Final Project

Roger Simon
Dec. 10, 2013
RTF 380G/INF 385T
1

Introduction

This project attempts an analysis of the film and video collections at the Austin History
Center (AHC). The mission of AHC, which is part of the Austin Public Library, is [t]o procure,
preserve, present and provide the historical records that make up Austin's unique story.
1
Its
website further explains that AHC provides the public with information about the history,
current events, and activities of Austin and Travis County. We collect and preserve information
about local governments, businesses, residents, institutions, and neighborhoods so that
generations to come will have access to our history.
2

AHC has its beginnings in a single file, established by the Austin Public Library in 1955,
that was devoted to local history and called the Austin-Travis County Collection. Over the
years, it became a separate section of the librarys reference department. In 1979, the Collection
moved into its own building, and in 1983, it was formally named the Austin History Center.
3

Thus, AHC was initially established as an archival repository for manuscripts and other paper-
based materials, and some of its best-known collections, such as the Niles-Graham-Pease Family
papers and a collection devoted to author O. Henry, are paper-based. Throughout the years,
however, it began to collect films and then video materials. Nevertheless, like many archival
repositories, AHC is still largely paper based. And, like many government-based and public
repositories, it has limited funds. Thus, a study of its film and video collections should
illuminate some of the issues and problems that many repositories face when dealing with such

1
Austin History Center. Mission. Retrieved on December 1, 2013, from http://www.austinlibrary.com/ahc/mission.
htm

2
Austin History Center. About Us. Retrieved on December 1, 2013, from http://library.austintexas.gov/ahc/about-us

3
Austin History Center. Timeline of AHC History. Retrieved on December 1, 2013, from http://library.austintexas.
gov/ahc/timeline-ahc-history

2

materials. Moreover, as I hope to show below, AHCs treatment of its film collection is in
striking contrast to its treatment of its video collection.

Methodology

I conducted my research primarily through interviews. On two separate days, I
interviewed Nicole Davis, AHCs film and photography archivist, and Tim Hamblin, AHCs
video archivist. I took notes as I spoke to them, ad throughout the interview, we toured the
rooms in which AHCs film collection, video collection, and video-related equipment are held.
Davis and Hamblin also gave me access to databases that list AHCs inventory of films and
videos.

Film

According to Davis, who has been AHCs film and photography archivist for almost a
year, AHC has come by its film collection largely through passive acquisition. Her
understanding is that when AHC acquires film, it is usually as part of an acquisition of a larger
manuscript collection, although she also pointed out that how AHC has acquired some of its
films is not always clear from the existing metadata of those films. Thus, there is effectively no
appraisal process for films at AHC; the appraisal process is devoted to larger manuscript
collectionsif AHC decides to take a manuscript collection, then it takes whatever films come
with the collection. Moreover, AHC would likely deaccession only commercial feature films
that might come as part of a collection. And, for now at least, AHC is acquiring very little
filmnone has come in since Davis began her job there.
The films that AHC has are mostly 16 mm, but there is also some 35 mm and some 8 mm
films. [PP1, PP2, PP3] The bulk of the 16 mm collection is made up of footage that was
3

produced by two local television stations: footage produced between 1975 and 1977 by KXAN-
TV, and footage produced between 1972 and 1977 by KVUE-TV. The KXAN footage consists
of just over 2,200 segments
4
of films on more than five hundred reels. The KVUE footage
consists of forty-three boxes of film.
All of AHCs films are kept in one of two rooms. Most of the collection, including films
that are degrading and succumbing to vinegar syndrome [PP4 & PP5], is kept in the so-called
outer vault, which has an optimal temperature of 62 F and an optimal humidity level of 50 %.
AHC also has an inner vault, which is kept at an optimal temperature of 50 F and an optimal
humidity level of 50 %. The KXAN footage is kept in file-cabinet drawers in the outer vault.
[PP 6] The inner vault contains mostly photographic negatives; the only films in it are nitrate
films
5
[PP 7], of which there are only two small 35 mm reels, and the KVUE footage.
6
The two
vaults share the same power system, a system that is separate from the power system for the rest
of the building.
There are currently no efforts being made to photochemically preserve any of the film
collection. Over the years, a few of the films have been reformatted onto VHS or DVD, and
these are accessible to the public. But there are virtually no efforts being made to further digitize
any of the collection, and there likely will not be until AHC has a better digital-content

4
Each segment is devoted to a specific news subject, such as Lakeway Shooting, TCU Football Preview, or
Fred Akers Interview. Based on the reels that Davis and I inspected, it appears that at least some, if not all, of the
footage has no soundtrack.

