Planning Digital Activities for the National Audio Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC).

Presented by Mary Russell Bucknum, Curator, Sound Recordings
Library of Congress.

Reported by Bonnie Jo Dopp, Curator of Special Collections in Performing Arts
University of Maryland Performing Arts Library

1. phasing out of preferred preservation media-analog audio and video magnetic tape-as well as the equipment for recording and playback of these formats,
2. rapid development of digital data (music CDS, CD-ROM, scanned and digitized documents, etc.) and the increasing predominance of digital data and media in new acquisitions, and, specifically for the Library of Congress
3. increasing demand of multiple transfers (preservation and access) to supply materials for the National Digital Library.

In 1997 HR2979, authorizing acquisition of property in Culpeper, VA, for the National Audio Visual Conservation Center was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton. Also in 1997, audio consultant Bill Storm completed his proposal for a "Unified Strategy" for the preservation and access of audio and video materials.

With the help of a $10 million dollar grant ($5.5 for property; $4.5 for renovation and outfitting) from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, plans for the Center are progressing. In December 1997, the Packard Foundation acquired, on behalf of the Library of Congress and the Architect of the Capitol, a 140,000 square-foot building and 41 acres of land previously owned by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and located near Culpeper, VA. (75 miles south/southwest of Washington). This acquisition will enable the Library to develop a central storage and conservation facility that will accommodate all the Library's audio-visual collections and to design new specialized preservation laboratories for all its audio-visual media.

Built in the 1960s as a back-up operations center for the Federal Reserve in the event of a Cold War emergency, the three-story building is almost completely underground, making it energy efficient and readily adaptable for low-temperature and low-humidity storage.

Sound recordings will be stored in 50-degree/35% Rh vaults. These figures were arrived at as a compromise between the number of different environments feasiblely available (economically and practically) and the more stringent requirements for motion picture/film storage.

Availability of multiple vaults will enable the Library to separate multiple copies for preservation purposes. Preservation copies will not be in the same vault as the original recording. New archival boxes are being designed to accommodate various formats. Second copies of some media will be boxed for storage. Ten-foot high compact shelving is envisioned for housing the majority, if not all of the collection. Issues such as the use of media drawers vs archival boxes for small media (CDS, cassettes, etc.) are still being discussed in regard to cost, and ease of access.

A staff of about 75 M/B/RS employees will work with the collections at Culpeper. Recorded Sound will continue to have a presence in the LC's Performing Arts Reading Room on Capitol Hill. Researchers will listen to recordings digitized and transmitted from Culpeper to Capitol Hill via a fiber-optic connection already in place from the Federal Reserve days. A materials workflow consultant made recommendations for workflow/space planning at Culpeper. A major tenant of the workflow revision is to handle the materials as little as possible.

The property is currently owned by the Packard Foundation and will be handed over to the Library/Architect of the Capitol upon completion of the renovation. The Library is working with the Tobey & Davis architectural firm, with Davis, Brody, Bond as consultants, on the design of the facility.

Arrearage-reduction special cataloging projects, commenced in 1992 and continue with a new goal in mind-that of inventorying (numbering) every one of the 2.5 million sound recordings in the collection before moving to Culpeper. Cataloging projects are currently underway for both CDS and LPS-formats which have been shelved, heretofore, by label name and number, and generally not cataloged except for the classical music. These projects will utilize information provided by the MUZE database, as well as OCLC copy, when available. The resulting bibliographic records will appear in the LCILS (Voyager). Researchers in the Performing Arts Reading Room in Washington will ultimately be able to search the ILS, retrieve the bibliographic information, click on the URL, and access the digital repository in Culpeper for the sound, liner notes, and booklet accompanying the recording.

Concerning digitization, the "mantra" governing this activity is: The M/B/RS preservation program will continue to provide safe storage of originals. It will also continue conventional reformatting until the digital approach has proven itself. Digitization is for preservation and for research access. For preservation reformatting priorities are being set: endangered audio and video, deteriorating materials, obsolescent formats (estimated at 100,000 priority endangered items-about 40 percent of video holdings and 5-10 percent of audio holdings) and annual ephemeral receipts (e.g. 10,000 audio cassettes per year). For research access the plan is for expanded reading room service, with delivery on demand of 5,000 audio & video items per year (discovered in catalog, requested in advance, preserved & delivered). There will be sites at cooperating research institutions with access to the digitized collections if licensing and authorization can be gained. Public access via the Internet for authorized or nonrestricted collections is envisioned. Eight key planning elements have been identified, and the phases of this program are outlined as 1999-2003: Planning & Development and 2003-2004: Begin Operational Program.

The author and editors do not maintain links to World Wide Web resources.

ISSN 1069-6792
Revised: 3/22/00
URL: http://wings.buffalo.edu/publications/mcjrnl/v7n1/mla.html