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ninch-announce: TV-Video Preservation Report

ninch-announce: TV/Video Preservation Report

TV/Video Preservation Report

David Green (david@ninch.org)
Mon, 20 Oct 1997 15:18:18 -0400 

Message-Id: <v02130507b0715612ce77@[192.100.21.23]>
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 15:18:18 -0400
To: ninch-announce@cni.org, sleg@LOC.GOV
From: david@ninch.org (David Green)
Subject: TV/Video Preservation Report

******************
NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
October 20, 1997



   TELEVISION/VIDEOTAPE PRESERVATION REPORT ISSUED BY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS


An important, 5-volume report on the state of television and videotape
preservation, was released on Thursday October 16 by the Library of
Congress.

This report, together with its companion report: "Film Preservation 1993: A
Study of the Current State of American Film Preservation," is important for
this community because both effective preservation and digitization of
moving images are dependent on description, indexing and cataloging
standards that are still in a state of disarray.

If digitally networked cultural heritage is to include the huge array of
twentieth century material in moving image formats then the issues of
preservation, description and indexing have to be solved.  For background
and further thinking on this issue see my article "Beyond Word and Image"
in the July/August issue of D-Lib magazine
<http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july97/07green.html>

For background on the report see the Library of Congress Website at
<http://lcweb.loc.gov/film/tv.html>, where information about how to
purchase the report will be available around mid-November 1997. The report
(volume 1) will
also be posted on the Internet at the National Film Preservation Board
(NFPB) Web site around the end of October <http://lcweb.loc.gov/film/>
(look under "New Projects"). Volumes 2-4 comprise transcripts of hearings
in Los Angeles, New York and Washington. These volumes are available now
online at the above NFPB site.



David Green
===================================================================

Date:         Thu, 16 Oct 1997 16:05:05 -0400
Reply-To: Association of Moving Image Archivists <AMIA-L@LSV.UKY.EDU>
Sender: Association of Moving Image Archivists <AMIA-L@LSV.UKY.EDU>
From: Stephen C Leggett <sleg@LOC.GOV>
Subject:      TV/video study press release


Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today released a comprehensive
5-volume study on the present survival status of American television and
independent video productions.  Two years in the making, the report paints
a horrifying picture of losses already sustained and looming problems for
an important part of America's cultural heritage.  As stated by Dr.
Billington, "Television affects our lives from birth to death. Most
Americans inform and entertain themselves through it, and we use it to
distract our children by providing (to paraphrase a famous quote) "chewing
gum for their eyes."  Sadly, we have not yet sought to preserve this
powerful medium in anything like a serious or systematic manner."

Among the troubling problems described in the report:

*  The audiovisual record of the first few decades (esp. 1940s-60s) of
American television and video history is fragmentary and incomplete, the
result of programs never being recorded, being recorded and then erased and
reused, or subjected to inadequate storage conditions

*  America's collective audiovisual memory of its history and culture has
been primarily entrusted to videotape the past several decades, yet
videotape was never designed as a permanent preservation/recording medium.
Videotape is subject to a wide assortment of damaging chemical and physical
problems.  Format obsolescence also remains a real danger. Over 100
videotape formats have been introduced into the marketplace since 1956 and
archivists do not have enough financial resources to copy the many valuable
programs found on obsolete formats

*  The nearly complete loss of almost three decades of local television
news footage, primarily from the 1950s through late 1970s.  As a result, no
substantive moving image documentary record exists of many American cities,
communities, events, locations, and personalities during this era.  Local
television stations discarded or routinely erased the material during this
era to save storage space.

*  The access difficulties faced by educators in finding and using
television material in the classroom;

*   The financial inability of video artists and independent video
producers to preserve their own work.


To remedy these problems, the report recommends several key actions, most
notably:

*  Exploring possible new avenues of funding through means such as
allocating shares from FCC broadcast spectrum auction proceeds to benefit
preservation efforts at nonprofit archives.

*  Creation of a private sector organization to raise funds and distribute
grants to aid television and video preservation projects at nonprofit
archives and similar institutions throughout the United States.

*  Raising public awareness by establishing a national registry of
historically and culturally important television and video programs,
similar to the Library of Congress National Film Registry .

*  Establishing  a Study Center for Video Preservation to collect and
provide technical information to institutions across the U.S. and to
maintain equipment able to copy obsolete formats.

*  Continuing dialogue among educators, archivists and the entertainment
industry on ways to improve educational access to American television
programs.

*  Urging the Library of Congress to use the full extent of off-air taping
authority it possesses under the 1976 Copyright Act.

This five-volume report is the first comprehensive look at American
television and video preservation. Information was gathered through
hundreds of interviews, public hearings and written statements from over
100 individuals and organizations, and the deliberations of three task
forces.  Volume 1 contains the report; volumes 2-4 contains transcripts of
the public hearings; and volume 5 reproduces the written statements.

In releasing the report, Billington thanked the hundreds of broadcasters,
industry officials, archivists, educators, artists and others who testified
at public hearings, submitted written comments, served on task forces, and
otherwise contributed to the report.  He singled out for praise the
report's chief researcher/author (William Murphy of the National Archives
and Records Administration), and the Association of Moving Image
Archivists, the nation's largest and most important body of moving image
preservationists.

The report will be available for purchase from the Government Printing
Office in a few weeks.  Ordering information as well as an online version
of the report can be found at the following World Wide Web address:
http://lcweb.loc.gov/film/tv.html. For additional information, contact
Steve Leggett at p: 202/707-5912; f: 202/707-2371; email: sleg@loc.gov.

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