IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 1 Dietrich Schüller Introduction to IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers Co-Editor Albrecht Häfner A Preview Prepared for TELDAP Taipei, 23 February 2012

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 2 IASA – International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives – founded 1969 Cooperates with International professional organisations (NGOs) National and intergovernmental bodies (UNESCO, European Commission Technical Committee – founded 1975 Organises Tutorials and workshops Consultations to audiovisual archives TC series: Standards, Recommended Practices and Strategies

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 3 Standards, Recommended Practices and Strategies IASA-TC 01 Standards for (Analogue) Tapes Exchange (obsolete) IASA-TC 02 Fire Precaution and Fire Extinguishing (obsolete) IASA-TC 03 The Safeguarding of the Audio Heritage: Ethics, Principles and Preservation Strategy, version 3, December 2005, also in German, French, Swedish, Italian Spanish, Russian and Chinese IASA-TC 04 Guidelines on the Production and Preservation of Digital Audio Objects, 2nd Edition IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers, 2012 IASA-TC 06 Guidelines on the Production and Preservation of Digital Video Objects, 2012 But before we start with TC 05, we have to take note of ….

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 4 IASA-TC 03 The Safeguarding of the Audio Heritage: Ethics, Principles and Preservation Strategy Audio (and video) carriers cannot be preserved in their original form all carriers sooner or later deteriorate replay equipment becomes unavailable as formats become obsolete – time window 15 years, if at all! Only viable strategy: Subsequent copying in the digital (= lossless) domain Analogue originals have to be digitised first, digital originals to standardised file formats an deposited in trusted digital repositories Still: preservation of originals is imperative, before digitisation can be organised, and as reproduction from and restoration of originals still may improve

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 5 IASA-TC 05 Publication follows concepts prepared for the IASA ICA-Seminar, Vienna 2004 TAPE tutorials Prepublication available at Architecture of the Publication 1 Introduction 2 Type of carriers 3 Environmental factors, handling 4 Storage facilities 5 Disaster preparedness: fire and water 6 Conclusion

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 6 1 Introduction No handbook of detailed knowledge in the field Structurally follows IASA-TC 04 Guidelines on the Production and Preservation of Digital Audio Objects Concentration on main carriers and main problems Points to special publications

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 7 2 Carriers Recording principles, composition and life expectancy, deterioration by replay, sizes and formats Mechanical Magnetic including HDD Optical Solid state carriers

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 8 3 Environmental factors, handling… Water / humidity Temperature Mechanical deformation Dust, foreign matter, (air) pollution Magnetic stray fields Light, ultraviolet radiation, x-rays Pest …across the carriers

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 9 4 Building and storage facilities Storage areas and their location Construction, materials, insulation Air conditioning Air quality and filtering Shelving Transport

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 10 5 Disaster preparedness General Fire Water

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 11 What is new compared to the last publications Absolute importance of relative humidity (RH) Relative importance of temperature Consequently, RH will be quoted first, temperature thereafter: e.g.: 35% RH, 20° C However: New insight in cellulose acetate deterioration suggests different RH values for AC tapes and lacquer discs: % RH as opposed to 40% and lower for other carriers

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 12 Stability of magnetic tape: Chemical composition is of basic importance, but… …additionally, production process determines success (= tape stability) highly dependant from a number of production variables Chemical analysis alone does not lead to conclusive results, but Production process hardly analysible (Batch related) production differences often explain different behavior of tapes of same type

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 13 “Sticky Shed Syndrome” (SSS): Beyond hydrolysis of pigment binder several other reasons – mostly curable by elevated temperatures (“baking”) lubricant and primer exudation insufficiently cross-linked binder components Empirical observation: SSS appears soon after production of tape, no reliable reports of appearance after 5 (?) years SSS likely not to be general aging process (?) Consequently: research into life expectancy may not be of much use for prioritising digitisation – start with deteriorated and AC tapes, to be followed by the rest

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 14 Consequently: Start digitisation as soon as possible Keep original carriers before digitisation under reasonable environmental conditions: dry cool clean

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 15 Dry and cool: Theoretical ideal: keep temperature and humidity stable and low - Avoid (cyclic) changes of temperature and RH And: Temperature and humidity are interrelated: both parameters must be controlled simultaneously never cool storage areas without dehumidification (humidity may raise excessively!)

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 16 Standard recommendations for all audio and video carriers (except AC tapes and lacquer discs): Preservation storage: 25-30% RH  5%, 8-10°C  1° Access storage: 40% RH  5%,  20°C  3° New recommendations for AC tapes and lacquer discs Preservation storage:45-50% RH, 8-10°C  1° Access storage: 45-50% RH,  20°C  3° Acclimatise when moving carriers from preservation to access store and relax tape based carriers

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 17 Nota bene: any levels between 20 – 65% RH and °C (for photographic materials lower) are without immediate risk to AV carriers but: choice of storage conditions determines speed of degradation keeping tight standards does not prevent degradation choose parameters which you can afford 24 h/day all year round And remember: RH is more important than temperature! Tropical countries may cautiously lift the 20°C dictate !

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 18 Other measures before digitisation can be organised: Rewind magnetic tapes, establish flat tape packs Clean dirty carriers and containers Reorganise shelving according to standards

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 19 IASA-TC 05 images: a) Interlacing with text in the e-version b) Same in print version, if affordable - or DVD added

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 20 CD: Pits und Lands CD-ROM – replicated CD-R – burned Photo: Jean-Marc Fontaine

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 21 Ultimate stage of binder degradation – or production failure?

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 22

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 23

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 24 Model of tropical AV archive building

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 25 Pre-publication in TAPE Dietrich Schüller: Audio and video carriers. Recording principles, storage and handling, maintenance of equipment, format and equipment obsolescence. online.net/docs/audio_and_video_carriers.pdf

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 26 Published August 2011: Dietrich Schüller: Audio and Video Materials in Tropical Countries. In: International Preservation News 54, def.pdf Third Version of an article originally published in IASA Journal 7/1996

IASA-TC 05 Handling and Storage of Audio and Video Carriers © 2012 Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner 27 Thank you !