 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
New Web-Based Technology
for Environmental Monitoring
of Moving Image Collections
Download Presentation (ppt).................... . Speaker Bio
James M. Reilly
Director, Image Permanence Institute
Rochester Institute of Technology
An important aspect of preserving moving image collections and their associated documentation is maintaining an appropriate environment. Archivists face a number of difficult challenges in gathering environmental data, determining what it means for their collections and planning for improvements. The requirements for a practical system include simple to use, inexpensive datalogger hardware, standardized and meaningful interpretive algorithms for temperature and humidity data, and easy access to reports and conclusions for archivists, facility managers, and collection administrators. The Image Permanence Institute at Rochester Institute of technology has developed an integrated approach to environmental assessment that addresses these requirements by creating a new type of datalogger and shifting data storage, interpretation and reporting to a web server rather than local computers. This presentation describes the design philosophy and technical rationale for the major elements of this system, which include:
- The PEM2, a datalogger designed to be a pipeline of data direct to the web. The PEM2 has no software. It writes the data in plain text to a USB flash drive.
- A web server application where each institution stores and analyzes its data. Interpretation of data is performed using standard metrics for chemical change, physical damage, mold risk, and metal corrosion risk.
- Automated reporting in the form of pdf documents generated on the web server. The presentation will show examples of the uses of such a system in dealing with moving image collection storage problems.
James M. Reilly
James is Director of the Image Permanence Institute at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is well known for his research on the effects of temperature and humidity on library, archives, and museum collections, deterioration of 19th-century photographic prints, environmental monitoring and control, management of film archives, and the major causes of image deterioration. He is the co-director of the Advanced Residency Program in Photograph Conservation at George Eastman House. He is a consultant to numerous museums and government agencies and is sought after worldwide as a teacher and seminar speaker. He has written extensively on preservation issues, and in 1998 he received a Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
