A List of Obsolete Format Resources

The Digital Preservation and Stewardship Committee

of the

The Council of Atlantic University Libraries--Conseil des bibliothèques universitaires de l’Atlantique (CAUL-CBUA)

Created on: 13 May 2014 Created by: D. Mawhinney Last revised: 13 May 2014 Revised by: D. Mawhinney

CAUL DPSC Obsolete formats list May 2014

Background

The DPSC in 2014 proposed that we prepare a list of institutions in the Maritimes and beyond who could be used to support the conversion of obsolete formats to current formats. On 11 April 2014 a notice was posted on the Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) listserv and responses received are summarized in the document which follows.

Contents:

1. Institutional Abilities in the Maritimes

2. Institutional Abilities outside the Maritimes

3. Commercial Suppliers in the Maritimes

4. Commercial Suppliers outside the Maritimes

5. Servicers of Audio / Video Equipment

6. Miscellaneous

Page 2 of 12

CAUL DPSC Obsolete formats list May 2014

1. INSTITUTIONAL ABILITIES IN THE MARTIMES

1.1. Cape Breton University Beaton Institute and the Digitization Lab 1250 Grand Lake Road, Sydney, NS B1P 6L2 Tel: 902-563-1912 URLs: http://www.cbu.ca/ccbs/digitization-lab http://www.cbu.ca/beaton/

Moving image formats  Umatic 3/4”(NTSC)  Betacam SP(NTSC)  Hi 8(NTSC)  VHS (from any region)  DV(NTSC)  DVD(from any region)  Blueray

Sound recording formats  Records – 33, 45 & 78 rpm. All sizes.  Reel to Reel – Stereo 1/4” tape only. 3 3/4 ips up to 30 ips. Reel sized 3” up to 10.5” (Note - We are currently try to acquire a 1/4 track pro player)  Cassette  CD  Super Audio

1.2. Celtic Music Interpretive Centre 5471 Highway 19, Judique, NS, B0E 1P0 Tel: 902-787-2708 URL: http://www.celticmusiccentre.com/

Sound recording formats  Audiocassette  LP  Traditional disc 78  DAT  Reel to reel tape (2 track small format machines in various stages of operation)  Digital files  Studio supports: Pro Tools 8LE with various plug-ins via a Digi 003 console

Page 3 of 12

CAUL DPSC Obsolete formats list May 2014

1.3. Highland Village Museum 4119 Highway 223, Iona, NS, B2C 1A3 Tel: 902-725-2272 URL: http://highlandvillage.novascotia.ca/

Moving image formats  Beta  VCR

1.4. Nova Scotia Archives 6016 University Avenue, Halifax, NS. B3H 1W4 Tel: 902-424-6060 URL: http://www.novascotia.ca/nsarm/

Moving image formats  ¾” U-matic  VHS  SVSH  DVD  Computer formats (.mov, .avi, .flv)

Sound recording formats  ¼” open reel audio tape  Audiocassette  DAT  CD  Analog discs for most sizes including 16” transcription discs  Traditional discs (16, 33 1/3, 45 and 78 rpm)

1.5. Provincial Archives of New Brunswick 23 Dineen Drive, Fredericton, NB. E3B 5H1 Tel: 506-452-2122 URL: http://archives.gnb.ca/Archives/?culture=en-CA

Moving image formats  8mm  Super 8mm  16mm  Super 16mm  35mm

Page 4 of 12

CAUL DPSC Obsolete formats list May 2014

1.5 Moving image formats continued.  1” SMPTET Type C  ½” EIAJ Type 1  ¾” U-matic  VHS and S-VHS  Betacam SP  Digital BetaCam SX  DV and Mini-DV

Sound recording formats  Gramophone record  Reel to Reel Tape  Vinyl Record  Compact cassette  Digital Born (SD, CF, Thumb Drive, etc.  Minicassette  R-DAT  Recordable and Rewritable CD’s and DVD’s  Stenorette/Dictaphone

Page 5 of 12

CAUL DPSC Obsolete formats list May 2014

2. INSTITUTIONAL ABILITIES OUTSIDE THE MARITIMES

2.1. University of Manitoba Archives and Special Collections 332D Elizabeth Dafoe Library, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2 Tel: 204-474-8243 URL: https://umanitoba.ca/libraries/archives/

Moving image formats  Umatic video player

Page 6 of 12

CAUL DPSC Obsolete formats list May 2014

3. COMMERCIAL SUPPLIERS IN THE MARITIMES

3.1. Copy Cat Digital 2987 Oxford Street, Halifax, NS, B3L 2W4 Tel: 902-455-2200 URL: www.copycatdigital.ca

Moving image formats:  DVD  VHS  SVHS  VHS-C  8mm tapes  Betacam SP  BetaMAX  MiniDV  DVCAM  3/4 inch (Umatic)

Sound recording formats:  Compact disks  Audio cassettes

3.2. Impact Videographic 61 Tacoma Drive, Dartmouth, NS B2W 3E7 [Owner, John Versteege, is currently looking for a buyer for his business (2014)] Tel: 902-434-7444 URL: http://pages.ca.inter.net/~jverstee/home.html

Moving image formats  R8  S8  16mm  S-VHS  Hi-8  Digital 8  Mini DV  CD  DVD

Page 7 of 12

CAUL DPSC Obsolete formats list May 2014

4. COMMERCIAL SUPPLIERS OUTSIDE THE MARITIMES

4.1. Richard Hess Aurora, Ontario Tel: 647-479-2800 URL : http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm

Cassettes  Mono or stereo standard audio cassettes and Digital Compact Cassettes (DCC). We can also play 3-, and 4-track cassettes.

