Preservation Services at Dartmouth College: Preservation Week Pointer #3

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Preservation Week Pointer #3 - Digitizing Videotape

Preservation Week: April 22- 29, 2012. This week on the blog we're highlighting Preservation Week with daily pointers for preserving your personal collections.

Videotape recorders and birthdays. Videotape recorders and graduation. Videotape recorders and weddings. Got the picture? Videotape recorders once captured many of these special moments. As time passes these video tapes and video tape players are a dying technology.

To ensure that your recordings remain watchable it is best to digitize or reformat the tape. This won’t preserve the original tape medium, but will convert the video content to a digital copy that can be accessed and migrated over time.

The Library of Congress has created instructions for digitizing home video.
The American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Work has a guide for care and storage of videotape.

Preservation Week at Dartmouth College Library is part of an annual event sponsored by the American Library Association to raise awareness of preservation issues and solutions. For more information visit our website.

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Contributors

Deborah Howe Is the Collections Conservator at Dartmouth College Library. She's been involved in the book community for over 20 years. She is a member of the Guild of Book Workers and teaches classes in the Book Arts program.

Ryland Ianelli Is a cartoonist and Project Specialist in the Dartmouth Preservation Services department. He graduated from Reed College with a BA in Art History in 2008 and, more recently, from the Center for Cartoon Studies with an MFA in Cartooning in 2010. In addition to his work in Preservation and the Digital Production Unit, he is currently drawing and writing for various independently published comics and anthologies.

Barb Sagraves has been head of Preservation Services since its creation in 1995. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan SLIS program, has an MA in Medieval History from Michigan State University, and a BA in History from the University of Oklahoma. In her role as department head, Barb has overall responsibility for the preservation program and policies at Dartmouth College Library and is in charge of the Book Arts Program.

Jenny Mullins has been the Digital Preservation Librarian for Dartmouth College Library since May of 2014. Prior to coming to Dartmouth, she preserved video and audio collections, helped build a digital repository and worked in book and paper conservation labs. Jenny is a member of ALA and co-chair of the Preservation Metadata Interest Group for 2015-17.