5
The canister that contains the nitrate 35 mm film also contains a reel of 16 mm film, and the database for the film
collection says that it is nitrate. But because 16 mm is normally on acetate, the labeling of the 16 mm film as
nitrate is almost certainly erroneous. Davis suspects that the 16 mm reel is a transfer of film that was originally on
35 mm nitrate.

6
Davis suspects that the KVUE films are in the inner vault only because of the lack of free space in the outer vault.
4

management system than it now has. Such a system would store digital audio and video files and
photos, as well as a database of those materials, but this is unlikely to happen any time soon.
7

Moreover, if any of AHCs films were to be digitized, they would have to be sent to an
outside vendor, as AHC has no equipment to do the digitization. And if any of the films were to
be preserved on DVD, preservation copies on film would first have to be struck, and then DVDs
would be made from those copies. Thus, because the vast majority of AHCs film collection has
not been digitized, and because AHC has no equipment on which any of the films could be
watched, the public effectively has no access to the film collection. Thus, AHC makes virtually
no effort to promote its film collection.
8

It is also notable that the work that has been done on the film collection over the years
has been haphazard. Davis frankly noted that the collection is in its current shape only because
her predecessors predecessor did significant work on it, rehousing and cataloguing it. And, in a
one-time project, during the 2005 AMIA conference in Austin, some conference attendees were
recruited to help with the rehousing and cataloguing.

Video

AHCs video collection is, in virtually all respects, very different from its film collection.
First, the acquisition and appraisal processes are significantly different from those of the film
collection. There is some active acquisitionthat is, if Hamblin finds out about a specific
collection that he thinks would be a valuable addition to AHC, he will go after it. Most of the

7
AHC does not have its own Information Technology staff; instead, it shares IT with the central branch of the public
library (which is across the street from AHC). According to Davis, the IT staff is supposedly working on an
improved digital-content management system.

8
Interestingly, however, the film collection receives mention on a short segment about AHC that was produced a few
years ago for the KLRU-TV series Downtown. The segment is available on AHCs About Us webpage (cited
above). The mention of the film collection begins at about 3:28; the mention of and clip from Austin, Texas . . .
The Friendly City Greets You!, a 1943 film in the collection, begins at about 6:03.
5

acquisitions are, however, passive, but passive in a different way from AHCs acquisition of
films. Some videos are acquired as a small part of a larger collection of manuscripts,
9
but most
of them come from people or organizations that have collections of videotapes that they want to
donate, and there is apparently no shortage of such donations. According to Hamblin, he has to
be careful that AHC does not become a storage facility for those who simply want to dispose of
their video collections.
Many of the video donations offered to AHC lead to significant appraisal problems.
While information and metadata regarding paper-manuscript collections can often be gleaned
from the materials themselves, which can, for the most part, be read with only the human eye,
getting the necessary information and metadata from videos is a much more complicated effort.
They often have no labels or labels with little or no helpful information, and it is a practical
impossibility for Hamblin, other AHC employees, and AHC volunteers to watch every video in
order to try and get helpful informationthe sheer numbers of videos preclude that. Also, many
of the videos are in fragile condition, so that viewing them merely for appraisal purposes might
damage them and negate their value to AHC. Thus, when someone calls regarding a possible
donation, Hamblin usually talks to that person in depth about the donationi.e., what
specifically is on the media, contextual information, metadata, and rights issues. For older
collections, he often tries to track down the donors and get from them as much information as
possible. And this process is exacerbated by timei.e., the gradual deterioration of the
materials, especially videotapes. But, it is sometimes impossible to tell what is even on a tape
without watching it; thus, many such tapes are, as a matter of the More Product, Less
Processing ethos, deaccessioned.

9
For instance, the recently processed PODER (People Organized in the Defense of Earth and her Resources) records
are made up of ninety-five boxes; videotapes occupy only two of them.
6

