Technical and Standards

American National Standards Institute
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) serves as an administrator and coordinator of the United States private sector voluntary standardization system. Founded in 1918 by five engineering societies and three government agencies, the Institute remains a private, non-profit membership organization supported by a diverse constituency of private and public sector organizations. The Institute represents the interests of its nearly 1,400 company, organization, government agency, institutional and international members. ANSI facilitates development of American National Standards by establishing consensus among qualified groups. The web site includes a searchable database of standards documents, and an extensive "Library" section that explains the standards development process.

Image Permanence Institute Rochester, NY
Rochester Institute Of Technology, College Of Imaging Arts and Sciences, Image Permanence Institute, (716) 475-5199, Rochester, NY 14604
The Image Permanence Institute is a research laboratory at the Rochester Institute of Technology focused on the preservation of imaging and recording materials. There are nine scientists providing consulting services and technical resources for clients which include libraries, archives, manufacturers of recording materials and manufacturers of enclosure materials. The Image Permanence Institute publishes 4-5 papers a year based on laboratory studies on material behavior, including recommendations to collection managers.

The National Media Lab
The National Media Laboratory (NML) Strategic Alliance was created to bring commercial information technology expertise to the U.S. government for the tasks of collecting, exploiting, disseminating and archiving data. Through the National Technology Alliance (NTA), a partnership between government, industry and academia, information technologies developed in the commercial world are leveraged for the benefit of government users. Currently, the NTA is comprised of three national labs. The National Media Laboratory (NML) is one of these labs and is hosted by the 3M Company. NML strives to provide and facilitate forums in which data storage issues may be discussed. NML's publications, NML Reviews, NML Bits Newsletter, and Technical Briefings, are intended to introduce and develop ideas and foster networking opportunities between these groups. The National Technology Alliance Online provides access to the National Media Lab's Media Stability Technical Reports.  Also available is Guidelines for the Storage and Handling of Recorded Information, Information on Storage Media Longevities, Damage and Disaster Recovery and links to other information. Materials can also be accesses through National Technology Alliance.

Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) is an international technical society devoted to advancing the theory and application of motion-imaging technology including film, television, video, computer imaging, and telecommunications. Members are practitioners from almost every discipline in the motion-imaging industry. SMPTE develops standards and recommended practices and engineering guidelines, created by study groups. SMPTE also organizes annual conferences and publishes the SMPTE Journal, containing technical papers, tutorials, articles, standards updates, and reports on SMPTE Sections' activities.

WGBH Universal Preservation Format Initiative
This project advocates for a format for the long-term storage of electronically generated media. The concept of a universal preservation format is to store the media in such a way that the information could be retrieved regardless of the medium or the computer operating system used. The goal is to make the process of preserving and accessing electronic records, both original and migrated (those existing previously in another format, like video) more efficient, cost-effective, and simpler. The Recommended Practice document, developed through a Study Group of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, will suggest guidelines for engineers when designing computer applications that involve or interact with digital storage. The Universal Preservation Format web site contains an extensive list of news and reports, presentations and background information relating to the development of the project and the concept. A listserv has also been set up at [email protected].