Frequently Asked Questions

The TIB AV-Portal is an open-access platform for scientific videos and audio recordings, focusing on technology as well as architecture, chemistry, computer science, mathematics and physics. Over time, the scope of the portal has expanded to include a wider range of scientific disciplines, including the humanities and social sciences, economics, law and medicine (see subjects). Users of the portal have access to a diverse range of video and audio content, including lecture and conference recordings, simulations, animations, experiments, interviews and video abstracts as well as open educational resources.

The portal was developed from July 2011 to April 2014 by the Lab Non-Textual Materials of the TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and University Library in cooperation with the Hasso Plattner Institute for Software Systems Engineering. The portal went online in April 2014 and was operated by yovisto GmbH until 2019 and further developed on behalf of the TIB. In September 2018, the "Scrum Team AV-Portal" was founded at the TIB, which was entrusted with the task of migrating all software projects of the portal to the TIB infrastructure. Since 2020, responsibility for the operation and continuous development of the portal has been entirely in the hands of the TIB Scrum Team.

The TIB AV-Portal simplifies the search, citation and publication of scientific videos and audio recordings while also providing options for downloading, licensing, or ordering videos and audios as DVDs. Thanks to the use of Creative Commons licenses, most of the content is freely reusable.

The services of the TIB AV-Portal include:

• Hosting and long-term archiving of videos, audio recordings and accompanying materials
• DOI registration for permanent citation
• Rights clearance and license advice
• Speech, text and image recognition
• Continuous further development of the portal
• Editorial support
• Open, ad-free and GDPR-compliant

Get to know the TIB AV-Portal in just 120 seconds!

Scene detection – shot boundary detection segments the video based on cuts. The resulting visual table of contents provides a quick overview of the entire video content and facilitates targeted access to specific sections. Each scene can be cited to the second via Media Fragment Identifier. The technology used is PySceneDetect.

Text recognition – video optical character recognition captures, indexes and makes written language, such as text on presentation slides, searchable. Tesseract is used for this purpose.

Speech recognition – automatic speech recognition transcribes spoken language in videos or audio recordings. The result is a transcript with time stamps that enables a precise search. The AI-based speech recognition "Whisper" transcribes 100 languages, including English, German, French, Spanish and Ukrainian, and translates these languages into English. Accordingly, subtitles and transcripts are offered in both the original language and in English translation.

Image recognition – visual concept detection indexes the moving image with visual concepts such as "computer animation" or "experiment". Currently, the AV-Portal Scrum Team is collaborating with the Visual Analytics Research Group to further develop image recognition using Open-Clip.

Keywording – named-entity linking associates individual segments with subject headings from the Integrated Authority File (GND). The terms are disambiguated and have relationships to other terms, which enables a more effective search.

In principle, videos and audio recordings are only analysed automatically if legally permitted. The spoken language is converted into a machine-readable transcript, which is displayed as subtitles and can be searched. Non-English media are translated into English; these translations are available both as subtitles and as searchable transcripts.

Annotations of speech, text, and images are generated exclusively for videos and audio recordings that belong to the six core subjects of the TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and University Library: Engineering, Architecture, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics and Physics. The reason for this is that a vocabulary for automatic annotation is currently available only for these subjects.

The TIB AV-Portal offers both a German and an English user interface, which can be selected via the language settings in the user menu (top right).

Many metadata are available in German and English, allowing users to enter search terms in either language. When a German search term is entered, its English translations are automatically included in the search, and vice versa for English search terms.

The automatic speech recognition Whisper, which we use to create subtitles and searchable transcripts, can transcribe approximately 100 languages. These include German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Greek, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Japanese, Turkish, and Chinese.

The TIB AV-Portal offers a comprehensive service to make your media globally accessible, precisely searchable, citable down to the second, and available for long-term use. Thanks to targeted search functionality within the spoken content of your videos and audio files, discoverability is significantly enhanced.

The media you provide benefit from the following advantages:

• You receive a digital object identifier (DOI), ensuring unique referenceability and citability.
• Your media are archived for the long-term, guaranteeing permanent storage.
• Publication is legally compliant, ad-free, and in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
• Your media are transcribed and translated into English.
• Additional research information or accompanying materials can be linked.
• To increase visibility, your media will also be listed in national and international portals such as the German Digital Library and Europeana.

The TIB AV-Portal primarily collects (German and English) videos and audio recordings from science and teaching in the core subjects of the TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and University Library:

• technology/engineering
• architecture
• chemistry
• computer science
• mathematics
• physics

In these fields, the TIB AV-Portal focuses on the following materials:

• recordings of conference presentations, conferences, colloquia, panel discussions, and other scientific lectures, talks, and discussions
• recordings of experiments from the area of research and development, presentation of technologies and practices of outstanding scientific importance
• microscopic images, images taken using special cameras (e.g. thermal cameras) and other imaging techniques
• documentation and presentation of research work and results
• modelling, simulations and presentations of special software for certain scientific purposes
• presentations of 3D models (e.g. architectural models) on film
• video abstracts

Materials collected in selection:

• recordings of university seminars and lectures
• e-learning materials such as online tutorials, massive open online courses (MOOCs), teaching experiments and experiments for private study
• scientific video items/video blogs on websites
• presentations of scientific organisations, self-portrayals (film clips and slide shows) of research institutions and companies, mainly with a scientific content
• documentaries, reports and portraits on film (for example, of architects and their buildings)

Advertising films, image films or popular science films are not included in the TIB AV-Portal.

