Ethan Gates, City College, Fall 2014, IMLS
City College Archives and Special Collections houses a broad variety of materials, from oral histories and broadcast videotapes to personal documents, manuscripts, trophies, cannonballs and other unique objects, produced and collected by City College faculty, students and alumni dating back to school's inception in 1847. As a MIAP intern I was expected to assist and advise with preservation issues related to all audiovisual materials, from day-to-day tasks of inventory, rehousing, and description to broader consultation on preservation planning, vendor relations and funding requests. In the end I primarily worked with the John Johnson Collection, a recent acquisition of broadcast videotapes from the 1970s-1990s from a City College alum and prominent former New York area investigative journalist and TV anchorman. Thanks to our efforts I believe this material, primarily contained on obsolete, at-risk video formats, is on track to be properly transferred and stored with new digital preservation masters, and offered for access by the City College scholarly community.
