Seventy-five miles southwest of D.C., the art of film preservation is alive and well.
In Thursday’s episode of “Matt About Town,” come explore the different ways staff members at the Library of Congress Packard Campus are making sure more than 135 years of media stand the test of time — so anyone from the public can view these pieces of history and culture.
The preservation mission at the Packard Campus, a remote 45-acre plot in Culpeper, Virginia, is twofold: Staff are working to digitize every single piece of physical media the library has in storage and they’re working to preserve the original copies of these pieces of media (like film and TV reels) so they can be optimized for playback in their original formats as originally intended.
It’s a tall task when you consider there are 415,000 square feet of storage on the campus.
The fascinating ways in which staff accomplish both of these goals shines a light on just how intricate — and how much of an art form — this process really is.
You can also visit “Matt About Town” to see all episodes in the Packard Campus exploration series, an exclusive all-access collaboration with the Library of Congress you won’t find anywhere else.
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