Environmental Issues and Archives

As part of the 2016 program, the conference offered four curated streams of programming.  Below are presentations from the program stream.  Presentations will be posted as they are received. 

Environmental Issues and Archives

This program stream discussed the aspects of climate change, environmental issues, and energy/power issues that impact archives. It’s goal is to raise awareness and provide support to archivists on methods to advocate within their institutions to effect change.  It is imperative to get cultural institutions, including film archives, completely off the grid.  Program topics included:

  • Acknowledge:  Energy Resources Status Check
  • Acknowledge: Global Climate Change
  • Acknowledge/Adapt: Environmental Impact of Archiving
  • Adapt/Survive: Outside the Box Energy & Conservation Policies, Practices and Methods
  • Adapt/Survive: Advocating for the Survival of Moving Image Collections

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Acknowledge:  Energy Resources Status Check
Caroline Yeager, George Eastman Museum
Eric Hittinger, Rochester Institute of Technology

Human dependency on non-renewable fossil fuels has reached a critical point. Moving image archivists need to consider how to preserve moving image collections with lower dependence on fossil fuels or their derivative products by considering alternative energy solutions. This panel will address current understandings of the availability of fossil fuels, their negative effect on our environment, and discuss the emerging alternative technologies that are a critical part of our energy transition.

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Acknowledge/Adapt: Environmental Impact of Archiving
Linda Tadic, Digital Bedrock

The materials and products we use to preserve moving image and digital collections may seem benign, but they may also have unintended and detrimental effects on our environment. This panel looks at current practices, products, and technologies in moving image and digital archiving that are, or can be, potentially dangerous to humans and the environment. What alternatives are there?

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Acknowledge: Global Climate Change
Gloria Diez, ASAECA (Argentine Association of Film and Audiovisual Studies)
Casey Davis Kaufman, WGBH, Project ARCC
Raymond G. Najjar, Jr., Pennsylvania State University, Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science

Global climate change is producing rising tides, disastrous and increasingly extreme weather patterns, and placing moving image collections at risk. What can we as moving image archivists, do about it? This panel will address the global climate change issue from both a scientific standpoint as well as how it directly affects the archiving of films and digital media.

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Adapt/Survive: Outside the Box Energy & Conservation Policies, Practices and Methods
Caroline Yeager, George Eastman Museum
Jeremy Linden, Image Permanence Institute
Reto Kromer, AV Preservation by reto.ch
Mick Newnham, NFSA

New solutions to old problems is the focus of this panel. It looks at sustainable building design for archives and conservation centers, and seeks inventive ideas to re-think film and digital conservation to make it truly sustainable.

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Adapt/Survive: Advocating for the Survival of Moving Image Collections
Ray Edmondson, Archive Associates
Eira Tansey, University of Cincinnati

Environmental disasters extract enormous tolls on any community: we are devastated emotionally, physically, and financially.  This panel seeks to address ways in which moving image archivists can speak to their institutions, communities and governments to ensure that the collections they care for – repositories of our cultural memory – remain open and active for the common good.

 

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