason Coleman (NEC)