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Poster: ArtCee Date: Jan 1, 2022 11:47am
Forum: oldtimeradio Subject: How to organize upload of radio news scripts

I am acquiring a large number of radio news and current affairs scripts, ca. 1953-1980, from The Voice of America (VOA). This include news, analysis, commentary, book and film reviews, new products, economics, sports, etc. Most are 2-3 pages. The scripts were microfilmed, and I am (slowly) digitizing them. It's a big collection, probably numbering in the tens of thousands of pages, and I doubt I will ever see the task to completion. Still, I think it's a worthy project, and all the material, produced by a government agency, is in the public domain.

My question is, should I upload each script as a separate item, with its own URL? Or should I group scripts so, for example, a series of science scripts from a given year — or month or quarter — is combined into an item. The fewer scripts per item, the more focused the metadata can be. I've considered and rejected a strictly chronological organization scheme, e.g. all scripts from January 1979 in one item.

For background, VOA is the official United States' flagship international broadcaster. It began on radio weeks after America entered WWII and continues to the present. These scripts, at least in the later years, may have been broadcast in English or translated into VOA's other languages, or both. It's likely that audio versions of very few of these stories exist.

I would expect that this will be a standalone collection, possibly named "Voice of America Radio Scripts."

Thanks for your thoughts!
~ArtCee~

(cross-posted from TEXTS forum at the suggestion of R Pal)

Reply [edit]

Poster: Jeff Kaplan Date: Jan 1, 2022 3:47pm
Forum: oldtimeradio Subject: Re: How to organize upload of radio news scripts

i'd recommend uploading them individually when they have unique metadata such as title, publication date, description, etc. as metadata and search is at the item level

Reply [edit]

Poster: ArtCee Date: Jan 1, 2022 4:53pm
Forum: oldtimeradio Subject: Re: How to organize upload of radio news scripts

Thanks, Jeff.