Preserving Media

As we began contacting media restoration services to explore how to preserve the media in the archive, one Media Preservation company wrote us a very helpful email:

As I look over your Archive page,  I note your list of steps to do 1 through 6.  Step 4 has “view each video and describe”. A significant warning on this step. 
These tapes have aged and they are very likely in a state of binder failure most common for this age of tape and format.  There is a high risk of damaging the tapes or the deck when casually viewing them without first processing them to stabilize the binder so that they can be played and digitized safely.  So I caution against this part of the step unless you are competent with the required process before placing the tapes into a system  viewing.
After looking over the photos of the boxes, we identify the following formats:
  • Beta SP Video
  • U-Matic Video
  • DV Video & Possibly HDV
  • VHS Video
  • XDCAM Video Disc
  • Floppy Disk
  • Audio Cassette
  • 8mm Film
  • 16mm Film
  • CD
  • DVD
  • Possibly 5 open reel video unidentified 
  • 8mm Video Tape 
  • Possibly 8mm Hi8 Tape
  • 8 1/2 x 11 Document papers to digitize.
  • Journalist notepads.
If we missed any formats, they could be hiding under others but this seems to be the overall format set needing Restoration/Digitizing.