All registered users of the TIB AV-Portal can provide videos and audio recordings that have scientific relevance and fall within the TIB collection profile.

Register for free in the TIB AV-Portal!

Step 1: Provide us with your videos and audio files

• via data carrier to:

  Lab Nicht-Textuelle Materialien
  Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB)
  Welfengarten 1 B
  30167 Hannover, Germany

• for large data transfers via an FTP server (FTP login details are available upon request at KNM@tib.eu
• for individual videos and audio files, use the upload form of the TIB AV-Portal
• by providing a link list:
  • If your media files are already available for download on a web server, you can simply provide us with a link list in a text file (one download link per line). We will download the media files directly from your server. Please ensure that these are direct download links; one-click hosts or streaming links cannot be processed.
  • Instead of a simple link list, you may also provide a shell script with wget commands for each download link.

Accompanying materials such as lecture notes or scientific journal articles can also be uploaded. Please ensure that the file names clearly correspond to the respective video or audio file.

Step 2: Send us metadata

The more metadata (title, author, publisher, etc.) you provide for each media file, the better it can be found in the portal. To facilitate this process, we have prepared an XML file that you can fill out and submit to us.

Please ensure that the XML files are clearly assigned to the respective videos or audios. Further information can be found in the metadata documentation.

Step 3: Conclude a license agreement with us

By concluding a license agreement, you define the terms of use and grant us permission to offer your media via the portal.

If you do not own the necessary rights, please first contact the authors or other rights holders before submitting the media to TIB.

If you are the creator of the media or have obtained the rights by transfer, you can choose between an Open Access licence and a declaration of consent to determine how you wish to provide the materials to TIB.

Open access licence

With an Open Access license, you grant users as many rights as legally permissible, allowing extensive use of your media and promoting scientific exchange in a digital environment. We recommend the licence “CC-Namensnennung – Deutschland 3.0”, which ensures proper attribution of the author while allowing broad use of the media in research and education.

Please use the Open Access licence form and send it completed and signed by post to us.

Declaration of consent

TIB is granted a simple usage right for the media and is allowed to make them available through its portals. Users may watch, listen to, or download the media online, but — unlike all CC licenses — they may not distribute them to third parties or publish them online themselves.

Please use the license agreement form and send it completed and signed by post to us.

Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB)
Abteilung Bestandsentwicklung und Metadaten
Lars Gottschalk or Tolga Karaarslan
Welfengarten 1B
30167 Hannover, Germany

If the mentioned licensing options do not meet your needs, we will strive to find an individual licensing solution for you. Please contact us for further assistance.

Assistance with publishing your materials

We are happy to assist you with publishing your materials. Feel free to call us or send an email:

Lars Gottschalk
Tel.: +49 511 762-14224

Tolga Karaarslan
Tel.: +49 511 762-14227

KNM@tib.eu

We accept all common video and audio formats.

Note: For use in the TIB AV-Portal, we can only process the first video track and the first audio track. If the uploaded file contains additional video or audio tracks, they will be ignored.

When you enter a search term in the search field, not only metadata such as title, author, or abstract are searched, but also spoken text, text overlays, and image motifs.

Search in German and English

You can conduct your search in both German and English.

Semantic search

Synonyms, related terms, and English or German translations of your search queries are automatically included. This increases the number of relevant results. For example, a search for PKW will also return results for "Auto" and "Car".

Search operators

Additionally, you can use search operators.

Place a plus sign (+) before a search term to ensure that this term is included in the results. Conversely, use a minus sign (-) before a search term to exclude certain terms from the results. For example, if you enter +biotechnology -genetics, you will get results that contain "biotechnology" but not "genetics".

To find videos that contain either "biotechnology" or "genetics", use the OR operator between the search terms, as in biotechnology OR genetics.

To search for an exact phrase, enclose the terms in quotation marks. Example: "information retrieval".

Note for TIB-Portal customers

If you are already registered in the TIB-Portal, you can log in to the TIB AV-Portal using your TIB customer number and password. In this case, you do not need to register additionally in the TIB AV-Portal.

How to register in the TIB AV-Portal

1. Open the registration form.
2. Fill in the required fields.
3. Click on “Register”.

After submitting your registration request, a confirmation message will appear in the portal indicating that your registration was successful. Additionally, we will send a confirmation email to the address you provided.

If you experience any issues with the registration, please contact the TIB customer service:

TIB Customer Service
+49 511 762-8989

The contents of the TIB AV-Portal are generally freely accessible without registration. However, due to licensing regulations, some media may be subject to restrictions. Detailed information can be found under film collections with special usage conditions.

Whether a video or audio file can be viewed, listened to, downloaded, or shared in the portal depends on the licensing terms under which TIB received the media from the licensor.

