A Treasury of Sounds and Images

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About an hour or so away from Washington, D.C. by car, Culpeper, Va. is rich in history.

During the Revolutionary War, a Culpeper resident named John Jameson played a significant role in exposing Benedict Arnold as a traitor.

Nearly a century later, Culpeper’s strategic railroad location made it ideal for supply both Confederate and Union troops during the Civil War. It was the host for more than 100 battles and skirmishes during the war.

So perhaps it is no coincidence that Culpeper is home to the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation, a facility that serves the public by preserving the nation’s audio-visual legacy.

Here, at the National Audiovisual Conservation Center (NAVCC) of the Library of Congress, resides the original negative to “The Great Train Robbery” and “Casablanca.” And here is where diligent workers are busy restoring the color to an episode of the TV show “Bonanza.”

Even better, the center has a 200-seat theater capable of projecting both nitrate film and modern digital cinema, replete with an organ rising from under the stage to accompany silent film screenings

A one-stop shop for audio-visual preservation, it is the first centralized facility in America especially planned and designed for the acquisition, cataloging, storage and preservation of the nation’s collection of moving images and recorded sounds.

It is operated through a public-private partnership involving the Packard Humanities Institute, the United States Congress, the Library of Congress and the Architect of the Capitol.

Located on 45 acres of land, the Packard Campus is primarily built into a mountain, with sod roofs blending into the existing contour lines.

There are 6.3 million items in the collection, including 1.2 million moving images, 3 million items of recorded sound. A state-of-the-art storage environment provides below-freezing temperatures for film masters.

In addition, there are, 124 nitrate film vaults—the largest in the western hemisphere, which is described here by the nitrate film vault manager, George Willeman.

The facility possesses equipment to play back and preserve all antique film, video and sound formats and a public listening auditorium for playback of all sound formats, as well as high-speed fiber-optic connectivity between the Packard campus and the Moving Image and Recorded Sound reading rooms on Capitol Hill.

Digital access copies made during preservation process provide researchers with playback on demand in the reading rooms Even better, it makes its holdings available to the public, through electronic transmissions to the Library's reading rooms on Capitol Hill, and through curated online exhibits, regular theatrical screenings, festivals, symposia and events open to the public at no charge.

Perhaps it is best known for such initiatives as the National Recording Registry and the National Film Registry, efforts to preserve culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant recorded sounds and motion pictures to be added to the Library's collections.

But it is also on the lookout for anyone who can identify rare nitrate footage.  Pictured at left is a still from an unidentified silent film about the theft of necklace.  Rachel Parker, library technician, started LOC 's Nitrate Film Interest Group on Flickr in 2008 as a way to help crowdsource the collection of information on unidentified films.  In the video below, she explains how you can contribute.

Read Part 2 of our series on the Library of Congress Packard Campus.

Library of Congress Nitrate Film Interest Group
Help Rachel Parker and the Library of Congress identify films.

Library of Congress Selects 25 Films for Preservation
Read about the 2010 additions to the National Film Registry.

The National Film Preservation Board
The National Film Preservation Board oversees the National Film Registry.  25 films are selected annually; you can nominate titles for consideration.

Some audio collections at LOC are available online.

The Library of Congress recently created The National Jukebox which provides access to some audio recordings.

@ your library resources for learning about the preservation of audio-visual materials.