{"id":4304,"title":"Meeting the Challenges of Video Preservation: A Progress Report on Initiatives within the Media Arts Field by Media Alliance","kind":"biblio","url":"https://www.videohistoryproject.org/meeting-challenges-video-preservation-progress-report-initiatives-within-media-arts-field-media-alli","version":"eaac9fb87ae8951e839dc39bb126845849db13b27666c0a7dc8fa68fc6e9bdf1","modified":"2026-09-13T19:42:08.2195975+00:00","credits":[{"role":"Author","name":"Jim Hubbard"},{"role":"Author","name":"Mona Jimenez"}],"authorKeys":["Jim Hubbard","Mona Jimenez"],"subjects":["Preservation Texts"],"metadata":[{"label":"Publisher","value":"Media Alliance","url":null},{"label":"Place","value":"New York, NY","url":null},{"label":"ETC archive","value":"ETC1101","url":null}],"citations":{"page":"\u0022Meeting the Challenges of Video Preservation: A Progress Report on Initiatives within the Media Arts Field by Media Alliance.\u0022 Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2026. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/meeting-challenges-video-preservation-progress-report-initiatives-within-media-arts-field-media-alli.","publication":"Jim Hubbard; Mona Jimenez. Meeting the Challenges of Video Preservation: A Progress Report on Initiatives within the Media Arts Field by Media Alliance. Media Alliance. March 1996.","risUrl":"https://www.videohistoryproject.org/citation/4304.ris"},"links":[{"label":"https://www.mediaalliance.org","url":"https://www.mediaalliance.org","relationship":"record body link","contentType":null},{"label":"https://archive.org/details/videopreservatio00boyl","url":"https://archive.org/details/videopreservatio00boyl","relationship":"record body link","contentType":null},{"label":"http://www.mediaalliance.org","url":"http://www.mediaalliance.org","relationship":"record body link","contentType":null},{"label":"Media Alliance","url":"http://www.mediaalliance.org/","relationship":"record body link","contentType":null}],"sections":[{"name":"body","source":"VHP record body","generated":false,"characters":62863},{"name":"summary","source":"existing VHP generated summary","generated":true,"characters":746}],"content":{"section":"body","source":"VHP record body","generated":false,"text":"ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jim Hubbard began making films in 1975 and over the past 10 years has been increasingly concerned with issues of film and video preservation. In 1987, he co-founded the New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival. From 1991 through 1996, he worked at Anthology Film Archives. In conjunction with the National Moving Image Database, he created the first computer catalog of Anthology\u0027s film and video collection encompassing over 5,000 titles and, under a grant from the Jerome Foundation, inventoried and cataloged the entire Jerome Hill Collection. Currently, he is preparing a report on the need for archival storage of work by makers with AIDS for Media Network, a national organization promoting social change media. Video Preservation: Securing the Future of the Past by Deirdre Boyle is available from Media Alliance https://www.mediaalliance.org https://archive.org/details/videopreservatio00boyl The media arts field has learned a great deal about preservation in the last five years, adding yet more complex information to our already complex lives. The passion that we have brought to creating a safe future for our fragile history should not be underestimated. We have learned that video preservation requires a multi-faceted approach, like keeping many plates in the air simultaneously: storage, cataloging, remastering, collection management. We have learned new languages, and been introduced to whole new fields of work. In this environment it\u0027s not easy to see our progress. Yet, I hope the contents of this report will remind us of the outcomes of our daily work. BAVC convened eight groups of professionals throughout the United States to discuss eight vital topics in the eight months prior to the event: Installation Art and Obsolete Hardware; Ethical Principles and Dilemmas; Analysis and Evaluation Procedures; Cleaning and Remastering; Establishing Priorities for Preservation; Storage; Current Preservation Practices \u0026 Education and Awareness; and Changes in Technology and Practice. Each of the groups will present its findings to the conference in the form of white papers and panel presentations. The Upstate Pilot Cataloging Project took another large step forward in May 1995 with a training session involving the same groups. The training was made available by Media Alliance and led by Jim Hubbard of Anthology Film Archives, with the assistance of Henry Mattoon, who succeeded Margaret Byrne as Director of NAMID. The participants were trained in data entry on the FileMakerPro template, and they hammered out further changes in the template to meet their requirements for ease of use and completeness of information. The participants also agreed to use a unified vocabulary for use with the template. ABOUT MEDIA ALLIANCE Founded in 1979, Media Alliance is an advocacy and service organization dedicated to advancing the independent media arts in New York State. Media Alliance is the only statewide media organization of its kind in the country, with members including media arts centers, distributors, museums, libraries, educators, cable access and public television programmers, and independent artists and producers. Media Alliance responds to over 3,000 requests for information and resources a year, publishes a bi-monthly newsletter Media Matters, and regularly convenes members for workshops, conferences, and working groups on pressing issues. Among Media Alliance\u0027s current programs are the Media Action Grant, providing funding to rural media arts groups, and the Emerging Media Artist Program, offering workshops and resources for artists from traditionally underserved communities. Positioned between local and national groups. Media Alliance serves as an information clearinghouse on video preservation for the media arts field, linking media groups with national and regional experts in archiving and conservation. In 1991, Media Alliance and the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) conducted a national survey of video art collections. Later the same year Media Alliance and NYSCA convened the first video preservation symposium for the media arts field in New York, hosted by the Museum of Modem Art. The conference material, the survey, and extensive research formed the basis for the monograph Video Preservation: Securing the Future of the Past by Deirdre Boyle, published in 1993. During 1994, a day long series of workshops on video preservation were held as part of the Media Alliance conference Multiple Currents: Toward an Interactive Media Community. Media Alliance has also organized trainings and networking meetings, and has provided fundraising assistance to New York regional groups. