Moving image preservation in libraries - film and video

Library Trends, Summer, 2003 by Paula De Stefano

In addition to competing against book collections, there are other, more fundamental reasons that moving image preservation receives only marginal consideration in research libraries. As mentioned above, there is an absence of experience and expertise resident in libraries to preserve these collections, and no network of standards or guidelines exists to point the way toward recommended practices. There are no organized management systems specifically designed to maintain and protect film and video collections and, unfortunately, the traditional preservation principles and methodologies that libraries have relied upon for books and paper do not transfer easily to film and related formats. Exorbitantly high costs associated with the methods used to preserve films and videos compound the seriousness of the problem, and scarce resources in most library budgets to pay for these processes acts as a strong deterrent to progress. Given these conditions, it is obvious why strategies for moving image preservation in libraries have not developed.

ADVANCES IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING

While all of the above reasons conspire to form a dismal landscape, the challenges they present are not new to cultural institutions. In a spirited and inspiring call to action, Darling and Ogden (1981) identified a similar sense of urgency in research libraries faced with staggering numbers of deteriorating books and an equally daunting mountain of perceived obstacles. Their article, aptly entitled "Creativity vs. Despair," also depicts a dismal landscape. Yet, over time, professionals were educated, ethics and standards devised and scientifically tested, and programmatic structures developed. In fact, library literature is replete with evidence of this development.

Harking back to the early days of book and paper preservation in libraries, Banks (1981) cited existing "gulfs in knowledge and experience" in the development of book conservation in libraries and suggested that the problem might be redressed through an "engineering" or "systems approach" that he depicted as follows:

   (1) a thorough analysis of the problem in question in the widest
   possible context; (2) design of a system to meet as nearly as
   possible the specific criteria identified in (1); (3) a search for
   necessary existing methods, materials, and equipment from other
   fields, if necessary; (4) and attempt, if necessary to have
   materials or equipment manufactured for the system designed; and (5)
   the making of any necessary alterations or compromises in an ideal
   system as dictated by (3) and (4). (p. 194)

The same suggestion applies handily to the need for a systematic approach to preservation for moving images today and, indeed, twenty years later Banks (2000), a consummate ambassador for preservation, updated his earlier observation (repeated, here, for the second time) when he aptly noted that audiovisual materials "place managerial and economic demands on libraries and archives that are quite without precedent" (p. 324). The key word in this statement is "managerial," and Banks wisely recognizes that a management construct is the preemptive step before "economic" demands can be addressed.