- Playback 1996: Video Preservation Roundtable Chronology
Playback 1996: Video Preservation Roundtable was held in San Francisco on March 29–30 and organized by the Bay Area Video Coalition with assistance from Media Alliance; the international symposium was funded by the Getty Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The event is described as the first to build alliances between the media arts and art conservation.
- Video Preservation: A Report from the Trenches Preservation
A Video Data Bank author reports on videotape preservation practice and supervised preservation of the Castelli-Sonnabend collection and the compilation of 65 titles for Surveying the First Decade; core procedures described include transfers among formats (1/2" open reel, 1" IVC, 3/4" U-matic, digital), cleaning, reference copies, two masters, cataloging and storage. He details technical problems (drop-out, skew, deck differences, TBC use) and aesthetic/legal dilemmas about edits and distribution; institutional activity by BAVC, Media Alliance and MoMA and funders such as the Andy Warhol Foundation and Getty Grant Program are noted. Events cited include Playback 1996 (SFMOMA, March 29–30) and Library of Congress hearings in March 1996 in New York, Washington, DC and Los Angeles; texts by Deirdre Boyle, Jim Hubbard and Jim Lindner are referenced.
- Video Preservation: Securing the Future of the Past Preservation
Media Alliance launched a video preservation initiative in 1991 and, in partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts, convened a symposium at the Museum of Modern Art on June 14, 1991; over 60 participants from as far as San Francisco and Toronto attended and MoMA sponsored an evening screening organized by Barbara London and Sally Berger. Presenters included Elizabeth Scheines, Leanne Mella, Mark Schubin, David Shulman and Deborah Silverfine; topics covered collection assessment, cataloging (MARC and NAMID), conservation technology, cleaning methods, formats and remastering costs. Media Alliance surveyed over 200 people and solicited funding support from NYSCA, NEA, NAMAC, CCUMC, the Benton Foundation and BAVC; Deirdre Boyle authored the report and Mary Esbjornson served as Executive Director and Project Director of the Video Preservation Initiative.
- Video Preservation Symposium Bibliography
Conference packet with agenda and list of participants. June 13 -14, 1991 at the Museum of Modern Art.
- Economics of Physical Preservation Panel Preservation
Panel at the Experimental Television Center symposium (Looking Back/Looking Forward: May 31–June 1, 2002) addressed the economics of physical preservation with speakers Kate Horsfield (Video Data Bank), Kim Tomczak and Lisa Steele (V Tape), John Thomson (Electronic Arts Intermix), Kacey Koeberer (BAVC) and Bill Seery (Mercer Media). Presenters reported collection sizes and formats—Video Data Bank ~5,000 tapes with 2,365 needing preservation and 175 archived; V Tape ~4,200 titles by 900 artists—and discussed transfer workflows, equipment, cataloguing, research, estate planning, training and funding constraints including NEA and foundation grants and specific 2001 mastering volumes and costs at BAVC.
- Preservation
Deirdre Boyle, historian and educator, testified at a 1996 hearing for the Report on the Study of American Television and Video, arguing that omission of video pioneers would render histories of American television and recent American social history incomplete and distorted. The page lists preservation resources: Video Preservation: The Basics by Sherry Miller Hocking and Mona Jimenez, described as an introduction covering cleaning, storage, cataloging and copyright and including glossaries, a bibliography and links; Reel to Real: A Case Study of BAVC's Remastering Model by Luke Hones, edited by Hocking and Jimenez; Looking Back / Looking Forward: A Symposium on Electronic Media Preservation; and selected historical texts on preservation.