National Audio-Visual Conservation Center

I am off on another adventure this morning to join the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) on their tour of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC) maintained by the Library of Congress in Culpeper Virginia. It sits on a 45-acre campus that has approximately 415,000 square feet of space for more than five million sound recordings, videotapes, motion pictures, and born-digital works. It is designed to meet preservation needs of the 21st century and was built with funds from the the Packard Humanities Institute. ARSC is kicking off its conference with pre-tours of significant places in the DC area for sound recording. It will be interesting to compare storage facilities and collections in the United States with recent visits to the storage/restoration facilities of Conservatoire National Des Arts et Metiers just outside Paris and Bibliotheque Nationale de France (BNF). At Arts et Metiers I was able to document historical equipment for the researcher I worked for with the understanding that the photographs would remain unpublished. Inside BNF I also took pictures that are being used to further understanding and research related to sound. NAVCC also has some restrictions but we will be allowed to take pictures of various areas. I am looking forward to sharing a view of NAVCC with you tomorrow.