Re: [ARSCLIST] Disaster for two museum collections in LA

[Jeanette Berard <JBERARD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Many thanks to Richard Hess and Cary Ginell for helping to make the plight of the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters collection known.  The article mentioned ran on the front page of the LA Times yesterday morning.  

The contamination seems to be every bit as complicated as the article mentions.  For those who are curious, you can check out the EPA's website on PCB cleanup.
http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/pcb/
Only a few contractors are approved by the EPA to handle materials with this type of contamination.

The American Radio Archives at the Thousand Oaks Library formed a joint venture with the PPB in 2001, and is committed to helping to house and preserve the materials of the PPB archives.  (Just to be clear, the PPB materials remain the property of PPB.)  The Library does have plans in the works for a new building to house the American Radio Archives; those plans are pending various approvals before seeking funding.

To clarify for another question, the PCB contamination is not supposed to degrade the physical objects, rather, it makes it impossible to handle or move the materials until decontamination has been completed.  One cannot simply move PCB affected materials into a storage facility, as that site would in turn become contaminated.  So, the audio and scripts will not be degraded or destroyed, it is just very, very challenging to treat and move them.

Information on the level of contamination, and specifics of how the contamination will be addressed have been slow in coming.   Bob Poole wrote a very accurate account of the situation.

Thanks for the interest and support,
Jeanette


Jeanette Berard, MLS, CA
Special Collections Librarian
Thousand Oaks Library System
(805) 449-2660 xt228
jberard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

>>> SoundThink@xxxxxxx 04/20/05 08:45AM >>>
In a message dated 4/20/2005 8:33:17 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
ArcLists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

This  article was linked from the AMIA LIST and I thought some of you who
aren't  members of that list would be interested.

It requires free  registration, I believe.

I think DWP whose transformer caused the  problem should pay, but that's
just  me.

http://www.latimes.com/news/yahoo/la-me-hollywood19apr19,1,1883474.story?coll= 
la-newsaol-headlines

It  also may be a case of over-reaction on the part of cleanup people, but
who  am I to say that?

Sadly,

Richard

Another aspect to this is that the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters collection
has already been earmarked to be transferred to the Thousand Oaks Public
Library's American Radio Archives collection, which already houses the  collections
of Rudy Vallee, Norman Corwin, Frank Breseee, Fletcher  Markle, 8,000 scripts
from the CBS-KNX archive of live radio drama and much  more. The transfer of
the materials in the PPB collection requires a 13,000  square foot building to
be constructed and red tape/funding is holding it  up.

Cary Ginell  (who lives 3 miles from the T.O. Library)
Origin Jazz  Library
www.originjazz.com