Erica Titkemeyer, Tulane University, Summer 2012, IMLS
Situated within Tulane University's Special Collections library, the Hogan Jazz Archive houses the largest collection of jazz-related oral history in the world. Located in the city that gave birth to jazz, New Orleans, the archive provides scholars and researchers access to an expansive array of materials including recorded music, photographs and film, and sheet music and orchestrations. While there, I conducted a collection survey of the archive's entire moving image and audio holdings, with a specific focus on recommendations for storage, reformatting, and environmental control. From this research, I compiled a 50-page condition report that included an assessment of format descriptions and their imminent risks, rights status considerations, intellectual control standards, and recommendations for both short term and long-term preservation. Additionally, over 300 film and video materials were hand inspected; of these, 27 original films were identified and re-housed. Notable collections included the Oral History open reels, Danny Barker's home videos salvaged from Katrina floodwaters, and unique Mardi Gras and jazz parade footage on 16mm and 35mm camera originals from the early 1950s.
