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Collections tend to take pride of place in any discussion of moving images and sound recordings at the Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation. It’s understandable — we like talking about the more than 5 million items in our collective care. But we’re also responsible for preserving these sound recordings, films, and videos in order to ensure their survival and make them available for researcher access, and for that we need 1) playback equipment; 2) parts to maintain the equipment; 3) the knowledge to sustain the equipment; and finally 4) the expertise to make the best possible transfer. This last one requires what can be a lifetime of knowledge and experience to choose and properly prepare the collection items and use the right equipment for the best archival transfer…not to mention that we need this for an astonishing variety of formats. In that sense, we not only have to preserve collection items, we also have to preserve the knowledge and expertise that will be needed in the future to continue this important work.

http://1.usa.gov/1kftHv8
http://1.usa.gov/1kftHv8+

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