Library of Congress Audio-Visual Conservation

Library of Congress Library of Congress Packard Campus, Culpeper, Va. [online photograph]. Retrieved July 18 from https://www.loc.gov/programs/audio-visual-conservation/about-this-program/

https://www.loc.gov/programs/audio-visual-conservation/about-this-program/

The Audio-Visual Conservation Center is a program of the Library of Congress dedicated to the collection, conservation, and preservation of the nation’s audio visual recordings. They are not open to the public for touring or access, although I reached out to them hoping to be able to have some time in the building. Having not received a response to date,  this will summarize the facility based on the website. This website is very easy to navigate and gives a good idea of what the Center does.

The Space and Physical Attributes

The Audio-Visual Conservation Center is located on the Packard Campus of the Library of Congress in Culpeper, Virginia and has a 415,000 square foot building with 90 feet of shelving. The building itself, built into the side of Mount Pony, the highest point in Culpeper in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, only has a small portion above ground and is mostly covered in ivy. It has long been speculated by my family that it is an abandoned building. How surprised we were to hear of the treasures held inside! The building used to serve as the Federal Reserve, so it has extensive underground storage, 35 climate controlled vaults, and 124 fire safe vaults for films made with highly flammable nitrate. There is also a 205 seat theater for showings of films of all technologies from 1940’s to the present. 

Services and Intellectual Access

There is no access to the public for tours or to check out materials in this part of the Library of Congress. However, they do have procedures to allow the public to access the materials. They will make sound recordings if written permission and proof that all rights restrictions have been cleared. Copies of motion pictures may be purchased if allowed by  copyright, preservation, and  donor restrictions. The public, as well as congressmen and senators, are able to request copies of House and Senate floor proceedings, for a fee. They also have a schedule of movies to be shown to the public in the theater. 

The main purpose of the Audio-Visual Conservation Center is to collect, restore and preserve audiovisual materials in as many forms as possible, including obsolete technology. Rubin says that “When it comes to new technologies, LIS professionals have been quick to see their possibilities and to experiment with their use.” (Rubin, pg 197) This is especially true for this library. Each year, they transfer petabytes (a million gigabytes) of audiovisual materials from analog to digital formats, and they are continuously transferring media to “denser” storage, meaning using smaller storage for more media, in order to best use the space. While there is not an online catalog of the materials stored at the Center, “Related Links” on each page give links to digital recordings that are easily accessible and can be listened to or watched by simply clicking “play”. 

People – Patrons and Staff

This Center serves the public of the United States of America as part of the Library of Congress and its mission is to collect, restore, preserve, and conserve audiovisual resources that speak to our history as a country. Anyone in the public is permitted to request services as long as they are willing to do the research to make sure they are following the restrictions on copying audiovisual materials. The screenings of movies also serve anyone in the public. 

While the website doesn’t list who works there, it does advertise that there are openings for audio and video engineers to catalogers and processing technicians. 

Collections

The collections at this facility are what sets it apart from other libraries. This Center houses collections of theatrical films and newsreels, television programs, educational, industrial and advertising material, commercial sound recordings, radio broadcasts,  early voice recordings of historical figures, supporting documents, screenplays, manuscripts, photographs, posters, and press kits. They have audio technology from cylinders to digital media. They house nitrate films, video, and digital copies of movies and TV shows.  The National Film Registry has Hollywood movies,  documentaries, amateur productions, films of ethnic and regional interest, and animated and short films. While I was trying to wrap my head around 90 miles of shelving for all these types of media, my mind wandered to the Sumerians, thousands of years BC, developing a system for storing and retrieving large tablets with cuneiform writing on them. (Rubin, 2020) All the advancements in the past 5000 years make it somewhat easier, but the challenge still remains.

Wrap Up

For years, my family has wondered what the “building built into the side of the hill, covered with ivy in Culpeper” was. We invented stories about what the building used to be and why it was abandoned now. As it turns out it used to be a Federal Reserve building, it’s not abandoned, and I am thrilled to learn about the treasures it holds! While I am disappointed to not have been able to tour inside, it has been fun exploring the website for this special collection part of the Library of Congress. Maybe I’ll catch a screening of a movie there!

References

Rubin, R. E. and Rubin, R. G. (2020). Foundations of library and information science (5th ed.). ALA Neal-Schuman.