Media Archives in the US

Media organizations have typically been either behind or completely out to lunch when it comes to organizing and maintaining their collections.

However, here are some that are working on it:

National Public Radio: They are doing an awesome job! They did get into a wonky agreement with the Library of Congress in the early 1970s regarding their Arts and Cultural programming. Therefore, the tape of all Arts programming is held in Culpepper, VA at the LOCs Recorded Sound division (my dream place to work!). NPR does pay 50 smackeroos a reel and wait about 2 weeks to access their content. But hey, the LOC has preserved it and they’ve done a fine job.

All of NPRs other content is either stored at “The Mothership” at 635 Mass. Ave in Washington, DC, where they’ve put in place a lovely cold storage facility. They bake reels there and transfer them to CD. They are also doing a magnificant job of cataloging their content and have a handful of full-time catalogers and other specialized librarians to maintain the collection. Some of the collection is also in storage at the University of Maryland.

The advantage to spending all this dough to keep their collection? They are now able to repackage the content they invested in and distribute it in new platforms! They also have keep a wonderful body of info regarding the last 40 years of our country's cultural heritage.

Okay, moving on.

Minnesota Public Radio | American Public Media: They got a grant in the early 1990s to build a Digital Media Archive and focused on their cash cow A Prairie Home Companion. They are still adding content to this 1996 system, which doesn’t wrap their audio with metadata. Not good. However, they’ve recently put the forward thinking and uber-concerned and talented audio engineers in charge of the archive.

They AT LEAST have a part-time archivist cataloging the collection and offering perspective on collection management. But, they need more librarians. Happily, they’ve recently received some funding to improve the situation. A leader is needed!

Also, they do have a physical archive, which is great, but it’s stored in a parking garage. No more to say on that.

Champion award-winning media archive goes to Channel THIRTEEN in New York. Spear-headed by Nan Rubin, Channel 13 in the public media industry for their foresight and skill with archiving.

Best media archivist in the US goes to Andy Lancet at WNYC. Andy arrived at WNYC in the 1990s. They had nearly 40 years of unorganized content. He masterfully organized it AND continues to promote it weekly to staff in a newsletter. Way to go Andy. You’re my archival hero!

A visit to the Washington Post image archive had me gasping in horror. They have unique, historic, and powerful images sitting in a hot, light-filled room. Come on Post.

National Geographic has a library and archive that could warm even the coldest of catalogers hearts! They have an unbelievably neat, organized, thorough, well-oiled machine. Bravo, National Geo. We love you!

Clearly, the Library of Congress is a leader in many areas and working their was like a librarians Disney Land. They have just about every function of a librarian happening in the building. Marvelous. Much more on the LOC later, so please stay tuned. And send me your media archive updates!!!!