Week of June 8th

I continued to do film inspections today at the History Center. I was also looking at some of the basic elements of a film preservation policy. One of the key components that David wants in the policy is the History Center’s definition of preservation, as opposed to conservation. The policy should also cover a schedule for re-inspecting films at some pre-determined interval. Finally, the policy should cover storage and handling. I am not sure if we will be able to complete the policy before the internship is over, but I am confident that I will at least be able to do the preliminary research to draft the policy.

As I mentioned I did film inspections this week. I am working with films from Westinghouse Electric. They range in dates from the late 50’s to late 80’s. The ones that I have seen seem to be made up primarily of internal education/propaganda films. (Along the lines of, “This is why Westinghouse is a great place to work”). The films that I have looked at have been in very good shape. I am not sure how they were housed in Wilmerding, but it must not have been too bad. There is a lot of dirt, but very little scratching or tearing. I mentioned last week that Theresa and I had done a little research about tracking down film supplies, and I was wondering if you might be able to recommend a specific vendor to look at, who has materials at reasonable prices. We were looking for leader, tape, and maybe a splicer, also, maybe canisters and cores. The History Center canisters and cores, but they will run out soon, and I would like to see where we can get the best deal.

The next step, which I am doing right now actually, is to find some existing film archive policies that other institutions have put in place. This way I can see some of the common elements, and give me a little direction. I want to see which policies already exist at the History Center that can be modified to fit a moving image policy, and which policies need to be fleshed out more from scratch. I also want to write some interview questions, and maybe a survey to be completed by some of the employees and volunteers in the Library and Archive. My goal is to set a baseline for knowledge and attitude about film collections. Hopefully, I can get this stuff finished this weekend, so that I can distribute the survey, or do an interview or two next week.

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