OVERVIEW: Microfilm creation and use saw a boom during WWII that carried into the 1990s. During this 50 year run, state archives and various institutions, like the Church of Latter-Day Saints, produced microfilm to preserve records at an astounding rate. As institutions went digital in the 90s and 00s, microfilm lost popularity, and labs began to close all across the world. With less experts to consult, microfilm vaults began to fall into disarray and the millions of records stored within them were forgotten. The purpose of this presentation is to share the proper way to set up and maintain a microfilm vault in an archival age when micrographic work is disappearing and digitization is expanding.
When I was hired as the Preservation Archivist at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History (SCDAH) in early 2021, my main responsibility was the microfilm vault which had been neglected for years and needed a massive overhaul. Once I arrived I noticed two major issues that needed to be addressed. First, the vault was at capacity (approx. 3,300 cubic feet) and had spilled over into storage rooms and microfilm cabinets in random parts of the building. Second, there was an accession log database that had been started in 2015, but no documentation existed, other than the original accession paperwork that came with each roll. This massive amount of paperwork was mostly outdated and difficult to sort through.
These two concerns caused many issues for the agency and were reaching a critical point. In the past, microfilm vaults were storage spaces for master copies of microfilm records where they could lie undisturbed until an emergency request. Accessibility was not a big concern and clutter could easily expand. Today, agencies, counties, and universities are growing their digitization programs which means they are requesting master rolls of film more frequently. It is common for vaults to hold the only copy of the records within and it’s more important now than ever that a microfilm vault’s contents be identified, organized, and accessible.
While this may seem like a relatively easy task on the surface, there were many unseen issues to work through while I tried to get our vault in order. The main issue was that SCDAH’s microfilm vault had become a silo. Very few people knew what was in the vault and the ones that did know did not share the information with the rest of the staff. Different divisions and positions becoming isolated in an archive is a common issue, but what made this silo particularly problematic was the increase in agencies and counties requesting their records for digitization projects. All divisions of the SCDAH were getting requests for records that no one knew were in the building because the vault was so secluded. My ultimate goal became to not only identify and organize the vault’s contents but to share the information with the rest of the archives through our collection management system (Re:discovery Proficio). Sharing this information would improve our relations with agencies and counties, increase our own digitization department, and break down barriers to our collection that had developed through bad practices.
In my presentation I will use my story in the SCDAH vault to illustrate how a microfilm vault should operate in this new era of micrographics and digitization. My experience can help other NAGARA attendees bring back millions of records that have been lost and neglected because of their medium and state of their storage space.
In my presentation I will specify how to identify, organize, and make accessible the contents of a microfilm vault by using my time at SCDAH as an example. Attendees will learn how to evaluate their vault and its collection, determine the steps necessary to identify and organize the vaults contents, and make the collections in their vaults more accessible. Learning all of this will reveal millions of records for institutions and bring a new era to micrographics. The ultimate goal is to unlock the mysterious vaults that reside in everyone’s institution and bring them forward to become equal members of their archival collections.
GARA CERTIFICATE CORE COMPETENCY AREA: "Archives and Long-term Preservation"
TARGET AUDIENCE: Federal, Tribal, State, Local, and Public Institutions of Higher Learning
FOCUS AREAS: Archives
PRESENTER: Ben Richardson, Special Media Archivist, South Carolina Department of Archives and History