Approaches and Annotated Example Projects

Below are potential approaches to creating projects in AVAnnotate, paired with annotated examples. They are organized by audiences, including Collecting Institutions, Researchers, Educators, and Public. A full list of example AVAnnotate projects can be found at av-annotate.org.

Collecting Institutions

  • Community Event or Compilation: SpokenWeb 2025: Re-sounding Poetries
    This project documents the University of Alberta’s contribution to SpokenWeb’s 2025 Sound Institute, bringing together the archival recordings used to develop both the contribution and the cumulative work of the event. Annotations in the original contribution describe the physical location of the recording and link to the archival recording, while the tags identify performer, year, and location. The project later incorporates the cumulative manifesto recorded by the entire SpokenWeb team at the end of the institute, demonstrating how institutes can bring archival source materials, original creative work, and material produced during an event together in one public-facing project.

  • Digital Exhibit or Collection: Latin American Press Review Radio Collection
    Created by the LLILAS Benson Digital Scholarship Lab, this digital exhibit presents annotated radio programs from the 1973-1974 Latin American Press Review collection, part of the Latin American Programs of the Longhorn Radio Network. Its two tag groups identify countries and communities discussed in the recording transcripts, demonstrating how institutions can use tags to trace where and whose experiences appear across a collection. For further explanation of the transcript processing workflows and guidelines used to annotate the programs, see their Audio Transcription Process and Tagging Guide.

  • Finding Aid: A Finding Aid for GBH Special Collection Promotional Reel
    This finding aid to the GBH Archives Special Collection promotional reel uses annotations to contextualize excerpts and link viewers to the full programs. The use of hyperlinks in annotations directs viewers to additional context for figures noted in the material and the collection itself, supporting further discovery.

Researchers

  • Annotated Bibliography : Cuban en Pantalla
    This project explores Cuban history, identity, and social imaginaries through a curated selection of films spanning from the 1960s to the 2010s, contextualized through essays on Cuban cinema’s cultural and political roles and film preservation. Tags organize the transcripts, analysis, and historical commentary of AV items, while the annotated bibliography embedded in the project provides a foundation for these broader inquiries.

  • Anthology or Critical Collection: Harvard 1953 Summer Conference on “The Contemporary Novel”
    Structured similarly to a critical collection, this digital edition brings together archival recordings from Harvard’s 1953 conference on the contemporary novel to examine Ralph Ellison’s early thinking regarding writing about race in literature. The events in the project organize multiple recordings according to the conference itinerary, while the tags identify speakers, program titles, and lectures. These project features help researchers navigate conference recordings and trace connections across sessions.

  • Comparison Between Texts: ¡Vamo’ Al Calentón! Atlas Of The Reggaetón Voice
    This interactive, multimedia atlas tunes viewers’ ears to how reggaetón artists stylize their voices within broader musical legacies. It compares videos of vocal performance across genders, geography, generations, and more, using tags to identify linguistic phenomena discussed in the accompanying scholarship and annotations. Spectrograms provide a visual complement to the tagged AV recordings in the project, allowing viewers to explore the vocal features discussed in the analysis themselves.

  • Observational Notes: Hecate Strait Sponge Reef Dives
    Pairing field-recorded video with annotations, this documentation of underwater observations made during a research dive identifies marine life, ocean conditions, and other notable moments. Researchers then created a framework for organizing their observations using the tags, efficiently allowing them to index findings and recognize patterns within the larger research and conversation efforts of the lab.

  • Oral History: Memory, Education, and Discrimination: Life for Mexican American Children in 20th Century Austin
    Bringing together oral histories from two brothers, this digital exhibit compares how the brothers’ experiences of education and discrimination as Mexican Americans in mid-twentieth century Austin shaped their lives. A map of the area situates the brothers’ recollections geographically, while the descriptive tag guide helps viewers trace key themes and topics across the two oral histories, surfacing where the brothers’ memories differ or converge.

