The Division of Libraries, Archives & Museums creates and publishes video and audio-recordings relating to our services and collections. Captions must be made available for videos and transcripts must be made available for audio-recordings. Also, if the audio-recording does not sufficiently describe visual content, audio-description is also required This guide describes options for meeting these requirements.
The Division now uses Automatic Sync Technologies CaptionSync tools and services for many of its captioning and audio description needs. Instructions and guidelines are under construction.
YouTube will automatically caption videos; however, in many cases subtitles are imperfect or missing entirely.
If you do add a video to YouTube, review the subtitles. If they are missing or poor, you can correct the subtitles through YouTube or use our deposit account with 3Play Media to have 3Play Media create subtitles.
You can improve YouTube's handling of your video by using the steps below.
If you modify YouTube's captions, it is a good idea to download the caption files for preservation. Download the SRT, FTT, and TXT files.
Because captioning is a labor intensive process and LAM has a deposit account with 3Play Media for captioning, we only recommend the DIY option for short videos. If you want to give it a try, Amara is a good option.
To begin captioning a LAM video using Amara, first find the video on YouTube. Select “show more” under the video. You will then see a link to the video on Amara. After you select this link, you will be asked to log into your Amara account.
Once you have used Amara for a particular video, you can easily find it again in your Amara “account activity.” So you won't necessarily need to link to it through YouTube.
Some of tips from the webinar: