SessionCanadian Audiovisual Vault Inventory Report
PresenterRené Villeneuve
Villeneuve Media Technologies, Inc.
Executive Vice-President, SMPTE 2003-2004

ABSTRACT

In 2003, The AV Preservation Trust commissioned a survey to assess the size and scope of the many facilities that conserve Canada's Audiovisual Heritage. Among the issues and concerns identified by the custodians are the lack of funding for processing and cataloguing all the assets they have on hand. The need for better-adapted environments for those elements that are jeopardized by advanced deterioration (such as films affected by the "vinegar syndrome" that require cold storage to slow down this decay) remains an important issue as fewer than 20% of the facilities surveyed provide appropriate storage conditions.

Although the larger vaulting facilities such as the CBC, the NFB and the Library and Archives Canada have not yet reached their full capacity, the smaller and more diversified regional facilities (public and private) are unable to cope with the growing demand for space to store audiovisual assets.

This report will present the findings of this study that provides an overview of the current situation in Canada.  While highlighting many of the technical shortcomings of Canada's audiovisual vault facilities, it also underlines the growing efforts (technical and otherwise) that are being deployed to improve the situation in both public and private sectors.

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PRESENTATION

This research commissioned by the Audiovisual Preservation Trust.CA provides a preliminary assessment of Canada's current capacity for preserving its audio-visual heritage, and its ability to cope with the diversified nature of the audio-visual program inventories being generated today.

This report will identify the current inventory of A-V vault facilities in Canada and it will seek to determine the utilization as well as the status of these facilities. It also provides an assessment of presently known future needs.

The objective was to gather as much information as possible as to the nature, location, availability and need for climate controlled vaults suitable for the storage and preservation of Canadian audiovisual assets.

To help in qualifying the type of vaults or facilities we would include in this survey, it was decided that a basic definition would be established. This was very useful in doing a first sort among the many potential institutions that were initially considered for this project.

The following definition was arrived at with the help of the AV Trust Ad Hoc Vault Inventory Oversight Committee:

"A place in which a significant number of audiovisual records are stored for the long-term preservation of their content in an environment that helps to defer the onset of deterioration."

The significant number of audiovisual records meant that we would only consider those facilities storing a minimum of 1000 articles and 10 years or more was established as the long term. The notion of preservation implied that limited and controlled access to an environment that provides separate and dedicated space within an organization was the main purpose of any given facility.

This meant that the following types of facilities were not included in this survey:

Short-term storage facilities (ie: film laboratories' or audio or video recording studios' "work-in -progress" storage facilities, editorial and post houses, etc.).
Distribution warehousing facilities that service the exhibition or syndicated commercial circuits
Lending libraries of consumer videos or films available to the general public
Private Collections or museums having fewer than 1000 articles.

The deliverables for this project consist mainly of a database listing all the facilities inventoried. This database contains information about each facility such as individual administrative & technical data/characteristics and provides a way of listing facilities by media types stored and according to the region of the country. The database is updateable in the future as required and is compatible with the AVTrust's Web site.

The is also a final report that provides an assessment of the utilization and status of A-V Storage in Canada as well as a summary of future needs based on the comments and wishes expressed by those interviewed in the course of the survey. Photos were taken of the facilities that were visited and documentation was also gathered whenever available.

In order to create an up to date listing of known A-V vault facilities in Canada (public and private), the following databases and directories of the Canadian film and television industries were consulted:

A-V Trust listings ( CDS report 04-1993, Web sites database 2002, A-V Trust membership lists and industry listings)
AMIA list of Canadian members
The Web
The Association for Information Management Professionals (Canadian member listings)
FIAF (International Federation of Film Archives) membership database
Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television Who's Who? 2002
Personal contacts

It was also necessary to rely on the established conservation and archival organizations dedicated to preserving media to seek out other potentially significant "collectors" of a-v media. This resulted in uncovering a number of facilities that might not be considered in the mainstream of a-v preservation, but yet pertinent to this particular survey.

It was also evident that we could not conduct this survey by simply mailing out a "questionnaire" and expect to receive consistent and comprehensive information without some form of personal interaction with the subjects (facility managers, operators, etc.). Personal interviews were conducted for all the facilities and we sought out those individuals within each surveyed organization that was most apt and willing to provide the most complete and accurate information possible about their facilities.

The information we requested was of the following nature:

Building & architectural characteristics
Operational & financial data
Technical details about the media (nature and variety)
Types of storage practices
Environmental data
Concerns & preoccupations
Future requirements and needs

Once the data was collected (Telephone interviews, e-mail, fax) we provided written feedback and asked that the data be confirmed before inputting it in the database.
We also conducted a number of site visits to further document the information with photographs and to get more in-depth knowledge on the issues and concerns as well as future needs.

We can classify the 64 facilities consulted in this survey into three main categories: Government institutions (36), Private non-profit organizations (17) and private for-profit organizations (11).

The facilities were located throughout the country and the following table shows that a large portion of them were concentrated in Central Canada (Ontario and Quebec).

