[QuadList] Library of Congress and quads - the First Hand

[Grace McKay]

James,

Excellent to know the story behind the scenes. A small suggestion. Why 
not put up a web page that solicites the donations of equipment? Your 
specific list of course, and a clear path for anyone to donate.  Could 
this be helpful?

Grace McKay
ScanBox
High Definition Motion Scanning
*Scanbox.tv

*
On 8/8/2013 10:34 AM, James Snyder wrote:
>
> Don (and Ed Reitan as well),
>
> I don't know where your "first hand reports" are coming from, but I am 
> the person who develops and implements the technical budgets and 
> planning for the Library of Congress' facility in Culpeper.  I am the 
> first hand.  Everything else is hearsay by people who, at best, are 
> bystanders to this issue.
>
> The dysfunction in the Unites States Congress that you read about or 
> watch on TV everyday is a fact of life we deal with as part of our 
> daily jobs.  Clearly the two political parties have very different 
> priorities for the Federal government at a fundamental, conceptual 
> level.  The reality is we at the Library and every other Federal 
> agency are affected by that dysfunction. The very fact a budget isn't 
> passed until 3-6 months INTO the fiscal year means we cannot take 
> actions or spend money for much of the year since the money simply 
> isn't there.  Beyond the larger political dysfunction, this is a 
> yearly dysfunction that prevents us from acting even if the money will 
> eventually be there.  Which for us it will most likely not be.
>
> The Library has a number of people both employed and under contract 
> that can handle the maintenance of a wide range of machinery, 
> including 2" quad machines.  What we DON'T have is the money to 
> restore the machines we've acquired to operational condition since, 
> under the current budgetary conditions, we have had to make a choice 
> between restoring old machinery to working condition, or fixing the 
> currently-working machines and continuing production as it stands 
> today.  Our management has made the decision to keep the current set 
> of machinery operating with the hope that the budget squeeze will 
> eventually end and we can do more than tread water.
>
> Part of the decision-making process is also how many operators we have 
> to run the machines: if we had a dozen working 2" machines today we 
> don't have enough people to run them full time.  With the current 
> prohibition on hiring imposed by Congress, even of part-time or 
> contract personnel, we aren't likely to have the operators any time 
> soon.  The House of Representatives leadership has made it clear that 
> their goal is to reduce Federal employment, not increase it.  From 
> their perspective, its irrelevant if that employment is a full time 
> employee, part time employee, or a contractor.  More Federal 
> employment is not currently on their roadmap.  That includes us. Talk 
> or write to your Senators and Congressman if you think that should be 
> different in our case. They may listen to you if you are in their 
> district.
>
> That doesn't mean we shouldn't collect old equipment, however. The 
> fact is our mission at the Library, and indeed our requirement under 
> Federal law, is to maintain accessibility and usability of the 
> collection for a minimum of the Copyright registration period, which 
> is no less than 125 years for the content areas my division (MBRS: the 
> Motion Picture, Broadcasting & Recorded Sound division) is responsible 
> for maintaining under the Copyright law. That means we either have the 
> machines to play the materials, or to play them back to digitize.  The 
> reason the NAVCC was created was to start the digitization process 
> since, clearly, the original media is not going to last forever.  We 
> are in a race in many cases to preserve materials before they decay 
> beyond usability.
>
> The statement "They apparently do not have the technical expertise to 
> repair and maintain the machines they have which include a large 
> number of quads that have been donated and are simply collecting 
> dust." is both false and true:
>
> It is false that we do not have the "technical expertise to repair and 
> maintain the machines".  We have a number of very smart people who are 
> trained in VTR maintenance and restoration work and we have enough 
> spare parts to keep the machines that are running today running IF we 
> don't take another double-digit cut in our operating budget next 
> year.  Our guidance from the House of Representatives is to expect 
> another double digit cut to our operating budget in 2014. This will be 
> the third year in a row we've taken such a cut.  Our technical 
