Preservation Science for Recordings On Magnetic Tape

About

The Library of Congress holds a collection of over half a million audio recordings on magnetic tape, and its collection suffers the same physical maladies that are familiar to audiovisual curators worldwide: sticky, shedding, and squealing audio tape materials. These symptoms of deterioration well known, but the possible causes and remedies for degradation still inspire passioned debate. The highly commercialized and mass-produced nature of magnetic tapes presents challenges in preserving these “modern” collections in contrast to singular unique historic objects, as the “same” product line may have inherent variations that affect its stability over time. PRTD has scientifically analyzed a range of degraded tapes to better understand how best to preserve them and enable their continued access. This talk will present scientific analyses related to the physical preservation of magnetic tapes, including topics such as sticky shed, remedial thermal treatments, and cleaning methods that have since been adopted by NAVCC.

Archive

Library of Congress, in Library of Congress: talks and concerts

Licence or status

Rights statement at the Library of Congress, as the Library of Congress states it.

Rights statement

While the Library of Congress created most of the videos in this collection, they include copyrighted materials that the Library has permission from rightsholders to present. Rights assessment is your responsibility. The written permission of the copyright owners in materials not in the public domain is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. There may also be content that is protected under the copyright or neighboring-rights laws of other nations. Permissions may additionally be required from holders of other rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights). Whenever possible, we provide information that we have about copyright owners and related matters in the catalog records, finding aids and other texts that accompany collections. However, the information we have may not be accurate or…

Credit

Library of Congress

Language

English

Country

United States

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Tweens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed