Caring for America's Library
State-of-the-Art Storage And Special Media Conservation Activities and Facilities
Preservation of Special Media
Many preservation activities concerning special media (largely non-paper-based materials) within the Library's collections are funded through the preservation budget that is managed by the Director for Preservation. Technical support as required is provided by the staff of the Preservation Directorate, although day-to-day program activities concerning these media are managed by other Library organizational units such as the Geography and Map Division; the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division; and the Prints and Photographs Division.
National Audio-Visual Conservation Center at Culpeper, Virginia
The National Audio-Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC), in Culpeper, VA, opens in the spring of 2007. The NAVCC is the result of a unique partnership between the Packard Humanities Institute (PHI), the United States Congress, the Library of Congress, and the Architect of the Capitol. PHI has a long history of support for the work of U.S. film and sound archives, for film exhibition, and for prototyping new digital preservation and access projects.
The Library and PHI collaborated to design the facility and its unprecedented
new digital systems that will set standards for the world. Phi's gift
to the nation is the largest private donation ever made to the Library
of Congress.
The archive houses over one million theatrical films, newsreels and television programs, plus educational, industrial and advertising material (including over 150,000 reels of nitrate film). The Center also centralizes the Library's collections of nearly three million commercial sound recordings and radio broadcasts plus early voice recordings of historical figures.
The new facility will utilize diverse modes of preservation - from hands-on "boutique" copying of rare and fragile materials to streamlined "robotic" transfers for increased efficiency. These systems will significantly increase preservation capabilities with a digital preservation and acquisitions system that enables the center to serve as a "production factory" for archiving multiple petabytes of audiovisual content.
This magnificent new facility is equipped to provide preservation services to other libraries, archives and industry constituents, provide a test bed for the development of large-scale mass digital archiving systems for audiovisual materials, and share innovations, standards and tools developed at NAVCC with the archival community.
High Density Collections Storage Facility at Fort Meade, Maryland
The Preservation Directorate advises the Architect of the Capitol on effective environmental storage areas and is fully involved in the planning for off-site, state-of-the-art library storage facilities.
On a 100-acre site on the grounds of Fort George G. Meade, Anne Arundel
County, Maryland, located approximately 30 miles north of Capitol Hill,
construction has been completed on the first 2 of 13 projected book storage
modules storage modules for the Library of Congress to be erected on
that site. The completed
modules
provide a cool, safe environment for both paper-based and non-paper-based
Library materials.
The Fort Meade facility, which will focus on storing books and special format collections such as maps and manuscripts, will be built in a modular fashion with a new module erected every several years. The first two modules, which have been designed specifically for paper-based collections, will include, in addition to the storage, an office area, loading docks, mechanical rooms, vestibule, and circulation corridors. Subsequent modules will also include an isolation room, processing space, and cold storage rooms for items that require a lower temperature, e.g. photographs and microfilm masters.
This state-of-the-art facility provides an environment that slows deterioration 500% over typical storage conditions, provides filtration from particulate matter and gaseous pollutants, shelving designed to specific preservation specification, and mitigates the risks of damage due to fire. Preservation Directorate staff worked closely with other LC units, contractors, and the Office of the Architect of the Capitol on specifications for the environmental systems, the selection of preservation-compatible materials for use in buildings construction, and the design and components of storage enclosures that will house books and other materials that will be transferred to the new site.