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How to Preserve Broadcast History

This guide features best practices for preserving materials related to broadcast history, provides a list of potential repositories for broadcast collections and items, and offers guidance related to digitization.

How to Preserve Broadcast History

Welcome! This guide features best practices for preserving materials related to broadcast history, provides a list of potential repositories for broadcast collections and items, and offers guidance related to digitization.

 

 

Why save broadcast history? explains the need for preserving this unique aspect of national and cultural life.
What to save details items that do and do not have research value, and offers examples of published finding aids that illustrate the kinds of materials held in broadcast archives and how they can be organized.
Creating an inventory outlines how to organize and describe the contents of a collection in a way that's useful to archivists and collectors.
Storage offers best practices for ensuring that broadcast materials are held in safe, stable places that maximize their preservation.
Archival Repositories lists national institutions in the U.S. that collect all formats, those that collect digitized materials only, and those that are more regionally-oriented.
Museums lists a sampling of museums in the U.S. that create displays to help educate the public about the history of broadcasting.
Private Collectors and Consultants includes links to websites maintained by reputable private collectors of broadcast materials, some of whom also act as consultants on related matters, and may also be willing to take on donations.
Digitization covers issues to consider when making decisions about digitization, including questions of copyright, inventories to keep track of digital content, and vendors who specialize in reformatting.