Source: HRC, Texas

The Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum  at the University of Texas at Austin, has introduced the Edgar Allan Poe digital collection, an archive of 4,000 images of more than 200 materials.

The Collection includes materials ranging from Poe’s correspondence and manuscripts to letters about Poe and his writings by Arthur Conan Doyle, Stephane Mallarme and Charles Baudelaire.

The materials can be viewed online at www.hrc.utexas.edu/digitalpoe

 
Congratulations! What a great job!

Large film archives tend to store their films in vaults which are monitored and maintain a cool and dry climate. Unfortunately, these conditions are not neccssarily available to everyone.

If this is not a possibility for you, archivists say it’s a good idea to store your films on cores. This avoids the plastic of a reel and allows them to breath. 3 inch cores are the standard size and are preferable over 2 inch as the wind is not so tight.  After speaking with a many specialists in the matter, they advise that the film be wound manually on the core, this prevents the risk of tearing or damaging the film. If you wish to project a film on a core you will need a split reel.

If you have anything to add…please feel free to write a comment!

It is not uncommon when observing film containers that have been in archival vaults or when handling film containers in a laboratory after they have been taken from storage vaults, to find the labels only partially attached or missing. This should not have to be so.
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A message from Brid Dooley, General Secretary Fiat/Ifta

October 27th is UNESCO World Day for AV Heritage

Every year this day is marked by the organisation of activities around a them agreed upoon by the Coordinating  Council of Audio-visual Archive Associations (CCAAA).  This is the UNESCO body (of which FIAT is a member) designated to oversee the celebration.
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A Race Against Time: Preserving Our Audiovisual Media
Presented by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts
July 29 & 30, 2009
Hosted and cosponsored by: Western History/ Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library, Denver, CO

&

Oregon Public Broadcasting Selects Stations to Participate in the American Archive Pilot Program

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How to maximize the lifetime and usefulness of optical discs, specifically CD and DVD media?  How to  minimize chances of information loss caused by environmental influences or physical handling? How to prevent premature degradation, information loss, CD and DVD structure, disc life expectancy, and conditions that affect optical discs?

We came across this document many years ago and found it profoundly interesting! We would like to share it with you..
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Quote :

“Film cans are generally manufactured from a stable plastic or metal, usually steel or aluminium. The can lid is often a tight fit but does not seal the can completely allowing a small degree of equilibrium between the external environment and the internal microclimate. Film cans have a buffering effect on the rate of change of the internal microclimate in relation to the storage conditions. Temperature is buffered less than relative humidity.”

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