To download a video or audio, click on the three-dot menu directly below the player. There you will find the “Download” option, which allows you to save the video or audio in different quality levels. Please note that this option is only available if there are no legal restrictions on downloading.

Additionally, accompanying materials such as research data, slides, or journal articles may be available. You can find these under the "Related Material" link directly below the player, and they can also be downloaded.

The IWF media shown online in the TIB AV-Portal can also be purchased on DVD for a fee. In addition, many other IWF films that are not available online – especially in the fields of ethnology and medicine – can be ordered on DVD. Some medical films are subject to a usage restrictions and can only be sold to healthcare professionals with proof of intended use.

Below the player, you will find the "Purchase" option. The prices are determined by the price list for DVD orders.

Do you need assistance with a DVD order or IWF media research? Feel free to call us or send us an email:

Paul Feindt
Tel.: +49 511 762-14221

KNM@tib.eu

For the IWF media available online in the TIB AV-Portal, sublicenses can generally be acquired for the use of excerpts in film and television or for the public screening of entire films.

The "License" option can be found directly in the license information below the player. Once your licensing request is received, TIB will review whether the requested media can be licensed for the specified purpose. Prices are based on the price list for licensing.

Do you need assistance with the sublicensing of IWF media? Please contact one of our representatives or send us an email.

Sublicensing of excerpts for film and television: Elke Brehm / Tel.: +49 511 762-8138

Sublicensing of films for public screenings: Thomas Werner / Tel.: +49 511 762-14222

KNM@tib.eu

Some IWF films are not available online due to technical or legal reasons. However, most of these films can be viewed on-site at TIB upon request.

The analog IWF film heritage is also accessible again: a four-plate editing table for 16 mm and 35 mm film copies is available for research purposes.

Would you like to request a viewing? Feel free to call us or send us an email:

Paul Feindt
Tel.: +49 511 762-14221

KNM@tib.eu

Viewing location for digitally available films
Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB)
Lab Nicht-Textuelle Materialien
Lange Laube 32
30159 Hannover, Germany

Viewing location for analogue films
Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB)
Haus 2 - Außenmagazin
Bremer Straße 2
30880 Laatzen/Rethen, Germany

The AV-Portal includes certain films and film collections, particularly historical ones, that are not freely accessible due to licensing or personal rights restrictions. These are subject to specific usage conditions. These include:

Ethnological films for research from the IWF collection

With the acquisition of the IWF film heritage (formerly IWF Wissen und Medien gGmbH), TIB has also taken over the valuable ethnological film collection of the IWF Göttingen.

As part of the DELFT project, these films have been digitized in high quality.

Most of these recordings were not intended for public access but were specifically produced for ethnological research. In this spirit, these film documents — where legally possible — continue to be made available in the TIB AV-Portal. Access to this collection requires individual authorization.

For download: Form for declaring scientific use.

Below the player, you will find the "Cite" link. By clicking on it, you can copy or download metadata such as title, author, and publication year in BibTeX, RIS, or text format.

If you use a literature management program like Zotero or Citavi, the embedded metadata can be imported directly into the program via the appropriate plugin.

The TIB AV-Portal also allows you to cite individual segments of a media item. You can find the corresponding citation link for the desired segment in the "Cite" dialog.

On each video thumbnail, you will find a star icon in the top right corner. Click on the star to add the media to a playlist. Saved media are indicated by a red-filled star.

You can find your created playlists by clicking on the icon "User settings and log-in options" in the top navigation and selecting "My Media." There, you can rearrange the order of videos via drag & drop and publish your playlist to share it with others.

Please note that using the playlist feature requires registration in the TIB AV-Portal (registration form).

TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and University Library aims to promote the use and dissemination of its collections. In this context, TIB publishes metadata of media from the TIB AV-Portal as Linked Open Data.

Please note that some of the data was automatically generated and may therefore contain errors or be incomplete.

You will find the datasets on the download page of the TIB AV-Portal.

The OAI interface of TIB allows downloading metadata in OAI Dublin Core, MARC XML, or RDF XML formats, with daily updates available.

TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and University Library offers a professional recording service for conferences and scientific events - whether they take place physically, virtually, or in a hybrid format. The TIB Conference Recording Service (TIB Conrec) provides conference organisers from academia and industry with a comprehensive package, including recording, live streaming, and publication in the TIB AV-Portal — all from a single source.

For more information, visit TIB Conrec or contact us directly at conrec@tib.eu.

All videos recorded by TIB Conrec can be published free of charge in the TIB AV-Portal with all associated services. You and all actively involved persons determine whether and under which licensing conditions the videos will be published.

You and all actively involved persons decide where and under which license conditions the videos are published. Videos in the TIB AV-Portal can be seamlessly integrated into your website using the Embedded Player. You can find the embedded player by clicking on the "Share" link below the player.

For a one-day event in a single room, you can expect costs of about €1,000 plus VAT and travel expenses. Each additional room or day incurs extra costs of around €400–600. These figures are indicative and may vary depending on the scope of the service (technology and personnel requirements).

Feel free to contact us! We will provide you with a customized offer based on your requirements and preferences.

Mail to: conrec@tib.eu