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)

445 and to improve inspection? Since 1974 the NARS' Audiovisual Archives Division (NNV) has pursued a systematic program to assist Federal agencies in establishing and/or upgrading management programs for audiovisual records. Through the records management evaluations conducted in conjunction with the Office of Records and Information Management and agency survey activities, the Audiovisual Archives Division has identified recordkeeping practices and storage conditions that do not meet the Federal Property Management Regulations (FPMR) for audiovisual records management (see Attachment 3). NARS issued these regulations in 1976. Recommendations to improve any deficiencies are submitted to the agencies concerned. In addition, space for the cold storage of agency color motion picture preprint material will be available at the facility NARS is planning to lease on south Pickett Street in Alexandria, Virginia. This facility will enable NARS to store the original materials for valuable current and archival film productions in an optimum storage environment, and is in line with GAO's recommendations in its report of 1978, "Valuable Governmentowned Motion Picture Films are Rapidly Deteriorating," 20. How did nitrate film go undetected until recently in a building at the Washington Federal Records Center? Has NARS looked for and found nitrate film at other federal records centers? The recent discovery of nitrate film at the Washington National Records Center involved motion picture film generated by the Department of the Army. The accessions (dating from 1968-69) consisted of 3864 cubic and appoximately 38,640 reels. Upon receipt, in accordance with established center procedures a small percentage of the boxes (approximately 10 percent) were checked to verify that the shipment was safety film. All reels examined were verified as safety film. In March 1979, 1784 boxes (approximately 17,840 reels) were requested by and returned to the Army Motion Picture Depository in Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania. During a reel-by-reel, frame-by-frame inspection they found both entire reels of nitrate film and partial segments of nitrate film spliced to safety film. When WNRC was notified that this nitrate film had been found, the balance of the collection was immediately returned to Tobyhanna for inspection. We understand that approximately 1 percent of the shipment contained either complete roles of nitrate film or segments of nitrate film. Subsequent to this discovery, all records centers, including WNRC, were directed to make a box-by-box (including, if necessary, reel-by-reel) examination of any accessions that dated prior to 1954 that might contain nitrate film of any type. This examination has been completed, including a second check of certain records groups when nitrate film was found by some centers in these records groups. It should be pointed out, however, that much of the nitrate film that has been found in our reviews has been still negatives interspersed with paper records. Since the agency paperwork for such accessions does not mention film, it would be an impossibility to examine each and every box of records in our records centers to ensure that no still nitrate film negatives are present. In addition, procedures for handling accessions suspected of containing nitrate film have been issued to all centers. A copy of these procedures is attached (see Attachment 4). 21. What particular problems is the Archives having with the growing amount of videotape that it acquires? 51-332 0-79-29