In 1903 four brothers;  Hirch Moses, Abraham, Schmuel and Itzhak Wonsal or Wonskolaser opened their first movie theater in New Castle, Pennsylvania.  This site is now named the Cascade Center, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex honoring their heritage. Four brothers whose parents emigrated from Poland to Ontario, Canada in 1892.

Do these names ring a bell? (more…)

Question: Does all film material shrink and if so, how does one assess the degree of shrinkage? What causes it to shrink and how can it be minimized. Is shrinkage reversible? Does shrinkage matter when handling, printing or transferring films? Are there other phenomena that look like shrunken film?

I invite you to read the document, click here, a very complete document to answer all your questions.
To numerate what you will read and/or learn about:

• The composition of film
• Why film shrinks
• Some film base materials don’t shrink
• Some agents accelerate film base shrinkage
• De-shrinkage treatments
• How is film shrinkage measured?
• What are permissible tolerances for film perforation pitch?
• Recommended readings on picture unsteadiness and shrinkage 

 Happy reading!

The Desjardins International Commerce Prize is awarded to companies with an outstanding international commerce strategy. It is intended for any company able to show the positive impact of having extended its business development efforts to the international market and having formed partnerships with companies with attractive development potential outside of Canada.

 We are very proud at STiL Casing Solution to be finalists for the prestigious prize, congratulations to Mr. Frédéric Lapointe! 

 Besides the fact that the mother company needed to be in Québec and/or Ontario, Canada, the selection criteria was as follows:

• Impact of the international commerce strategy on the company’s growth and profitability
• Market diversification
• Development opportunities
• The company’s financial health

The winner will be announced during a gala on October 5th, 2010.

http://www.desjardins.com/en/a_propos/profil/engagement/prix_entrepreneurs/edc_commerce/index.jsp

I came across a great article on the ARSC website (www.arsc-audio.org), the title is Essential Resources for Audio Preservation, sixteen audio preservation resources available that the ARSC Technical Committee believes are essential to understand for successful audio preservation. I encourage you to read the article: http://www.arsc-audio.org/pdf/ARSCTC_resources.pdf . 

1. IASA-TC 03. The Safeguarding of the Audio Heritage: Ethics, Principles and Preservation Strategy. Version 3, December 2005
2. IASA-TC 04. Guidelines on the Production and Preservation of Digital Audio Objects
3. Sound Directions: Best Practices for Audio Preservation
4. The Library of Congress Digital Audio Preservation Prototyping Project
5. Audio and video carriers: Recording principles, storage and handling, maintenance of equipment, format and equipment obsolescence
6. Tape Degradation Factors and Challenges in Predicting Tape Life
7. TAPE Project Audio Tape Digitisation Workflows
8. Capturing Analog Sound for Digital Preservation: Report of a Roundtable Discussion of Best Practices for Transferring Analog Discs and Tapes
9. PrestoSpace digitization and storage guide.
10. Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections
11. Selection criteria of analogue and digital audio contents for transfer to data formats for preservation purposes
12. Selection for Preservation Tools.
13. Technical Metadata for Audio.
14. Risks Associated with the Use of Recordable CDs and DVDs as Reliable Storage Media in Archival Collections - Strategies and Alternatives
15. IPI Media Storage Quick Reference Guide.
16. Audio Preservation and Restoration including some links to film and video tape preservation.

We are pleased to be a new member of this association and would like to wish all the participants a great conference in New Orleans from May 19th to 22nd, 2010!

The Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the “increase & diffusion of knowledge” was founded from a bequest to the United States by the British scientist James Smithson (1765-1829). Mr. Smithson named his nephew as beneficiary in his last will and testament and stipulated that if the nephew should die without heirs the estate should go to the United States of America.  James Smithson died in 1829, his nephew; Henry James Hungerford died without heirs in 1835. The President of the United States at that time, Mr. Andrew Jackson informed Congress of this bequest, which amounted to 100,000 gold sovereigns, when recoined is US currency; over 500,000$ (today with inflation, approximately 10,100,000.00$).  http://siarchives.si.edu/history/exhibits/historic/history.htm#sib

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This week, I thought it would be nice for all to get to know the AMIA; The Association of Moving Image Archivists. The AMIA is a non-profit professional association established to advance the field of moving image archiving by fostering cooperation among individuals and organizations concerned with the acquisition, description, preservation, exhibition and use of moving image materials. http://www.amianet.org/index.php .

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First of all, we would like to congratulate all the athletes who participated in the Vancouver Olympics! As the Olympic Creed states: 

“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

The Olympic Museum itself was an idea of Pierre de Coubertin, mentioned for the first time in 1915 after having established the IOC’s headquarters in Lausanne. However, for a long time - several decades - this remained in an embryonic phase. On September 6th 1921, Lausanne signed the agreement which placed premises at the disposal of the IOC for the first time. When it moved from the Montbenon Casino to the Villa Mon Repos in 1922, however, the Olympic Museum was only a collection of the Baron’s personal possessions. It was after the election of Juan Antonio Samaranch as IOC President, in 1980, that the project for a new Museum was launched. In 1982, a provisional Museum opened its doors in the centre of Lausanne, on Avenue Ruchonnet, where its task was to prepare for the future by making an inventory of the existing collections and develop them further. In 1982 and 1984, the City of Lausanne and the IOC acquired the two properties which today house the Olympic Museum and Park. In 1988, work began, The Olympic Museum was inaugurated on June 23rd, 1993.

And do you know what?

  Yes…the archives of the past games are preserved in STiL cans!

If you wish to have a virtual tour of the Museum, take a look at this link: http://www.olympic.org/en/content/The-Olympic-Museum/Museum-Tour/ 

Acetic acid (Vinegar Syndrome) detection in Cellulose Triacetate (CTA) motion picture film materials

Introduction
One of the most significant failure mechanisms of CTA film support is its degradation due to exposure to hydrolysis inducing storage temperature and relative humidity (RH).  The rate at which this degradation occurs varies with storage environment, manufacture, efficiency of laboratory processes, the coating on the film, i.e. magnetic sound coating doubles the rate of degradation as compared with film materials with a photographic emulsion. It is also influenced by the material of which the container  is made, and whether it traps the acetic acid (vinegar) or allows its evacuation.

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EXTRACT OF AN ARTICLE WRITTEN BY
The Late ED ZWANEVELD
(from the Technological Research and Development of the National Film Board of Canada)

The choice of film-friendly containers

The choice of containers requires a clear understanding of the life expectancy objectives, consideration of the macro-environmental (storage vault) conditions, the nature of film material, and whether the container will remain inert and stable during the lifetime of the film element stored inside it. All enclosures used must pass the Photographic Activity Test (PAT), described in ANSI Standard IT9.2.

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Here is the testimony of the former Head of the Preservation Centre, Mr. Jean-Pierre Lachapelle.

         “There is no need for conservation if we do not preserve, preservation begins with an access to the correct support, these products correspond perfectly to our standards in preservation”

The archives of CBC was one of our first clients. We would like to share this link so you can also discover their archives: http://archives.radio-canada.ca/info/archives/archives_en_00.asp