Recently, Hamblin came up with an extensive list of specific guidelines to aid AHC in its
acquisition of video materials. Of course, they include the expected basics: whether the videos
are related to Austin or Travis County; the size of the collection; and whether there is an already-
existing inventory for the collection. But, there are numerous other issues about which he asks:
(1) the storage conditions for the videos (e.g., climate-controlled or not); (2) the general
condition of tapes when they are played (e.g., excessive dropout); (3) signs of water damage or
pest infestation on tapes or tape cases; (4) whether there are any logs or databases regarding the
content of the videos; (5) whether there are any signed releases regarding persons featured in the
videos; (6) whether there is any available documentation of ownership or rights; (7) whether
tapes contain raw footage, edited masters, or dubbed copies; (8) a general idea as to the contents
of the videos (e.g., music, commercial, documentary, etc.); (9) whether there are any well-known
persons on the videos; and (10) the historical significance of the contents of the videos. Thus, a
large part of Hamblins job is, as he has stated, like digging through a coalmine, looking to find
the gems.
The video collection is made up of a variety of formats: Betacam, DVCAM, DVD, -
inch videotape; VHS; Hi-8; and Betamax. But, as suggested by the above list, videotapes are the
formats with the greatest potential preservation problems (because of their age and relative
fragility), and several large collections of them make up most of AHCs video holdings. These
include tapes from the Austin Music Network (AMN) [PP 8], a non-profit music television
channel that broadcast from 1994 to 2004.
10
The appraisal process for this collection was itself
major task, as all non-Texas-based videos first had to be weeded out.
11
There is also a large

10
AHCs database lists as more than 8,500 AMN recordings; most of these are on -inch tape, but some are on
DVD, Betacam, and DVCAM. The recordings consist of both music videos for local and Texas musicians and raw
footage of concerts, productions, etc.

collection of recordings from channel 6, the citys government-access channel. Included are
recordings of city-council meetings, subcommittee meetings, and local news conferences.
12
And
there are materials from Teleclip, Inc., a commercial media-monitoring service that records local
news broadcasts.
13
There is also a kind of residual collection, called the Video Recording
Collection General Collection, that is made up of single videos from individual donors. [PP 10]
These materials, which are mostly on VHS, but are also DVD, -inch tape, and audio CDs and
audio cassettes, have their own accession number (AR.2009.073).
As to conservation, AHCs video collection is kept in one of several rooms in the
basement. All of the rooms are climate-controlled to the same extent as the rooms in which
manuscripts are kept (approximately 70 F and low humidity).
14
Once videotapes are accepted
into the collection, basic conservation of them requires a good bit of work. They must be
checked and cleaned for mold, dust, etc., they must have any record buttons or tabs removed
(so that their contents cannot be recorded over), and they must be stacked properly (upright, so
that the reels in the cases are not damaged) and rewound.
Digitization of the videotapes is largely on-demandi.e., if researchers ask for certain
materials to be digitized. Beyond that, given the sheer amount of videotapes, there is no
reasonable way in which all of those materials can be digitized for preservation purposes, so

11
The AMN materials that were deaccessioned went to Texas State University and the Folk Alliance.

12
These materials make up more than more than 8,400 recordings on VHS and DVD. AHCs database also lists over
1,700 recordings as assorted Channel 6 and other on VHS, -inch tape, and DVD. Also listed in the database are
thirty-nine unprocessed boxes of raw footage, on -inch tape, from Channel 6, as well as twenty-two unprocessed
boxes (on two palettes), on -inch tape, of public-access recordings, along with DVD copies of the recordings. [PP
9]

13
AHCs database lists more than twelve thousand recordings, on VHS and DVD, from Teleclip.

14
According to Hamblin, the most important aspect for preserving videos is to keep them in stable environmental
conditions that remain constant throughout their storage. Thus, for example, keeping videos in a garage or an attic
in Texas will exacerbate their degradation, since they will be exposed throughout the year to fluctuating extremes of
heat, cold, and humidity.
8

Hamblin decides what to digitize based on (1) the historical value of the material to Austin; (2)
whether the material is likely to be used in the future; (3) whether the material is capable of
being transferredthat is, the condition of the videotape; and (4) whether the material is
representative of a particular collection that is housed by AHC. Thus, as Hamblin has noted, the
time in which to digitize older videotapes is running out, with the result being that large amounts
of Austins audiovisual history are in danger of being lost.
Materials are digitized via Apples Final Cut Pro software. Although Hamblin deals with
digitization of Betacam, VHS, Betamax, DVCAM, and High-8, most of the digitization is of
materials on -inch tapes, because so much of AHCs collection is in that format. [PP 11] Thus,
Hamblin has about a dozen -inch decks in his work area, but these decks often break down, so
that at any one time, several of them may be out of commission, and at least one deck is always
out for repair, with a three-month turnaround. [PP 12] Once materials are digitized, they are
kept on AHCs server and backed up on DVDs. But, because the city of Austin uses PCs, rather
than Apple Macs, the digitized materials are saved to an external drive that is not connected to
the citys system.
The digitization project has raised several issues, which Hamblin noted this past summer,
at a local conference devoted to AHCs music collection. The issues include the following: (1)
the difficulty (noted above) in maintaining the equipment necessary for digitization and playback
of older materials; (2) the lack of resources for engineering assistance, IT assistance, and
training;
15
(3) the lack of generally accepted standards for video digitization, as well as the
variety of codecs and wrappers from which to choose; (4) the inevitability that, as technologies
change, the digital files will have to be migrated to newer codecs; (5) and the difficulty in

15
Because the city uses PCs, rather than Apple Macs, Hamblin has difficulty in getting help from the librarys IT
department.

