Digitizing film

I am writing with a question for those of you who have undertaken
film reformatting projects in the past few years. I am in the
process of surveying our library's motion picture film collections,
the vast majority of which are on cellulose acetate film base at
various stages of decay, in order to prioritize collections for
re-housing and reformatting, based on their condition.  Though I
understand that creating a polyester film base duplicate to serve as
the preservation master is the ideal reformatting option, the costs
in terms of both reformatting and storage are not insignificant.
Therefore, I'm exploring whether or not it would be acceptable, in
certain circumstances, to transfer the film directly to a digital
file.

For those of you who have undertaken film reformatting projects
recently: what deliverables did you request from the vendor(s)? Were
all films transferred to film base duplicates or were there
collections for which you only received a digital copy?

Any information and experiences you can share on the pros and cons
of transferring the original acetate film directly to digital would
be greatly appreciated.

Stephanie I. Gowler
Graduate Intern, Preservation Department
Northwestern University Library
1970 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 23:21
                 Distributed: Monday, December 14, 2009
                       Message Id: cdl-23-21-016
                                  ***