AVAnnotate Frequently Asked Questions

What do I need to use AVAnnotate?

To use AVAnnotate, you will need:

• a GitHub account
• a direct link to the file of your audio or video or a IIIF manifest for the recording.
• time-stamped annotations. You can add them one-at-a-time or upload spreadsheets containing information about the project’s Events, Tags, and Annotations.

Where can I find audio or video files that provide direct links or IIIF manifests?

Many libraries, archives, and museums offer online AV files that are free and open to the public. They may also offer IIIF manifests for digitized audio and video recordings. The (Internet Archive)[https://archive.org/] is another great resource for finding direct links to and IIIF manifests for audio and video files.

How do I get started creating annotations?

Getting started is easy! You can create annotations using the AVAnnotate dashboard or you can create your annotations in spreadsheets and upload them through the AVAnnotate dashboard. The spreadsheet templates are designed to help you get started. Make a copy of each spreadsheet template (one for Events, Tags, and Annotations., respectively).

Does each cell on my Annotations, Events, and Tags spreadsheet have to be filled in?

On annotation spreadsheets, start time, end time, and annotation are all required. If you are using column headers, these also need to be filled in, so you cannot leave one header blank and fill in the rest. Other cells are not required.

I have successfully added my Tags and Events, but cannot “save” my project after uploading my Annotations spreadsheet. What should I do?

This likely means there is an issue with your Annotations spreadsheet (e.g., an empty cell, or a missing start/end time on a given timestamp, or a wrong tag). Double-check that you have correctly filled out every cell corresponding to your annotations, make sure your tags are created properly, and try importing the spreadsheet again.

How do I format multiple tags on a single annotation?

In the AVAnnotate editing interface, after adding tags and tag categories, multiple tags can be added to a single annotation by selecting them from the available tag list. For bulk uploading, adding multiple tags is a little different). In the “tags” column, tags and their corresponding categories should be separated by a vertical bar, like this: Tag | Tag 2, and so on. For example, in “Spaces and Dreams in Muriel Rukeyser’s The Speed of Darkness”, the first annotation includes two tags: “Speaking” and “Transcription,” which would show up in the template’s “Tag” column as Speaking | Transcription.

What does “OAuth” mean, and what am I giving GitHub permission to access?

OAuth enables applications to interact with a user’s GitHub account, such as accessing repositories or user data, after the user grants permission. To create and edit an AVAnnotate project, the application must have permission to access the GitHub account where the repository will be created.

I received an email from GitHub that says “Run failed: Deploy main branch to GitHub Pages.” What should I do?

Nothing. This email is automatically generated by GitHub when an event is interrupted, but many activities are interrupted during the generation of an AVAnnotate project. If your project still works, please ignore these emails.