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Cable TV Videotapes of Government & Community In Action



Title: Cable TV Videotapes of Government & Community In Action
Hello all,

I’m working with a city government that is in the process of establishing a records management and archives program.  In the meantime, a committee of city officials and area archivists have been providing limited services and advice.

Recently the committee was approached by a producer from the local cable TV franchise (which has changed hands numerous times over the years), who also happens to be a resident of the city.  The company, which is no longer doing community filming of government and community activities, has hundreds of 3/4” tapes (half-hour and one hour in length) of various city events, including elections, a unique ballot handcount, visits by international luminaries, festivals, speeches, etc., shot over the past 15 years.  The tapes are labeled and stored in reasonably good conditions at the studio, but they are disintegrating.  The producer seems genuinely concerned about preserving the most significant events and matters on the tapes (storage of the tapes may not always be welcome at the station).  

The producer proposes to migrate the contents of the videotapes to a digitized format after a review committee identifies which tapes or events should be preserved.  He has offered to a) help find funding sources and help write a grant proposal to evaluate the tapes, digitize them, and do some simple indexing; b) have his company do the migration at cost; and c) transfer the tapes to another company that would do the migration.  He didn’t have any cost estimates for performing the work, but said they would do a few test runs to see how long it would take to do the technical work as well as quick indexing and specific indexing.

I have looked at the Association of Moving Image Archivists Web site (www.amianet.org), which has a very good Q & A section but doesn’t quite get to our questions.

We’re wondering if any other local governments have been offered comparable videotapes, and if so, how was the opportunity handled?  Who reviewed and evaluated the contents of the tapes? How was the project funded?  And, the really big question...should the tapes be digitized or transferred to another type of tape for preservation?  The city library is willing to be the repository for the tapes or disks.

Any advice or pointers would be much appreciated—thank you in advance.

Grace Lessner

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