Other 0.15-inch tape formats  With the above audio cassette capabilities, we can play any other format (including micro cassettes and Revere cartridges) that use 0.150 tape by loading the tape from the other format into a standard cassette shell. The tapes will be returned in the standard cassette shell.

1/4-inch reels (common reel to reel audio tapes)  full-track mono  2-track NAB mono/stereo  2-track DIN stereo  quarter-track mono/stereo/quad (4-channel)  3-track  4-track  4-track IRIG instrumentation tapes (FM or Direct)  4-channel, 8-track  8-channel, 8-track (coming soon)  Digital, see "digital formats," below.

1/4-inch cartridges  We remove the tape from NAB broadcast cartrdiges, Elcasets, and the old RCA Sound Tape cartridges and can play the tape on our 2-, 3-, and 4-channel 1/4- inch players. We also have one of the special TOMCAT heads for the broadcast cartridge tapes from machines by Pacific Recorders (now Pacific Research and part of Harris Broadcast). See how we do it in the next section, below.

8-tracks  We can play stereo and 4-channel (Quad) 8-track cartridges in cartridge or out. Playing them on the open-reel machine provides superior results.

Page 8 of 12

CAUL DPSC Obsolete formats list May 2014

1/2-inch reels  2-track  3-track  4-track  7-track IRIG instrumentation tapes (FM or Direct)  8-track  14-track IRIG instrumentation tapes (FM or Direct)  16-track  20-track logging tapes.

1-inch reels  8-track  14-track IRIG Instrumentation tapes (FM or Direct)  16-track  28-track IRIG Instrumentation tapes (FM or Direct)  40-track logging tapes.

File Formats  We can accept most major audio file formats as an upload to our ftp servers. Please contact us for the uploading details.

Digital Formats  Digital Files on CD, DVD, hard drive, USB drives, etc.  DAT (44.1 and 48 ks/s)  CD  MiniDisc (normal and HIMD stereo)  PCM-F1 on VHS or Betamax  Sony DASH (3202 or 3402) 2-channel reel

4.2. Media Preserve at Preservation Technologies 17 Wilderness Way, Stittsville, ON K2S 2E2 Tel: 1-800-416-2665 URL: http://themediapreserve.com/

Moving image formats  Two-inch Quad  One-inch Type A, B or C recordings  Quarter-inch Akai  Half-inch EIAJ Type I and II  3/4" U-Matic, 3/4" U-Matic SP  VHS  SVHS

Page 9 of 12

CAUL DPSC Obsolete formats list May 2014

4.2 Moving image formats continued.  Beta  Super Beta  8mm  HI8mm  One-inch type C  Betacam SP  D2  DVCPRO  Digital Betacam  Sound recording formats  Nakamichi cassette decks  Analog cassette tapes  Quarter-inch and half-inch 2-track analog Studer recordings in 3.75, 7.5, 15, 30ips speeds  Half-inch 4-track analog reel-to-reel recordings in 3.75, 7.5, 15, 30ips speeds  One-inch 2-track, 4-track, and 8-track reel-to-reel recordings  Sony F1 PCM audio tape  R-DAT audio tape  Wire recordings  8-track cassettes  Dictabelt recordings  Any other magnetic audio format

Page 10 of 12

CAUL DPSC Obsolete formats list May 2014

5. Servicers of Audio / Video Equipment

5.1 Hamblen’s Audio / Video Service 6070 Almon Street, Halifax, NS, B3K 1T8 Tel: 902-453-0400

6. Miscellaneous

Information received from the Chair of the Sound and Moving Image Special Interest Section (SIS) of the Association of Canadian Archivists, Rachel Beattie.

We've just created the spreadsheets for our lists but not much has been done to populate them. Our focus was more on suppliers and technicians that can service the obsolete formats playback. In any case, here are the links the spreadsheets we created, hopefully they will have a little more content in them soon:

 Suppliers List: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AndMwHNLHS2YdFFuRW40b XBqeVgwbmVoT3Y4WDVrU1E&usp=sharing

 Technicians List: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AndMwHNLHS2YdDctcU1MN1pxQ3 JVY1FGSnVNNzEzUVE&usp=sharing

 Bibliography / Resources List: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AndMwHNLHS2YdE9hN1V1UXYyaD RlYmJaV2lSOUNVX3c&usp=sharing

I would also direct you to AMIA's Deep Focus database that has a listing of various repositories world-wide. You could search for the Canadian records and some repositories might have information listed about playback material there: http://www.amianet.org/resources-and-publications/deep-focus-moving-image- resources

Page 11 of 12