AUDIOVISUAL: an analysis of the use of digital videos in Institutional Repositories
audiovisual; digital video; institutional repository; scientific communication; Information Science.
With technological advancement, audiovisual gains relevance in the academic and scientific field as a tool, documenting experiments, sharing research and facilitating education. In this study, the term audiovisual covers speeches involving hearing and vision, recorded and transmitted digitally. Information Science recognizes the value of audiovisual, facing challenges due to the digital information explosion. This work analyzes the availability of audiovisual content, specifically digital video, in Institutional Repositories (IRs). With the aim of understanding how this resource is made available in IRs, the research aims to characterize the videos present, analyze the flow of availability based on IR policies, and identify advantages and challenges associated with the use of videos in these repositories. The methodological process involves a multiple case study in selected repositories, including the Institutional Repository of the Universidade Federal Fluminense (IRUFF); Lume - Digital Repository of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS); Institutional Repository of the Federal University of Ceará (FUC); and Arca - Fiocruz Institutional Repository. The analysis in the IRs was conducted using the non-participant observation technique, combined with specific guides for data collection. This analysis is mainly based on observation, seeking to understand the practices adopted in IRs related to metadata, preservation and usage statistics when making videos available. The results obtained indicate that the Institutional Repositories analyzed adopt different practices in relation to the inclusion and availability of audiovisual materials. Some repositories offer detailed information, including video-specific metadata, copyright, preservation information, and usage statistics, while others take a less comprehensive approach. The IRUFF categorizes the audiovisual resource into three typologies: “Image with movement”, “Video” and “Video (Live)”, the latter being added only since 2020, coinciding with the beginning of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Lume stands out for storing the largest number of videos, with 2,376 documents. The FUC Repository presents only three records in the “Video” category, and its Institutional Information Policy does not deal clearly and in detail with the inclusion of digital videos, resulting in gaps in the inclusion of audiovisual content. The Arca Institutional Repository stands out for having a comprehensive and detailed inclusion policy for videos, providing a step-by-step guide that simplifies the insertion process, guiding the inclusion of data, metadata in different accepted types, formats and specifications, as well as as well as some restrictions when registering these documents, eliminating barriers to the dissemination of audiovisual content.