9

making clear to management that preservation of video is much more complex than preservation
of paper materials.
Public access to AHCs video holdings is also a rather complex matter. Some of the
video holdings, such as the Austin Music Network materials and the General Collection, have
been catalogued in databases. But the materials from Teleclip and Channel 6 are catalogued only
on index cards. [PP 13 & 14] Researchers may watch video materials in the so-called
microfilm room, which is next to AHCs reading room. This room has numerous set-ups,
including stations at which to watch VHS, DVD, and -inch tapes. [PP 15 & 16] Some of these
stations have DVD duplicators, so that researchers can easily get copies of materials on DVD.
There is also a set-up, with monitors, for VHS-to-DVD recording. [PP 17] But, of course, not all
video materials may be duplicated. For example, researchers may obtain copies of Channel 6
materials, which are in the public domain. But because of AHCs agreement with Teleclip,
researchers may watch materials that have been provided by that company, but they may not get
copies of them from AHC.
16
Thus, Teleclip materials may be viewed only at designed stations
that have no recording facilities.

Conclusions

Historically, the Austin History Center has been a repository primarily for manuscripts.
But AHC also carries both film and video, and those two collections are treated very
differently.
17

16
If researchers want copies of Teleclip materials, they must purchase those materials directly from the company.

17
These very different treatments suggest that, for at least some institutions, preservation of film and video should
not be yoked together, despite a recent publication suggesting the opposite: Indiana University Bloomington Media
Preservation Initiative Task Force. (2011). Meeting the Challenge of Media Preservation: Strategies and Solutions.
Retrieved on December 4, 2013, from http://www.indiana.edu/~medpres/documents/iu_mpi_report_public.pdf
10

The video collection is dynamic and constantly growing. Through his appraisal and
acquisition of donations, Hamblin is vigilant in determining what AHC is willing to accept.
Because of the extensive equipment in AHCs microfilm room, much of the video collection is
accessible, upon request, to researchers for viewing (and, in some cases, for duplication). And
although it is virtually impossible for all of the video materials to be preserved through
digitization, Hamblin is engaged, on a daily basis, in determining what is best suited for
digitization and in digitizing those materials.
The film collection is largely inert and unused. Its growth is slow to non-existent, and the
materials are, for the most part, not available for researchers to view. Although the materials are
kept under conditions that impede their deterioration, there is currently no plan for digitizing
those that have not already been digitized, and there is currently no plan for photochemically
preserving the most fragile of themthe small amount of nitrate films and those films that are
already suffering from vinegar syndrome and other obvious forms of degradation.
There are several reasons for the differences between the two collections. First, the
growth of the video collection and the stagnation of the film collection is somewhat unsurprising:
it has been far less expensive to record events, interviews, etc., on video than on film, and so
many more events, interviews, etc. have been captured on video than on film. Also, the
individual archivists commitments to the collections have certainly had an impact. Davis is at
least the third film archivist that AHC has had in the last ten years. But Hamblin has been
associated with AHC for well over ten years.
18
And, finally, AHC itself seems more committed
to its video collection than to its film collection. It has purchased equipment for the digitization

18
Formerly the artistic director at AMN, Hamblin became employed by the city in 2000, when he became the
archivist for the AMN videos, which were donated to AHC but initially kept offsite at the former Robert Mueller
Municipal Airport. When the videos were moved to the AHC building in 2004, he also moved to the AHC building
and became video archivist for AHCs entire video collection.
11

and viewing of its video collection, but it has made no similar purchases regarding its film
collection, and it has not, so far, made arrangements for most of its films to be preserved, either
photochemically or digitally, by any outside entities. And while Hamblin is the video archivist,
Davis is archivist for both film and photography, and her various duties for the latter, which
include cataloguing, staff management, and grant applications, leave her with little time to
devote to the film collection. Thus, as she stated, AHCs films are a dormant, stagnant
collection.