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)

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77 Dr. Rhoads. That is right. At the outset, we did not really know how nnich of it was of archival v^alue. We knew enough about it that wo assumed some of it was not of archival value, but Ave did not knoAv how much. You are correct. Mr. IngrxVm. But you accepted it as historically significant material, had it in your possession for 5 years, and then, only after the fire, made a determination as to how nnich of the material was of historical value under the statute. As I understand it, there are index cards to the reels of film. I am a little hard pressed to understand why it would not have been possible to have done a review^ of the index cards Avhich refer to the outtake material, to make at least a rough-cut determination from the index cards' subject headings as to which of those outtake materials may have related to Government functions or may have related to two-headed cows and Harvard Crimson grafitti contents. Mr. Moore. There are several factors involved in why we did this. No. 1, the Universal stock footage library had no shelf list. We had no way of determining exactly from the index cards and the other finding aids which film really existed. Mr. Ingram. Excuse me. You are saying now that you took the stuif without even knowing what you got. Mr. Moore. No. I am saying that there may have been some disposal or dete^rioration. Some materials may have been disposed of before we got them. We realized that everything that was listed on the cards did not exist. In order to determine exactly what is there, you have to go through the film itself, look at the label, and make a list of what is there. This is what we are doing now — making a list of materials that are in existence now, sending that list in, and having it appraised. So, we had no shelf list to be able to make the appraisal from the the beginning. The other point is this. And this is a policy of archival institutions that have nitrate film. They retain the nitrate as long as possible because they can get the best possible copy from the earliest generation of the film. It was a policy of trying to provide the best possible quality whenever someone wanted to duplicate. Mr. Ingram. Absolutely. But what we are talking about — I am sorry, Mr. Chairman — is the separation of historically significant material from that which is insignificant. Mr. MooRE. Correct. Mr. Ingram. It also appears to me that, if what you are saying is that the card index was not complete, it raises even more of a question that you may not have gotten wdiat presumably you thought you were getting — that there may have been historically significant missing pieces somewhere out there that Universal might still have that you did not know about. — Mr. MooRE No. Universal did not have it. They transferred their entire library. "\^niat was available was transferred to us. I am stating that there was deterioration, as there is deterioration in any nitrate collection. But we do not know specifically, until we go through the film, exactly what is there. A percentage of the material had deteriorated before it had been transferred to us. 51-332 0-79-6