The library and archive of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown,
NY has accumulated a collection of more than 12,000 hours of audio
and video material during the past 60 years.  Formats include
everything from Edison cylinders, pre-WWII aluminum records, all
sizes of movie and broadcast films, as well as a variety of oral history
interviews on different size audio tapes.  This collection is maintained
by the Film, Video and Recorded Sound Department within the
library, and they have been acquired from both individual and
corporate donations only.  This collection presents the full panorama
of cataloging, preservation, copyright, and storage headaches that
one would expect.  Most important is to realize that a 10 year old
magnetic video recording may be in greater danger than a 50 year
old movie stored in a proper environment.  We have several
specialists on our staff who can speak with you directly about these
issues.  Please give me a call at 607-547-0310 and we can follow
this up in more detail.  I will be happy to put you in touch with the
appropriate members of our staff.

Jim Gates
Library Director
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum


I am a Museum Studies graduate student at JFK University.  I am
researching
museums with film and video in their collections.  I would appreciate
an
answer to the following four questions concerning the care of moving
image formats:

1) Do you have film or video formats in your collection? If not, do you
know
   of a museum that does?

2) How did the films come into the museum's possession?

3) What issues about your film or video collections most concern you:
   Storage, Maintenance, Copying, Catalogueing, Preservation,
Copyright.

4) What information would help you better care for your moving
image
   collections?


Please respond to me directly via e-mail: [log in to unmask]
                              Or call: 510-644-2609  Thanks!