by Linda M

Has your school got old VHS tapes? Film? Audio tapes which need preservation?   Do you need to draw your school’s attention to this?  Or are you the one who’s tasked with digitising all the old ‘stuff’?

A team from Silver and Ballard was at the annual school archives workshop recently. They specialise in media migration. Sales Development Manager Andrew Crenfeldt provided a list of issues that need action.

This included:

• Deterioration [of the material] has already begun (e.g. mould, sticky tape, shedding, vinegar syndrome)
• Playback equipment is getting scarce
• Decreasing availability of parts for playback machines
• Events such as earthquakes, floods, fire
• The more deterioration, the more costs involved
• The need to free up shelf space
• The need for current usability and access
• Storage and management costs
• Expertise in old formats is becoming scarce

Andrew also provided a checklist for action:

• Make an up-to-date catalogue of your film, video and audio tape collection (many of you will have this on your Library Management System already)
• List the number of each media type – film, video, audio tape
• List the formats within each media type – (for video – Umatic, SVHS, Betacam, VHS, etc.)
• List the running times of each item
• Identify what content is on each item
• Include any metadata about the item – dates, locations, events, etc
• Prioritise the items which MUST be preserved

Once you have this information you are in a position to get an idea of the cost  in time and money involved in transferring your archive to digital file – either in-house or out-sourced.

You will also need to consider what you want to do with the content once it is digitised, as different uses may require different digital file types, for example:

• Digitise for preservation only
• Digitise for access (eg – to make it available via the school’s website)
• Digitise for distribution (eg – maybe convert it to a DVD to send to a selected group, such as a school cohort group involved in a reunion)

It is possible to get several digital file types, for varied uses, made at the same time.

Whether you address these issues in-house, or out-source this work commercially, the message for the day was“Do it now!”

flickr image by Olga Berrios

Thank you to Silver & Ballard for permission to reproduce their checklists.