  • Supplemental Research Material: Anne Sexton, Sweetbriar College, 1966 & Annotating Camille (1921)
    The “Anne Sexton, Sweetbriar College, 1966,” digital edition accompanies the researcher’s essay on studying Anne Sexton’s recordings from her 1966 visit to a class at Sweet Briar College, currently housed at the Harry Ransom Center. It makes visible the labor of working with archival audio described in the article, from transcribing and tagging the recording to preparing it for public access.
    The “Annotating Camille (1921” project was developed alongside an MA thesis chapter on Camille. The tags classify and organize the researcher’s observations about the film’s content, techniques, and material condition, while the introductory essay demonstrates how this public-facing work can support film preservation while documenting the researcher’s experience.

  • Transcription: The Universal Language: Annotating Political Messaging during Super Bowl Halftime Shows
    This multimodal analysis examines the political messaging of Bad Bunny’s 2026 and Kendrick Lamar’s 2025 Super Bowl halftime performances. Tags organize transcriptions and close readings of key moments into political and cultural themes, helping viewers compare how each performance communicates meaning through visual and vocal elements.

  • Translation: Radio Venceremos
    Presenting recordings from a clandestine radio station in both Spanish and English, this annotated collection uses multiple annotation sets and tags that note speakers, topics, themes, and sounds to make navigation between the translation and original language easier for viewers. An older version of this project shows how researchers can also link between two different projects to navigate between different languages.

Educators

  • Anthology: Literary Sound Studies Student Anthology
    This anthology brings together undergraduate student projects from a Literary Sound Studies course, pairing annotated recordings of poetry and performance with introductions, analytical essays, and reflections. A shared tagging framework gives students a common vocabulary for analyzing sound while supporting distinct interpretations of individual recordings.

  • Lesson and Lesson Plan: The Urban Crisis & John Beecher and the McComb “Criminal Syndicalism” Case
    The “Urban Crisis” is a high school lesson that uses primary source videos to help students understand the urban crisis facing Americans in the 1970s. Tags such as “Who is on screen?” and “Learn more” scaffold students’ interpretation of archival audiovisual sources, enriching student learning outcomes.
    The “John Beecher and the McComb ‘Criminal Syndicalism’ Case” uses a 1964 recording from the John Beecher Sound Recordings Collection to teach high school students about the “criminal syndicalism” arrests in McComb, Mississippi from the perspective of the arrested high school students themselves. It contains the fully transcribed audio, asynchronous and synchronous instructor lesson plans, a ready-to-use student-facing asynchronous lesson, and a sample collaborative student project, demonstrating how educators can scaffold student engagement with sensitive archival audio through guided annotation and inquiry.

  • Multimedia Project: AI Disinformation Rhetorics & Listening to Betty Hill
    The “AI Disinformation Rhetorics” undergraduate student project from the Synthetic Media Rhetorical Analysis class anthology analyzes the rhetorical strategies of AI-generated and manipulated media through annotated audiovisual examples. Developed from an expanded rhetorical framework, the shared tagging system gives students a shared structure for annotating different materials and comparing how synthetic media attempts to persuade viewers across videos.
    The “Listening to Betty Hill” graduate student project pairs an archival interview with Betty Hill, a woman who claimed to be abducted by aliens, and a critical essay to examine how Hill’s account of her alleged alien abduction both reflects and challenges cultural understandings of the abductee. Tags organize key themes and conversational/narrative features across the recording, helping viewers trace how Hill’s storytelling reinforces dominant narratives of evidence and victimization while asserting agency over how she shares her experience.

Public

  • Digital Scrapbook: En Sus Propios Poemas
    This work of public-facing scholarship functions as a “scrapbook” to explore the life and legacy of Diana Montejano, a poet, civil rights activist, and educator. Tags classify aspects of Montejano’s public and private life, features of the oral histories, and broader social and political contexts, helping connect the project’s essays and multimedia materials into a rich narrative of her life.

  • Digital Portfolio or Playlist: AVAnnotate Tutorials
    This collection of video tutorials functions as a “playlist” that guides users through the platform’s features and workflows. Tags organize the project by transcript and topic, while the tag groups reflect where users can find additional information about this topic in the documentation.