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State Library of New South Wales
State Library of New South Wales
Current operations for microfilm at the State Library of
NSW
Since 1993, all microfilming carried out on behalf of the
Library has been produced to Australian Standard specifications. This entails
the production of three generations of film: master negative produced on silver
halide, polyester based film; duplicating negative produced on silver halide,
polyester based film; and a positive use copy (either produced on silver
halide, polyester based film or vesicular film depending upon the material
being copied).
Two reliable microfilm bureaux undertake microfilming on
behalf of the Library. The Library undertakes quality control checking on a
random 10% of the microfilms produced. The master negatives are housed in
archival boxes and placed in cold storage at the Government Records Repository
at Kingswood. Duplicate negatives and positives are stored on-site at the
Library.
What does this mean for the State Library of NSW
collections?
It is inevitable that some of the films produced prior to
the mid 1980s will be in a state of deterioration. However, the extent and rate
of this deterioration is unknown.
Recommendations
- That a Library-wide committee (a high level planning
group) be established to oversee a survey of our holdings to determine the
quantity of films at risk.
- The Committee develop a strategy and action plan, taking
into account storage for the entire microfilm collection (Mitchell and SRL) for
master negatives and duplicating negatives and estimate the costs and
timeframe, to ensure the ongoing access to our cellulose acetate collections of
enduring value.
- The Library contributes to and participates in the
Australian Network for Information on Cellulose Acetate (ANICA) to be launched
by the NLA in June 2002.
For more information, contact:
Ms Heather Mansell Manager, Preservation State
Library of NSW Macquarie Street Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
Telephone: +61 (0)2 9273 1679 Facsimile: +61 (0)2 9273 1265 Email:
hmansell@sl.nsw.gov.au
www.sl.nsw.gov.au
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