Videotape and film preservation is a field of its own. I would strongly suggest you contact the Association of Moving Image Archivists (they're easily found on the web; their listserv is at [log in to unmask]) and ask them for members in your area or for members who work with non- profits/museums. You probably need to find a copyright consultant (the one I know is David Pierce, cinemaweb.com/silentfilm) and/or a preservation firm (Colorlab in Virginia is a good one that is particularly flexible about working with limited budgets). Copyright law for film and preservation/conservation is very complex, and I cannot stress enough that you need to get professional advice before you do anything that could get you in legal trouble. However, unofficially I believe that the advice you were given earlier about making a preservation copy is probably accurate--but I am a student, not an authority. Some of the issues discussed about cataloging educational collections also apply to film collections. There are a few moving image archives associated with museums. Examples that come to mind immediately are the Human Studies Film Archives (part of the National Anthropological Archives) with the National Museum of Natural History (the Smithsonian Institution Archives and the American History Archives also have film collections), MoMA's Division of Film, Video, and Television, and the George Eastman House/Selznick School of Film Preservation. The staff at all are very responsive and I'm sure would be happy to refer you to appropriate sources. <soapbox> Film and video preservation is something really important for people in the museum field to understand and know about, because film is becoming a bigger part of our historical record, and more and more are coming into the possession of museums. Even if we don't know about it ourselves, it's important for museum staff to recognize the symptoms of a film in need of conservation/restoration and understand preservation and appropriate conditions for film and video, and know who to contact to deal with these issues. </soapbox> You can contact me off-list for specific names and addresses if you're really interested. Good luck, Kathy Mancuso Orphans of the Storm Student Organizing Committee (biennial symposium on film preservation & archiving; www.sc.edu/filmsymposium) ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).