The map indicates the specific locations and the ones coded in red arethe ones that were visited.

 

The following table indicates the segment of industry or the field of activity in which the surveyed participants are involved.


Here is a listing of the facilities based on their respective field of activity. There was a total of 16 Provincial or National institutions in the category entitled Public Archives.


The Film and Television category shows a total of 24 facilities but, as the table demonstrates, 13 of them belong to the CBC/Radio-Canada who maintain conservation facilities of varying size and scope.

The Commercial and Academic category consists of 10 facilities...While the Cultural and Other category lists a total of 14 facilities.

This table highlights the storage capacity of all the facilities surveyed.


The average space is 9,200 square feet with slightly over 550,000 square feet of space inventoried among all the facilities. However, as over 85% of the space is located in 17% of the overall facilities, the average space for the remaining 15 % of the facilities is more realistically in the range of 1 650 sq.ft. although there are 20 of the surveyed vaults that occupy less than 500 square feet of space.

These photos illustrate the types of installations typically found in most of the installations visited.

The various facilities visited had their own temperature and relative humidity goals. As the vault facilities generally occupy the space that was "granted" to them by their organizations, they have to live with the existing environmental conditions that prevail although many have sought to make improvements within the boundaries of their budgets and the limitations imposed by the building they are in.

The way AV media storage is perceived and the degree of attention that is devoted to this activity varies greatly from one facility to the next. For many of the larger public archives, the greater number of audiovisual assets justify having adequately maintained storage vaults with environmental conditions tailored to the varying types of media. With the smaller public archives, due to the lesser proportion of AV media among their holdings, special attention is generally given to the film holdings, particularly color film, due to their awareness of the dye fading or the vinegar syndrome. The remaining magnetic media and disc storage tends to be kept in conditions very close to text and other archival records.

Out of the 64 facilities, 36 have indicated that the storage areas have distinct environmental controls for either temperature and/or relative humidity. This may range from a separate zoning of the general ventilation and air conditioning systems to entirely separate systems with elaborate filtration of incoming air. Only 12 of those have reported distinct temperature and humidity environments for specific types of media (eg: color film originals versus prints or intermediates). The average temperature appears to hover around 18C to 20C and the percentage of relative humidity in the mid 40's.

Proper air circulation is a factor that will affect the quality of the conservation efforts. Although most facilities tended to rely on normal building HVAC systems, a few have gone to the trouble of installing special air distribution systems to ensure an adequate airflow. For those facilities where major retro-fits were possible or where they were fortunate to design their storage spaces from "scratch", added attention was given to the filtering of the air. Air "scrubbers" and activated charcoal filters are used in a few of the facilities visited, but it is the exception rather than the rule.

These photos show some of the various types of refrigeration systems used in the facilities.



Disaster prevention is naturally a concern and most have a combination of water or fire/smoke detection and extinguishing systems that are adapted to the scope of their installations. Although gas suppression systems are the exception, most use sprinklers and many have delayed action systems.

In fact, only six of the facilities (less than 10%) have gas suppression (Halon or Inergen) while ten of the facilities have delayed-action/dry pipe systems.
Access to audiovisual holdings plays an important part in creating or maintaining the value of such holdings. The decision to maintain access to assets depends on their condition and status and the dilemma that archivists often face resides in choosing whether to consider them as active, semi-active or inactive elements.

For most of the facilities that are part of the Film and Television facilities such as Broadcasters or National Producers or Networks access appears to be the preferred choice as they have the skills and the resources at hand to maintain access to their holdings while ensuring that they are kept in proper storage environments.
On the other hand, when the audiovisual elements that need to be conserved are unique (no other copies exist of this particular content) the challenge is of a greater nature. Often, these elements are also characterized by the obsolete nature of the medium they are recorded on or by the already advanced state of deterioration due to improper prior storage. This is generally the case in Public Archives or Academic and cultural Institutions.

"80% of your resources are devoted to 20% of your assets." For public Archives, this statement tends to be rather appropriate. Dealing with Sound and Moving Images requires not only resources and skills, but also time and money they generally don't have on a sustained basis. For them as well as Cultural and Academic institutions, the managing of Sound and Moving Images requires more effort than dealing with text records. As Archives, the component of SMI holdings is often rather limited as they mostly deal with text documents or photographs, therefore, the technology required to handle and process collections of SMI assets adds an important overhead to the task of processing and cataloguing.

This is also further complicated by the short-lived nature of the holdings that require periodical re-formatting. Aside from the delicate task of selecting the appropriate format and support that will extend the useful life of the asset, the increased rate at which technology evolves further complicates this task.

Finally, the funding for such activities has not kept up with the growing number of assets that make up today's as well as tomorrow's collections.

A number of significant issues were uncovered in the course of this survey. Space is a problem as many facilities have already reached their maximum capacity or will do so within the next three to five years. Limited resources have forced the smaller facilities to maintain mixed collections which inhibits their ability to tailor the environmental conditions to the specific types of assets.

