The Library of Congress Preserves the Past; Creative Memories Preserves the Present

I have visited the Library of Congress and toured their facilities for preserving books, photos, and other materials several times in the past. Unfortunately, I have never documented my trips there, so I was glad to locate Gallery: Digitizing the past and present at the Library of Congress. In this article Rob Beschizza highlights the work that goes on at the Library of Congress to preserve traditional and digital materials from the past and present.

Beschizza describes equipment in use at the Library of Congress. The photo reproduced here shows the use of x-rays to determine the elemental composition of a centuries old book. I cannot help but to wonder if technicians several hundred years in the future will be similarly analyzing today’s photo books. Unlike some other photo books in the market, Creative Memories StoryBooks will survive this test of time.

This article documents the magnitude of the preservation problem, including the difficulty associated with video images from the 1970’s. Beschizza also provides useful information including the advice to avoid sticky labels with CDs and DVD.

If you have never seen the Library of Congress, or even if you have, I think you’ll enjoy this tour.

About Mark Mizen

I have over twenty years professional experience in all aspects of photography and digital imaging. I am Chair of the ISO WG5 TG2 committee responsible for physical properties and durability of imaging material and am currently with HID Global working on systems for security printing for IDs, licenses, and credit cards. Previously, I was Director of Digital Development at Creative Memories from 2009 to 2012 and was responsible for the Creative Memories digital products and services. I also established and directed the Creative Memories Technology Center, which evaluated new products prior to product introduction, assisted with production difficulties, and provided technical information to support product sales.

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