Preservation of audiovisual material at the BnF

Since the early 2000’s, the French National Library’s Audiovisual Department has launched an ambitious preservation plan of its audiovisual collections. Priority was given to magnetic and optical carriers, based on two principles, carrier’s decaying and obsolescence of reproduction tools. By the end of 2014, more than 725.000 carriers have been either digitized for analog documents, or copied for born-digital documents. A specificity of this preservation plan is the wide diversity of these carriers, ranging from “substandard” to “broadcast”. We will detail procedures and technical aspects used for the preservation of video carriers, from the 1970’s EIAJ reel tape to the 2000’s Digital Betacam videotape. A focus will emphasize on the restoration tools used for purposes such as screenings in festivals or other events.