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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Easter gives hope for tomorrow,
As after the winter comes Spring.
Our hearts can be filled with gladness

 All of us at STiL Casing Solution, join in to wish you all a Happy Easter!

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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Film History goes as far as the 17th century. When a very early version of “magic lantern” (or shadow muppets as I like to call it) was invented, it was a devise with a lens that projected images from transparencies onto a screen, with a simple light source (such as a candle).  The invention of the Thaumatrope (the earliest version of an optical illusion toy) was in 1824. This is a disk or card with a picture on each side attached to two pieces of string, when the strings are twirled quickly between the fingers the two pictures appear to combine into a single image due to persistence of vision.  We’ve all done this once in our life as children or even as an adult, let’s admit it.

We had to wait until the 1920’s until film technology would allow movies to have sound.  The first “picture house” was built in New Orleans in 1896, but the first full-length film “THE SQUAW MAN” wasn’t released until 1913.  But alas, popcorn was first served in movie theatres in 1912, so those who got the privilege of seeing this first time projection had the chance of munching on it.  I don’t know where they got to put their drinks..seeing as cup holders only made it in 1981.

How much did it cost to watch a movie?

• In 1907 you could watch a film at a Nickelodeon theater for five cents, which is why it was called a  “Nickel”odeon;
• During the Depression or the 1920s, movies cost about 27 cents;
• During the 60s it cost a little less than one dollar;
•  About four dollars in the 80s;
• Now it goes around 10 to 15 dollars.

Here is an interesting list I found on what were classified the best movies of each decade since the 1890’s:

• 1890’s     The Execution of Mary Stuart (released in 1895), directed by Alfred Clark, Company: Edison Manufacturing Company (closed in 1918)
• 1990’s     The Great Train Robbery (released in 1903), directed by Edwin S. Porter, Company: Edison Manufacturing Company  (closed in 1918)
• 1910’s     Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse at the circus (released in 1916), directed by William Randolph Hearst, Company: International Film Service (closed in 1918)
• 1920’s     The Sheik (released in 1921), directed by George Melford, Company: Paramount Pictures 
• 1930’s     Wizard of Oz (released in 1939), directed by Victor Fleming, Company: MGM 
• 1940’s     It’s a Wonderful Life (released in 1947), directed by Frank Capra, Company: Liberty Films
• 1950’s     Rear Window (released in 1954), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Company: Paramount Pictures
• 1960’s     Psycho (released in 1960), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Company: Shamley Productions (last film was presented in 1965)
• 1970’s     Star Wars (released in 1977), directed by George Lucas, Company: Lucasfilm
• 1980’s     Empire Strikes Back (released in 1980), directed by Irvin Kershner, Company: Lucasfilm
• 1990’s     The Sixth Sense (released in 1999), directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Company: Barry Mendel Productions,  Hollywood Pictures, Kennedy/Marshall Company, Spyglass Entertainment
• 2000’s     Lord of the Rings (released in 2001, 2002 and 2003), directed by Peter Jackson, Company: New Line Cinema

We are proud to say at STiL that some of these great studios have film reels sitting confortably in our containers and even certain films listed above!

1. 8th European Conference on Digital Archiving, Geneva - April 28th to 30th, 2010
   The 8^th European Conference on Digital Archiving will be held in Geneva from 28-30 April 2010. It will follow in the footsteps of the European Conferences on Archives of recent decades. By emphasizing digital elements and archiving as a function instead of the archive as an institution, however, it aims to take a new approach.
   http://www.bar.admin.ch/eca2010/index.html?lang=en
2. 66th FIAF Congress, Oslo, Norway - May 2nd to 8th, 2010
   The International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) brings together institutions dedicated to rescuing films both as cultural heritage and as historical documents.
   http://www.fiafcongress.org/
3. During the FIAF Congress : JTS (Joint Technical Symposium) Oslo, Norway, May 2nd to 5th 2010
   The international gathering for all specialists of the audio-visual, cinema and sound heritage
   http://www.jts2010.org/

Hope to see you there!

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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I stumbled upon this article and wanted to share it with you:

Scorsese and friends race to save film classics from destruction - CNN.com
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/27/world.cinema.foundation/index.html

 Led by Martin Scorsese, these celluloid crusaders are racing to save some of cinema’s masterpieces from the ravages of time.

We are trying to fight “for the existence of a memory,” Brazilian filmmaker and foundation member, Walter Salles told CNN.

Sad event in Haiti - What will the National Archives become?

On August 20, 2009, the culture and communication Minister (Mr. Oslen Jean Julien) launched the planning of the activities for the 150 years commemoration of the National Archives of Haiti (created in 1860), which was to take place on August 20, 2010. Among the activities that were planned; a documentary on the National Archives, workshops on teaching the history of Haiti, an exposition baptized “Treasures of the National Archives” and the construction of the “City of Archives” whose first stone should have been placed solemnly on August 20, 2010.

Olsen Jean Julien and Jean Wilfrid Bertrand, Director of the National Archives mentioned the problems involved in the archives of the country, the particular difficulty in accessing and conservation of the documents. According to the director of Anh, the documents of the 19th Haitian century remain inaccessible today and many are currently in danger, because their conditions of conservation are inadequate. “If nothing is done, he added, we go in the next years towards an amnesic society. ” (statement made on August 20^th, 2009)

Photo taken very close to the National Archives of Haiti after the tragic earthquake:

An amnesic society? I don’t think so! Our hearts and prayers go out to all the Haitian people!