| AV Trust’s Donor Decision Tree for Prospective Donors of Audio-Visual Material
A step-by step guide to identifying what you’ve got, its suitability for donation and which organization or institution might want to assure its preservation within their collection.
How to get started: Sort through the individual items or collections of audio-visual materials (also known as “documents”) that you have in your possession. If you have the appropriate playback machine and the document(s) are not too delicate, look at or listen to the material to see how well it has aged, in terms of the quality of sound and/or picture. Make a list of what’s there.
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Here are two fictitious examples:
1) 12 one-hour audio tapes of Janeane’s Garage Band, recorded by me in 1959, six months before the band landed its first gig on the Tommy Messer Show and released its first Top 10 single; and
2) six 16mm films, each 90 minutes, of the annual Prairie Theatre Festival production of the plays of the Saskatoon Playwright Collective, 1969-75. |
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If you do not have access to a playback machine, and you don’t know what the recordings are, try enlisting the help of a local broadcaster, post-production company, film lab or musical instrument retailer which might have, or know where to find, obsolete equipment. You could also consult the AV Trust’s online AV Vault database (www.AVTrust.ca) to see if any of the archiving facilities near you knows where to find the required machine.
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Action required: a) Determine if the material is Canadian. Different types of works qualify as being Canadian depending on a number of factors. One key element to consider is the nationality of the creator of the work. Archivists and librarians can help you answer the question of nationality.
b) Determine if the work should be donated to a local, regional, national or specialized institution. Some provincial archives have moved away from accepting private collections, leaving people unsure where to go. But let’s take the example of the Saskatoon Playwright Collective, from #1 above, for instance. If the plays were generally performed to audiences in Saskatoon only, the municipal archives, library or museum might be interested in the 16mm films. |
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| But if they toured the province or across the Prairie provinces, the province of Saskatchewan might be interested in them, or another of the provincial institutions. Or if a specialized institution such as the University of Saskatchewan has a thriving drama, film studies or cultural studies department, it might be the best place to approach. |
In the case of Janeane’s Garage Band, if the band’s songs enjoyed national air play, a national institution would be the place to start. Since it’s music, you could check the Amicus database for the Library and Archives Canada’s music holdings (www.collectionscanada.ca), to see if Janeane’s music is already part of their collection. Chances are LAC won’t have your pre-fame tapes, so you would contact the Music Division and they would instruct you as to what to do next.
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Action required: look at the red hotlinks at the bottom of this page for examples of the types of receiving organizations. Contact the relevant staff member at the institution to test your theory that it is the best destination for your donation. Start by calling the information desk or main switchboard. Tell them you may have a donation for them and you’d like to speak to the person in charge of taking in or acquiring donated material. If you’re working via email, send your inquiry to the “info” or “inquiry” email address.
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Why is this necessary? The more information that’s available about the collection the better, even if it is just anecdotal. Even for old newsreels or films and television programs, there still may be other copies in other archives, so it's important for archivists to have enough information to determine its uniqueness and to be able to make a selection. This is especially important in the case of tax credits. Archivists need to use their human resources efficiently and need to minimize time spent reviewing material.
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Further action required: If any proof is available that documents your ownership (i.e. bill of sale), this is particularly useful and may be required in the case of a tax credit. If not, if it’s a straight donation, a notarized statement of your claim to ownership would be useful. Do you hold the copyright? If so, it’s important to add this information. If not, do you know who does?
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What are the options? Donors can put restrictions on the material, especially if they’re the copyright holders, although archivists prefer that it be made as accessible as possible to encourage its use as a heritage document.
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Further action required: More information is available at the button Tax Information for Donors.
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Go to National: Music Material
Go to National: Other AV Material
Other types of receiving institions
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