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jim Hubbard began making films in 1975 and over the past 10 years has been increasingly concerned with issues of film and video preservation. In 1987, he co-founded the New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival. From 1991 through 1996, he worked at Anthology Film Archives. In conjuction with the National Moving Image Database, he created the first computer catalog of Anthology\u0027s film and video collection encompassing over 5,000 titles and, under a grant from the Jerome Foundation, inventoried and cataloged the entire Jerome Hill Collection. Currently, he is preparing a report on the need for archival storage of work by makers with AIDS for Media Network, a national organization promoting social change media. Video Preservation: Securing the Future of the Past by Deirdre Boyle is available from Media Alliance http://www.mediaalliance.org FOREWORD Since the publication of our 1993 monograph. Video Preservation: Securing the Future of the Past, the media arts field has continued to pursue the long-term goal of preserving video art and community video for education, exhibition and research. This report seeks to update and expand upon some of the issues dealt with in Video Preservation, and at Media Alliance\u0027s last two conferences. While it emphasizes activity in the geographic area with which we are most familiar - the New York region - we hope it will be helpful to our colleagues across the country. The media arts field has learned a great deal about preservation in the last five years, adding yet more complex information to our already complex lives. The passion that we have brought to creating a safe future for our fragile history should not be underestimated. We have learned that video preservation requires a multi-faceted approach, like keeping many plates in the air simultaneously: storage, cataloging, remastering, collection management. We have learned new languages, and been introduced to whole new fields of work. In this environment ifs not easy to see our progress. Yet, I hope the contents of this report will remind us of the outcomes of our daily work. This report is organized into six areas of overlapping concern that emerged in preparation for the Multiple Currents conference in the fall of 1994. They are not meant to be exclusive, but rather to be points of departure. Happily, in each of these areas, progress has been made, although the future remains unquestionably precarious. We can be reassured by the fact that we are on the eve of another gathering. Playback 1996, a conference organized by the Bay Area Video Coalition. The BAVC conference will no doubt bring us to a new level of understanding and expertise, and will be looked back upon as a milestone where new alliances were made, new plans launched - the content for our next progress report! Mona Jimenez Executive Director Media Alliance RELATIONSHIPS The need for cooperation and collaboration One of the most pressing problems in the preservation of video is the lack of a public presence by the field of independent media. Utterly overshadowed, indeed dwarfed by broadcast television, the work of video artists and community activists does not loom large in the public consciousness. Perhaps this will always be the case. However, in order to make preservation of these materials possible, we need to convince others of the importance of these works. National and statewide organizations such as Media Alliance and the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC), through their connections with hundreds of media organizations and individuals, have played a crucial role in bringing attention to these overlooked videotapes. There is still much work to do to educate not only funders, but also potential users of the materials, such as educators, scholars, curators, and programmers. Also, many archivists and conservators - who are traditionally responsible for an institution\u0027s collections - need education on the care and handling of tapes, and their historical and cultural significance. Over the past several years, the media arts field has become more aware of, and involved with, other groups involved with moving image preservation. There has been an increased recognition of the valuable knowledge of media producers and professionals about how, when, and in what context tapes were produced, as well as technical knowledge about tape formats and equipment. However, media arts groups are typically unfamiliar with moving image preservation, conservation, and collection management, and lack staff to perform such tasks. Thus, partnerships between the media arts field and other moving image specialists are essential to the long-term care of independent video collections. One opportunity that exists is to create dialogue with the video or media subcommittees of various archivist groups, such as the American Library Association and the Society of American Archivists. These groups are working on various parts of the preservation problem, including establishing standardized language for describing the materials in library catalogs or finding aids, and setting policies and procedures for care and handling, including duplication, of the materials. Many archivists and librarians may be more used to dealing with, and certainly more comfortable with, books and paper materials, while having charge of vast collections of videotapes. Books and paper materials do not necessarily present the complex problems of these endangered video collections. Paper materials can survive much greater variance in temperature and humidity and are capable of remaining intact for far longer periods than videotape. They do not require specialized machines in order for people to experience them. Media arts groups must position themselves to offer their expertise to these dedicated groups, to ensure the continued existence and usefulness of the thousands of videotapes in their care. Cataloging language is another area in which stronger relationships with allies are needed. Cataloging rules and cataloging software were originally developed by librarians for use with books. These rules, for instance, presuppose an object that is infinitely reproducible and that remains essentially the same whatever the format. Whether hardback or paper, whatever the typeface or the number of pages, Moby Dick is still the intellectual entity Moby Dick. There may, of course, be different editions, but all the thousands of copies of a particular edition of a book will be the same and the records in the catalog will be identical. This is not true of videotape. There are relatively few copies of any single tape and yet, there may be several versions of that tape. Whether a particular copy is a master, sub-master, dub-master, or a reference copy is a vital piece of information. Furthermore, exactly what constitutes a master, sub-master, or a dub-master - the exact meaning of the terms - must be agreed upon if we are going to have compatible databases that allow us to communicate accurately the content of collections. Media producers and professionals, with their hands-on experience with production, are uniquely qualified to take part in the development of a common descriptive language for video materials. The Playback 1996 conference The Playback 1996 conferenc","offset":0,"nextOffset":12000,"totalCharacters":62863,"complete":false},"rightsUrl":"https://www.videohistoryproject.org/terms-service"}