Society of Southwest Archivists
Dear Society of Southwest Archivists, At Texas Ballet Theater, we have a lot of VHS tapes that need to convert to some type of general media format. We need to know how to archive them better than sitting in a filing cabinet. The VHS tapes are from previous performances of Texas Ballet Theater. Let us know of any way of archiving our performances. Thank you! Best, Texas Ballet Theater
ashleyemoore@outlook.com
I found a helpful resources on the website of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. http://www.conservation-us.org/about-conservation/caring-for-your-treasures/home-videotape#.WVZXQIeQzX5
I began dealing with this issue in 2004 by copying the content on the VHS tapes to DVD using a variety of equipment at work. While I no longer deal with VHS at work, but I personally come into possession of 8mm and 16mm home movies and reel-to-reel and audiocassette tapes, all from the 1950s-1970s. Twenty years ago, I paid to have 8mm sound movies transferred to VHS, but the sound had already degraded enough to lose most of the audio content, most likely due to improper storage. Also, the company I used may not have made any special efforts to clean the items before duplicating the original content onto VHS. And now I need to bring the content over to DVD. I plan to use another company to work with the originals and hope they can get better results.
Temperature control and a clean environment are important factors. Equipment to play the film and tapes back is also of major importance, particularly if you plan to make DVD copies of them in house. Getting the VHS tapes copied over to current media as soon as possible is probably the best path to pursue, while providing proper care of the tapes until funds are available to do so. The historical significance of the contents of your VHS would be the key to determining which route you might take and how quickly.
Some additional resources you might find helpful:
"Video Guidance: Playback and Digitization of Materials" National Archives and Records Administration
https://www.archives.gov/preservation/formats/video-playback-digitize.html (NARA links don't seem to be working today. The Internet Archive has this page saved at: https://web.archive.org/web/20170601235415/https://www.archives.gov/preservation/formats/video-playback-digitize.html )
"Video Guidance: Storage of Materials" National Archives and Records Administration
https://www.archives.gov/preservation/formats/video-storage.html (also available from the Internet Archive at: https://web.archive.org/web/20170601235401/https://www.archives.gov/preservation/formats/video-storage.html )
Preservation of Analog Video through Digitization
http://ohda.matrix.msu.edu/2012/06/preservation-of-analog-video-through-digitization/
Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) Videotape Preservation Fact Sheets, particularly Fact Sheet 7 "Reformatting for Preservation" (starts on page 9)
http://www.amianet.org/sites/all/files/fact_sheets_0.pdf
"Videotape Preservation Handbook" by Jim Wheeler (also on the AMIA website), 2002 (so not up-to-date on transferring to digital formats)
http://www.amianet.org/sites/all/files/WheelerVideo.pdf
"VHS Digitization: Best Practices and Training" (slides from workshop at Indigitization Futures Forum, June 2016)
http://www.sustainableheritagenetwork.org/digital-heritage/vhs-digitization-best-practices-and-training
You may want to check out the services offered by the Dance Heritage Coalition.
© Society of Southwest Archivists
Contact SSA | Donate | News | Wild Apricot Admin | Site Map
.png)