Performing A Nation-Wide Survey of Audiovisual Preservation

FAIN: PR-290163-23

BAVC (San Francisco, CA 94110-1472)
Morgan Morel (Project Director: May 2022 to March 2023)
Kelli Hix (Project Director: March 2023 to present)

A Tier II project to conduct a national study employing surveys, interviews, and site visits to investigate the state of audiovisual preservation.

BAVC Media respectfully requests $215,625 to complete a national study of audiovisual preservation. There currently exists no centralized assessment of exactly who is preserving large swaths of the extant archival audiovisual heritage in the United States, nor have the methods pertinent to this work been fully documented. BAVC Media seeks funding to understand the state of the audiovisual archiving field, in order to create a collective response to the coming challenges in preservation by empowering all stakeholders with tangible data and recommendations they can utilize in their work. We propose to design a study employing surveys, interviews and site visits to develop a contemporary analysis of the field’s demographics, practices, and challenges. Analyzing the current status of the field at a national level, inclusive of organizations that may be under-resourced, is vital due to the magnetic media crisis which threatens an impending loss of the world’s audiovisual heritage.