Update on Archive Meeting

On August 27th, 2017 Jennifer Smith (Distribution Director), Bev Pike (Archive Consultant), and Madeline Bogoch (Archive Intern) hosted an evening of consultation with the membership on the future caregiving of the Video Pool Media Arts Centre tape archive.

If you were unable to attend and would like to talk with Jen about the consultation we will hold one on one or small group discussions as requested.

Email vpdist@videopool.org if you would like to know about the archive, tape conservation, distribution, or digital preservation at Video Pool Media Arts Centre.

Below is a brief record of the discussion:

1.We began the discussion with a update on the last five years of activity in the archive

-the system that controls the temperature and humidity has broken several times, over the last five years. in 2017 VP was informed that there was no way to keep the system going. The maintenance person got it working for another 6 months and has been out of working order since 2018.

-in 2017 through funding given to VUCAVU we were able to digitize about 100 tapes from the archive. Currently 60% of the videos in the collection are digitized or were born digital, the remaining 40% still live on tape only.

-Video Pool Media Arts Centre is committed to the safe keeping of the videos in the collection, and are in phase one of a three phase project to improve the caregiving of the collection. Phase one is planning and assessment, phase two will focus on digitization and accessibility, phase three will focus on long term care. So far we have received funding from Manitoba Culture, Heritage and Sport and Young Canada Works for phase one of the project.

2. Madeline Bogoch presented on the work she has done over the summer of 2019 as the Archive Intern

-Madeline was hired through funding from the Government of Canada’s Young Canada Works program.

-Madeline did an audit of all of the tapes in the vault, and began organizing tapes to ensure easy accessibility to the collection for future phases of the project.

-A spreadsheet was made to document all tapes in the vault, as well as digital assets. A rating system was created to asses the most at risk tapes to the least at risk tapes, which will be used during phase two when digitization will begin.

3. Bev Pike, currently working as the Archive Consultant at VP facilitated a discussion on the future caregiving of the tapes.

-Bev present two options for the future of the archive; 1. rebuilding the temperature and humidity controlled system. 2. Working with an existing archive (such as the Manitoba Archives or the Library and Archive Canada) and depositing the collection with them.

-Research has been done into option 1. and the vault would cost an initial $30,000 to replace, along with cost of archival standard shelving, yearly maintenance, staffing, and hiring an archivist on staff. The research to rebuild has been done, and if we move forward with option 1, we do not need to do much consultation with membership.

-The conversation focused on option 2, and what questions artist would have if the collection were to be deposited at an archive. The goal was to collect questions that can inform our discussions with the archives to see if they can meet VP’s and our member’s needs. We are at the beginning of the research portion of the option.

-Questions that came up focused on copyright, what it would mean for an artist go gain access to their own work, what rules would there be for the public wishing to access work on the tapes, and ownership of the tapes.

-Key things that came from the discussion were that no videos are currently accessed from tape, if there is a request for a video that only lives on tape, VP would digitize that tape, and create access through a digital file.

-Video Pool Media Arts Centre would have control (based on artists contracts) of all digital files, currently we keep files on site at VP, and a second hard drive of files in an offsite location. A more comprehensive policy will be made for the care of digital files, however we are currently following standards.

The discussion ended with us inviting attendees to send further thoughts and questions if they come up, and letting everyone know we expect to hold an open discussion similar to this in each phase of the project.