june05c.indd


Jane Hedberg P r e s e r v a t i o n  N e w s  

Videotape guide 
The Texas Commission on the Arts has pub­
lished Videotape Identification and Assess­
ment Guide. Written by Mona Jimenez and 
Liss Platt, with the assistance of Sarah Stau­
derman and others in the video community, 
this 55­page online guide offers practical 
advice about managing video collections for 
non­video experts. It starts with pictures and 
identifying characteristics for 15 tape for­
mats (ranging from two­inch Quad to Digital 
8) continues by covering risks to videotape 
longevity, simple methods of condition as­
sessment, and basic preservation actions, 
and finishes with a glossary and lists of 
useful publications, organizations, vendors, 
supplies, and sources of funding. 

The guide is available free­of­charge at 
www.arts.state.tx.us/video/. It can be ac­
cessed either by individual section or as a 
complete document in PDF. 

Publishers’ bindings Web site 
The University Libraries of the University of 
Alabama and the Libraries of the University 
of Wisconsin­Madison have created Publish­
ers’ Bindings Online 1815–1930: The Art of 
Books (PBO). As described on its homepage, 
PBO “is a digital collection of decorative 
bookbindings that strengthens a growing 
interest in this ‘common’ object—the book.” 
It will eventually contain images of and de­
scriptive information about approximately 
5,000 publishers’ bindings. Those bindings 
can be searched by keyword or subject 
headings that pertain to the decorations on 
the covers and endpapers. The Web site 
also will contain documentation to support 
teaching and research (such as a bibliogra­
phy, glossary, and biographies) and identi­
fying marks of designers. PBO is available at 
bindings.lib.ua.edu. 

Jane Hedberg is preservation program offi  cer at Harvard 
University Library, e-mail: jane_hedberg@harvard.edu; 
fax: (617) 496-8344 

Conservators beyond borders 
Conservators Beyond Borders is a nascent 
not­for­profit relief organization, based in the 
United States, intending to provide emergency 
assistance to cultural institutions affected by 
natural and man­made disasters. It will supply 
trained conservators to at­risk or damaged li­
braries, archives, and museums regardless of 
race, creed, religion, political affiliation, or fi ­
nancial constraint. The conservators will offer 
preventive conservation assessments, disaster 
recovery consultations, and training in triage 
methodologies for all types of cultural objects. 
This group is actively seeking funding and at­
tempting to create an international communi­
cations network to facilitate emergency alerts 
and coordinate responses. 

For more information or to become in­
volved with the work of the group, contact 
Randy Silverman, Preservation Librarian, 
University of Utah, Marriott Library, Salt 
Lake City, UT 84112­0860; phone: (801) 
585­6782; fax: (801) 585­3464; e­mail: randy. 
silverman@library.utah.edu. 

Quick updates 
The MIC (Moving Image Collections, pro­
nounced “mike”) Web site has moved from 
Georgia Tech to the Library of Congress. The 
new URL is mic.loc.gov. 

“Preserving Photographs in a Digital 
World,” the weeklong workshop offered 
by the George Eastman House, the Image 
Permanence Institute, and the Rochester 
Institute of Technology in Rochester, New 
York, is scheduled for August 20–25, 2005, 
and August 19–24, 2006. For more informa­
tion, see www.imagepermanenceinstitute. 
org/sub_pages/8page10.htm. 

The National Library of Australia’s Web 
site, Preserving Access to Digital Information 
(PADI), has 12 digital preservation topics with 
numerous subtopics defined by introductory 
essays and elucidated by links to relevant 
articles. For more information, see www.nla. 
gov.au/padi/. 

480C&RL News June 2005

www.imagepermanenceinstitute
http:mic.loc.gov
mailto:silverman@library.utah.edu
mailto:jane_hedberg@harvard.edu
http:bindings.lib.ua.edu
www.arts.state.tx.us/video