The National Archives 18th Annual Preservation Conference Focuses on Digital and Analog Formats
Press Release · Thursday, February 20, 2003

College Park, MD

The National Archives and Records Administration will host its 18th annual preservation conference on Thursday, March 27, 2003. This year's theme will focus on the advantages and disadvantages of digital and analog formats in the context of reformatting archival information from one medium to another—such as paper to microfilm or to digital images—for the purpose of preserving permanently valuable information. The conference is open to interested members of the public and the media.

Conference topics will include:

Digital Images vs. Microfilm
Digital Audio vs. Analog Tape
Digital Video vs. Motion Picture Film
Access vs. Preservation
What is available on the market vs. what is best for long-term preservation

The conference will bring together archivists, librarians, records managers, and preservation professionals to discuss the access/preservation trade-offs of analog/digital reformatting. Professionals interested in such matters as the preservation of film and tape collections, maintenance of digital repositories, long term preservation of digital television, and digital audio and video alternatives to analog tape, for example, will find the conference extremely useful.

Speakers at the conference are experts in the fields of digital and analog technology. They include: Steven Puglia Preservation and Imaging Specialist at the National Archives; Howard Besser, Director of the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program at New York University; Carl Fleischauer, Technical Coordinator of the National Digital Library at the Library of Congress; Ed Zwaneveld, Director of Technological R&D at the National Film Board of Canada; Abby Smith, Director of Programs at the Council on Library and Information Resources; Stephen Chapman, Preservation Library for Digital Initiatives, Weissman Preservation Center at Harvard University Library; and Kenneth Thibodeau, Director of the Electronic Records Archives at the National Archives.

The conference, which will begin at 8:45 a.m. and end at 5 p.m., will be held in the auditorium of the National Archives at College Park, located at 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD. The conference fee is $75. To register or for more information about the conference, call 301-837-3062, or visit www.archives.gov/preservation/
conferences/preservation_conference2003.html.

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