by Jeff Ubois
Worldwide, more than 30 million hours of unique television programming are broadcast every year, yet only a tiny fraction of it is preserved for future reference, and only a fraction of that preserved footage is publicly accessible. Most television broadcasts are simply lost forever, though television archivists have been working to preserve selected programs for fifty years. Recent reductions in the cost of storage of digital video could allow preservation of this portion of our culture for a small fraction of the worldwide library budget, and improvements in the distribution of online video could enable much greater collaboration between archival institutions.
Contents
Non-commercial broadcasters, educational institutions, and libraries For-profit organizations with television archives Governmental institutions Fans and amateurs Collaborative possibilities Cataloging Technical standards and low-cost approaches to preservation and access Legal strategies Building a social consensus about television archiving