National Archives and Records Service film-vault fire at Suitland, Md. : hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, Ninety-sixth Congress, first session, June 19 and 21, 1979 (1979)

54 Integral to the 10-year program is an effort to insure that Federal agencies manage the disposition of their records in accordance with General Records Schedule 21 or approved agency record schedules, and that they manage and transfer audiovisual records to NARS in accordance with the provisions of GSA regulations. Current regulations require that agencies transmit original negatives, master positives, and projection prints as well as unedited outtakes to the National Archives. In the future, if NARS can receive in the original accession what it is now paying to produce itself for past accessions; that is, enough copies of a film to provide efficient reference and reproduction service while also preserving the film, then we anticipate a substantial decrease in preservation costs after completion of the 10-year program. In addition to the nitrate conversion, I should point out that there are other pressing preservation needs. These include copying very valuable glass and nitrate negatives in our still picture holdings, and inspection and reproduction of sound recording discs. Without additional funds, however, this accelerated nontextural preservation cannot be implemented and our efforts to protect these records from further deterioration will be seriously impaired. Storage conditions, although still certainly not ideal, will improve greatly with the completion of the second major portion of the Archives Building cooling and air-handling systems expected to be completed this year. Another $750,000 has been programed by PBS for fiscal year 1980 to fine tune the system and to provide for automatic monitoring devices to replace the current daily manual recordings of temperature and humidity. We believe these changes will insure proper environmental control for our black and white films. We are also considering the continued utilization of building C for safety film storage, after completion of the nitrate conversion program, to relieve overcrowding in the Archives Building. The storage of color film presents unique problems, since it should be stored at approximately 35° F. We are exploring the possibility of including a 6,000-square-foot refrigerator vault in a facility we plan to lease in Alexandria, Va. The vault would have a capacity of 12,000 cubic feet and would hold approximately 160,000 reels of film. NARS would utilize 8,000 cubic feet and the remainder would be available to other agencies for film appraised as permanently valuable. Finally, to insure that agencies properly manage their audiovisual records, including motion picture films, NARS has accelerated its evaluation of agencies, audiovisual records and management programs. During fiscal year 1979, several agencies which are large producers of audiovisuals, are being surveyed or evaluated. These agencies include the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; the Department of Transportation, and the Veterans' Administration. During fiscal year 1978, evaluations of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Navy, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense were completed. In summary, we have been and are making progress in preserving our film and other nontextual holdings, in spite of limited funds and a large backlog of preservation work to be done.