Digital Consulting & Production Services, in partnership with CIT and other Cornell stakeholders, is leading an effort to determine audiovisual preservation needs campus-wide. Cornell University has vast holdings of unique audio and video assets vital to its mission “to discover, preserve, and disseminate knowledge…” These include lectures by luminary figures (Nobel laureates, heads of state, writers, artists and more) as well as original source recordings essential to research in biology, linguistics, art and beyond. However, due to hardware and file obsolescence, media failure and rights issues, we are now faced with an imminent and growing threat to these high value and unique audio and video assets.

Over the period of 15 months, we conducted a campus-wide survey of unique or rare audiovisual assets being used for teaching and research. We also scanned the AV technology landscape to help inform next steps. The results can be found in the final report (PDF). We continue to partner with IT@Cornell and Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology on a campus-wide preservation storage solution.