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

Thu Aug 8 12:34:45 CDT 2013

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

>Hi Ed:
>
>I've had several first-hand reports recently about the state of the 
>LOC operation and what they are (or are not) doing.  Given the 
>magnitude of the quad transfer work that exists, there's little 
>evidence of any serious attempt to get the job done.  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.  Under 
>these circumstances, it's hard to imagine what they would do with an 
>AVR-1.  I hope my assessment is wrong, and I'd very much welcome any 
>news that indicates otherwise.
>
>Don
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <mailto:ereitan at novia.net>Ed Reitan
>To: <mailto:quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com>Quad List
>Cc: <mailto:ereitan at novia.net>Ed Reitan
>Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2013 4:30 PM
>Subject: Re: [QuadList] Library of congress and quads
>
>
>
>Hi Guys,
>
>About a year ago, James O'Neal of Television Technology contacted me. 
>He wanted to know if I knew of an Ampex AVR-1 that could be directed 
>to the LOC.
>He was suggesting to them that they should have an AVR- 1 in their 
>restoration stable. 
>
>I am truly surprised that the LOC is using 2000's instead of the 
>much better performing AVR-1.
>Can we work together to get an AVR-1 to them?
>
>Ed Reitan
>
>
>
>
>______________________________________________
>Please trim posts to relevant info when replying.
>
>Change subject to reflect thread direction. Thanks.
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