Audio, Video and Film

Audiovisual Preservation

A library is more than a collection of books, documents, photographs, and online resources. It can also hold an astonishing variety of audiovisual media that documents our shared cultural heritage on film, video and sound recordings. From oral histories to home movies and beyond, these AV materials exist in many formats which unfortunately are facing loss and obsolescence today. While their content remains more significant than ever, revealing our past in intimate and vivid picture or sound, analog formats are at risk of deterioration and content loss because of their physical composition and age. The playback equipment originally manufactured to play these formats are no longer in production, increasingly rare, and must be carefully maintained.

Our AV Preservation staff works closely and collaboratively with library-wide partners towards a shared mission: Caring for our rich audiovisual heritage and ensuring its accessibility for students, instructors, researchers and users of every variety sustainably into the future.

Services Offered

To help preserve the moving image and recorded sound in UCLA Library's collections, we offer our partners a variety of services including:

• Digitization of legacy formats
• Consultation and assessment
• Archival rehousal for long-term storage
• Workflow development and training
• Collaboration for community outreach, grants and special projects

Formats

Currently, we have capacity to digitize the following formats in-house. Formats not listed are outsourced to trusted vendors and we manage all aspects of prep, shipping and QC.