Curator speaks about importance of preserving, archiving filmed material

In 2006 alone, more than 680 films were released, and that’s only counting those produced by major U.S. studios, according to the Web site www.Movieweb.com. These films, along with television shows and music albums, make up the huge amount of material that passes through the copyright offices every year, before eventually making it to the final resting place: the Library of Congress, in Washington, DC.\nMike Mashon, curator of the Moving Image Section in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division of the Library of Congress, visited the Lilly Library on Wednesday to deliver a presentation that stressed the importance of preserving not only the new arrivals, such as “The Simpsons,” but also the old materials. \nIn his presentation, titled “Making Bart Simpson Immortal: Audiovisual Preservation at the Library of Congress,” Mashon discussed film preservation, the importance of archiving material and the new National Audiovisual Center, located in Virginia, which will house many of the preserved films.\n“Preservation is important for access,” said Mashon, who described with great detail all of the state-of-the-art equipment in the new facility that digitizes different types of media. Without preservation or, for example, the transferring of songs on 8-track tapes to a digital format, the media in the library could become inaccessible or could degrade until it is no longer playable, he said. \n“We’re a museum of dead formats,” he said. “We’ve become scroungers. We’ve got 8-track machines and recorders.”\nMashon said it will take years before all of the materials in the archives are digitized. With three million audio items, more than one million moving image items and more than 2.2 million supporting documents, photos and manuscripts, prioritizing what needs to be digitized first may be the most difficult step.\nRachael Stoeltje, of the Lilly Library, said Mashon was invited as part of a month-long celebration to increase public awareness about film preservation and the importance of archiving. The series, called “Reel Images: Film in Teaching and Research,” began Sept. 15, and the final event is Tuesday.\nWednesday’s talk and a presentation Tuesday at the Lilly Library titled “Why Archiving Matters” are two of the official events sponsored by IU related to the first “World Day for Audiovisual Heritage,” designed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The organization launched this event, celebrated annually on Oct. 27, to build global awareness of the importance of preserving audiovisual heritage, according to the organization’s Web site. \nMashon said that in the future, IU could become a partner of the Library of Congress’ Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. The IU Library System includes an extensive historical film collection and a recorded sound collection.