Audiovisual Preservation Readiness Assessment

 
 

Background

From December 2017 to May 2019, eleven Smithsonian units participated in an Audiovisual Preservation Readiness Assessment (AVPRA), building off of the 2016 Pan-Institutional Audiovisual Collections Survey. The purpose of AVPRA was to 1) complete and update the 2016 inventory of analog audiovisual holdings at the Smithsonian Institution; 2) develop and implement a method to prioritize analog audiovisual collections for preservation; 3) evaluate the Institution’s current audiovisual preservation practices; and 4) determine the risk for permanent collection loss at current preservation rates and establish preservation scenarios which can mitigate that loss.

The Smithsonian Institution Archives served as the lead unit for the project under the direction of Alison Reppert Gerber, Preservation Coordinator, and Kira Sobers, Digital Media Coordinator. As the Community Archiving Collective (CAC) under the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA), contracted audiovisual archivists Kelli Hix, Marie Lascu, and Moriah Ulinskas conducted the assessment and prepared the report. Funding for the project was provided by the National Collections Program’s Collections Care Initiative (CCI).

Participants

Outcomes

The final project report was completed and presented to institutional stakeholders in July 2019. Appendices may be made available upon request.