What would you do if confronted with a box (or a room) full of soaking-wet AV media in your special collections? To help answer this question, Harvard Library Preservation Services staff developed “(What If) A River Runs Through It?”, a two-day, hands-on workshop on format identification and emergency salvage of audiovisual materials for Harvard library and museum staff. The workshop aims to increase participants’ familiarity with the audiovisual formats most frequently encountered in Harvard Library collections and give them the skills and confidence to respond quickly and effectively in a water emergency affecting fragile and irreplaceable AV media.

On Day 1 of the workshop, Elizabeth Walters, Preservation Librarian for Audiovisual Materials (HL Preservation Services) and Amy Sloper, Collections Archivist (Harvard Film Archive) offered tips on identifying legacy AV formats, outlined the vulnerabilities and preservation concerns for each format group, and gave recommendations on prioritizing these materials for salvage.

The Day 2 session commenced with an overview of initial considerations and actions that should be taken before embarking on any salvage effort, followed by demonstrations of safe handling methods for water-affected AV materials and basic salvage techniques for grooved media, magnetic media, optical media, motion picture film, and their accompanying paper materials. Other topics covered included risk assessment, prioritization of salvage actions, and essential AV salvage supplies and equipment.

Day 2 culminated in a hands-on salvage exercise during which workshop participants were asked to draw on their newly acquired skills and expertise to assess a diverse collection of wet AV media and devise a salvage strategy. Working in teams, participants formulated a salvage game plan and practiced removing media from their enclosures and air-drying or prepping them for shipment to a salvage vendor.