Posted on behalf of Communications Committee member Shaun Kirkpatrick.
The Penn Museum hosted an audiovisual-themed DVAG meeting on March 31. About 40 attendees came for three presentations on the care and management of film, video, and audio (both analog and digital), a brief tour of the Penn Museum Archives, and mingling with refreshments.
Kate Pourshariati, film archivist/cataloger of the Penn Museum, began the meeting with an overview of the history of the museum’s audiovisual collections and its golden ages, including fascinating samples from their films as well as a memorable defense of cellulose nitrate. Anu Paul, project manager at WHYY, followed up on last October’s Archives Month Philly tour of the Fresh Air Archives with an update on its current on-going metadata project, including an interesting snippet from a 1996 Fresh Air interview with Steve Jobs. Laurie Sather, audiovisual archivist of the Hagley Museum and Library, then provided a helpful overview of audiovisual archival processing and how it differs from standard archival methods and preservation concerns.
Penn Museum staff closed the meeting by guiding guests to the Archives–in the museum’s impressive old library room–where attendees enjoyed reviewing some of the collections’ most visually-interesting artwork and maps while partaking of wine and pizza in the next hall.
Did you miss the meeting? Want to know what our speakers discussed in more detail? Check out the Storify of our live tweeting: https://storify.com/dvarchivists/dvag-meeting-march-31-2016
Delaware Valley Archivists Group 