> operating budget is 60% below where it was when the building opened in 
> 2007.  Not because we're not doing good work or spending money 
> efficiently,  but simply because we are a Federal agency.
>
> It is true that we have nearly 2 dozen quad machines that are 
> currently in storage.  "Gathering dust" is a relative term since they 
> are in climate controlled storage with filtered air, but they are 
> sitting unused at the moment.  If someone would like to make a six 
> figure donation to restore all of our machines to operational 
> condition we will be happy to entertain such a donation and make it 
> happen.  Or even a smaller donation.  We're not picky at the moment.
>
> Regardless of the current political climate, the Library's legal 
> requirement is to be, in essence, the 'last one standing' when (not 
> 'if') all other facilities go out of this business.  We cannot depend 
> on commercial entities always being there.  So we will continue to 
> acquire equipment by either purchase or donation that we have 
> identified as necessary to migrate the millions of tapes in our 
> collection.  We may not be able to restore them to operating condition 
> soon, but at least we will have them to restore should the budget 
> situation change or we get a donation to do the work.  If we don't 
> collect the equipment, no amount of money in creation exists to 
> recreate these machines from scratch. We're currently in a narrow 
> window of time to acquire machines before they are lost forever to 
> dumpsters and metal recyclers, and since we have storage space we will 
> do so.  Since the Culpeper building was built with over $200 million 
> in donated funds from the Packard Humanities Institute, it is not 
> outside the realm of possibility that other donors will step in where 
> the House of Representatives has so firmly stepped out.  We will be 
> ready should that donor or donors arrive.
>
> To Ed Reitan:  we agree with you and James O'Neal that an AVR-1 would 
> be an excellent addition to our stable of equipment. Obviously, one 
> that actually runs would be preferable, and one that comes with spare 
> parts and manuals even more so.  We will be happy to put it to good 
> use should it arrive in working condition.  We will be happy to 
> restore a non-working machine when we can get the funding.  We have 
> 135,000 2" tapes alone, including some of the seminal programming in 
> the history of U.S. television.  We are keenly aware that we need to 
> get it digitized sooner rather than later.  The people in Congress who 
> fund us, not so much.
>
> We are also looking for esoteric 2" machines (IVC-9000 and the Sony 
> helical for example), 1" machines (IVC, Ampex, Sony, and other 
> pre-Type C machines plus NTSC and PAL Type B machines), Sony 
> 9800-series and BVU series 3/4" decks, 1/2" EIAJ and esoteric decks, 
> ED Beta and other Betamax decks, Sony HDD-1000 and HDV-1000 1" HD 
> decks, Sony HDV-10 Unihi decks (and manuals, test tapes and spare 
> parts), WVHS HD decks (again, also the manuals spare parts), 
> VHS/SVHS/DVHS decks (specifically the BR-S600/800 and BR-S622/822 
> series from JVC, any DVHS deck), plus a large list of other video and 
> audio decks and equipment such as Dolby 150 and 350 series noise 
> reduction equipment.
>
> We're glad folks are interested in what's going on with us.  Just 
> remember that anything you hear or read is hearsay unless we confirm 
> or clarify.  This industry is well known for rumor, but rumor is not 
> fact.
>
> And please write your Senators and Congressman if you believe the 
> Library's mission of preserving America's recorded cultural heritage 
> for future generations is important and tell them the NAVCC's 
> technical and migration personnel budgets should be a top priority for 
> funding at higher levels.  Go to www.congress.gov to find their web 
> pages.  Some will listen.  Some will not.  Vote accordingly in the 
> next election should you consider it important enough.
>
> That's your peak in to the Trials of Job for today.  Keep calm and 
> carry on....
>
> James
>
> ------------------------------------------------
> James Snyder
> Senior Systems Administrator
> Library of Congress -
>   National Audio Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC)
> Motion Picture, Broadcasting & Recorded Sound Division (MBRS)
> Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation
> http://www.loc.gov/avconservation/packard/
> 19053 Mt. Pony Road
> Culpeper, VA  22701
>
> Member: AES, AMIA, IASA, IEEE, NATAS, SMPTE, WEBE
>
> Frequency Coordinator - National Capital area
> Acting frequency coordinator - Baltimore & greater Maryland
>

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