Katie Zwick, Fall 2022

New York Public Library, Library Services Center; Library for the Performing Arts

During the Fall 2022 semester, I split my time between the New York Public Library's Library Services Center in Long Island City, and the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. I began by inspecting a small sampling of 16mm and 35mm film donated to the Library by Meredith Monk's estate. (Meredith Monk is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer who maintains another separate archive of her materials. Materials in the NYPL's possession are largely duplicates of or outtakes from those materials). As I inspected each reel of film, I would make condition notes in the library's content management system, addressing the number of splices on each reel, the overall shrinkage of the film, and the year/manufacturer of the film stock (among other things).

Halfway through the semester, all of the film that I was able to inspect at the Library Services Center was shipped over to the Library for the Performing Arts for scanning. There, I was trained on a Lasergraphics ScanStation 6.5K film scanner which I used to scan each of the films I had inspected at the LSC. During this process, I was also able to observe how the NYPL uses open-source preservation tools like RawCooked to assist in the creation of preservation, mezzanine, and access copies for the films they scan. I also spent time at both locations working with other video and audio engineers and film specialists. Their expertise and willingness to let me assist them enriched not only my day-to-day assignments, but my MIAP coursework as well.