Preservation Assessment for the Audio/Visual Collections of the Walter Havighurst Special Collections and Archives

FAIN: PG-287806-22

Miami University (Oxford, OH 45056-1846)
Kimberly Hoffman (Project Director: January 2022 to August 2023)
Alia Levar Wegner (Project Director: August 2023 to March 2025)
William M. Modrow (Co Project Director: August 2022 to March 2025)

A preservation assessment of audiovisual materials at Miami University to improve the environment, storage, and housing for at-risk materials, including the Freedom Summer collection and the Native American Women Playwrights Archive.

Over the last two years, the Walter Havighurst Special Collections and University Archives at Miami University has acquired several large donations of audiovisual materials with important humanities research value. The new collections add to the department's considerable AV holdings and underscore the need to assess the condition and storage needs of these materials, many of which are at high risk due to the obsolescence of their carriers or the equipment required to access them. Miami University requests $10,000 in funding to support a preservation assessment that will improve preservation outcomes for AV materials on legacy carriers across the rich collections.