In anticipation of our upcoming Pop-up Memory Lab at Pen and Brush, we are providing digitization tutorials from our staff. We’ll provide guidance on process, tips on equipment, and for those who can’t attend our Memory Lab, we’ll give locations of other memory labs across the country.
For many years, audiovisual archivists have been ringing the alarm about the magnetic media crisis and the potential loss of valuable historical documentation held on obsolete media formats. This includes personal home movies filmed on the first widely available camcorders from the 1980s and 1990s, meaning even tapes stored in the most environmentally ideal conditions will become unwatchable in the coming years.
This is due to the time-sensitive structure of magnetic media, which consists of a thin layer that can record a magnetic signal supported by a thicker film backing. Over time, the thin magnetic layer that records audio and video loses its magnetic qualities, resulting in data loss. Generally speaking, magnetic media has a lifespan of between twenty to thirty years. Adding to the trouble, it’s increasingly difficult to source and maintain equipment to play back these materials, putting personal and institutional collections at risk.
You can take many approaches to digitize your materials, but ultimately you should not let perfect be the enemy of good. These materials are quite fragile, so even if you elect to digitize materials at a less-than-archival grade, getting them digitized in any capacity ensures continued access.
Digitization at the TFI Memory Lab
TFI’s Memory Lab at Pen and Brush aligns our primary goal to increase access to feminist materials and empower individuals to preserve their analog and digital legacies by offering our archival services to the public. If you are interested in starting a personal archiving project and need assistance, an archival consultation at the memory lab may be the place to start. We’ll be able to assist with VHS tapes, Hi8 tapes, and miniDV tapes.
Thanks for this post! It couldn't come at a better time, as I keep watching series (and films) which feature videotapes at the center of there stories. There's a brief scene of videotapes used for surveillance in The Cat Returns, a recent episode of The Ghost and Molly McGee is set in a video store, the protagonist of The Watermelon Woman (a wonderful film by the way) works at a video rental store (where she watches old 1930s movies), and videotapes are a major part of the story in Steven Universe! Ensuring that videotapes (and magnetic media more generally) is preserved correctly is vitally important. I've heard that videotapes are some of the worst media for preservation (in that, they breakdown easily). I'm not sure if CDs or DVDs are better, as I think their lifespan is even shorter. Even so, digitizing them is important, as it allows for more access, especially since not everyone has a VHS player anymore (unless you are Steven in Steven Universe, apparently), although my local library still lets people borrow VHS tapes. So, I read this post excerpt with interest, and will definitely read the full post on your website as well.