In order to maintain access to valuable collections, duplication of content onto affordable and easily accessible supports is essential. This is a costly process for which many institutions do not have allowances. Furthermore, the age and the condition of many of the records that require duplication represent a challenge for which they are not readily equipped to handle.

In the case of Broadcasters, access is the priority and many do not have long-term storage facilities with adequate environmental conditions to house their news and program archives. Particularly in the case of programs, the limited broadcast rights they acquire does not justify them investing in such storage and this contributes to the potential loss of valuable audiovisual content over time, as many producers of such content do not have established policies for preserving their own assets.
There is a considerable amount of material tat is presently stored by public and private organizations that remains unidentified or at least, un-catalogued. As a first measure, assets are generally acquired and stored until there are sufficient resources to identify and catalogue them. The identification of film or electronic (picture and/or sound) assets can e a complex and costly process. As this picture illustrates, small rolls of news film clips need to be viewed individually and, unless there is a written documentation that refers to what the clip is about, there is little to go on when attempting to determine what it is and when it was shot.

With major broadcasters, procedures and policies exist to streamline and facilitate this process, but in many instances, large numbers of audiovisual elements remain unidentified and unclassified. Short of disposing of them, many choose to store them away until proper facilities or adequate resources become available. Unfortunately, the effect of time and the ensuing deterioration may not permit us to salvage such assets when we finally get around to them.

Many public archives are starting to prioritize SMI initiatives in their long-term planning. Although traditional paper archives tend to grow at a constant but manageable rate, Sound and Moving Image Archives are becoming a greater preoccupation for public archives. The number of assets generated in the first part of the 20th century are very small compared to what our society has produced in the second part of that century. Therefore, a larger quantity of audiovisual materials and an increasingly wider variety and types of media now have to be accommodated within existing vaulting facilities. New, better adapted facilities are being built around the country (Alberta, Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Ottawa) and a closer cooperation between institutions has also led to a better exchange of information and a sharing of services and resources amongst both public and private concerns.

Among the other positive findings of this survey is the growing awareness among archivists and other conservation professionals of the special requirements imposed by SMI archives. Film preservation is rather well managed with special attention being given to the Vinegar syndrome. Re-packaging is well under way within many institutions to slow down the deterioration brought about by this phenomenon.
Audio assets are being digitized and made accessible through various means - the Internet being an ideal vehicle for this medium.

Commercial Storage facilities are becoming aware of the need for climate-controlled vaults and perceive audiovisual assets as a potential market. Overall, it is safe to say that AV Vaults are improving around the country. Plans are being made to deal with increased demands for preservation and we should see an increase in storage capacity and storage quality. Archivists and preservation specialists are being trained to deal with new technologies.

Although there is a considerable amount of "catching-up" and there is still a large quantity of un-treated assets stored on "obsolete" supports that needs to be re-formatted, there is also a growing concern that the time frame in which to accomplish all the necessary "catching-up" is limited.

The number of properly trained and experienced professionals required to handle this enormous workload is rather limited. SMI managers need to maintain their skills up to date and with the fast evolving nature of audiovisual technology, this represents a major challenge to those who manage collections and repositories. For public archives who have to deal with great varieties of assets (aside from audiovisual assets), this has become a major preoccupation as SMI activities are taking up more and more of their archivists' time, and budget restrictions have inhibited their ability to dedicate valuable staff exclusively to SMI holdings.

Although training is becoming more and more available through numerous sources, the ability of SMI professionals to travel and take advantage of this training is a function of the funding that is made available for this purpose. Those who have acquired the skills and knowledge over the years on older and obsolete technologies are preparing to retire and the new generations not only have to acquire these skills, but also have to master the numerous new ways of generating audiovisual content.
There is a limited window of opportunity to acquire and to use older equipment. Furthermore, urgent decisions need to be made as to the determination of the replacement supports and formats that will be needed to carry on.

If managing outdated assets is a challenge, the learning of new skills to handle the present and upcoming technologies is also a test of our ability to cope with growing inventories of content for which there is more and more interest.

Access to our audiovisual heritage is the key to increasing its value to the public. But access costs money and unless we are made aware of the great wealth that resides in these collections, i is very difficult to convince public or private funding agencies to commit resources to the preservation of our assets. On the other hand, it is through a higher visibility of these treasures that we will gain the required financial and political support needed to improve this preservation.

The AV Trust can play an essential role in linking those who manage our audiovisual heritage. By providing a network of exchange for specialists in the field, it can improve their ability to promote their skills and to communicate valuable and useful information. There is a growing need for hands-on training as the present generation of SMI professionals is ready to transfer their unique and uncommon skills to the newer generations of archivists who will deal with the challenge of preserving our treasured assets while attempting to make their content more and more accessible to the public.

SessionCanadian Audiovisual Vault Inventory Report
PresenterRené Villeneuve
Villeneuve Media Technologies, Inc.
Executive Vice-President, SMPTE 2003-2004