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All, UF has approximately 6,800 acetate negative 35mm acetate camera
masters from the late 1950’s to 1988 in a cold storage facility. Print
masters do not exist for this collection. Though money is tight, the content is
very important and thus a pilot project to convert the contents of a small
portion (approximately 400) of the reels and make the information
available via digital means is in the early planning stages. Using figures
gathered during the pilot will help inform the overall costs of what could be a
multi million dollar project when all is said and done. I understand that when converting contents from microfilm to
digital, negatives are generally preferred. I also assume that polyester
negatives are preferred. However, given the scope of this project, the
step of generating a new poly negative for each reel in the collection could add
$340,000 to $680,000, assuming a regeneration fee between $50 and $100 per
reel. Therefore, I am exploring the pros and cons of skipping the
poly step and going directly from acetate to digital. Erich Kesse and I reviewed 50 random reels from this collection
back in 1999. 3 were terrible, curly, crunchy and stinky. The other 47 smelled of
vinegar but seemed stable. If anyone has any advice or feedback, I would certainly
welcome it. Thanks,
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