July , 2007
For Immediate Release
William B. Meyer, Inc. Supports WGBH's Efforts To Archive 50 Plus Years of Film History
(Boston, Massachusetts) Recognizing the importance of preserving our visual heritage, WGBH, one of America’s most respected public broadcasting producers, embarked on a task that took two years of planning and coordination with their project partner, William B. Meyer, Inc. More than half a million items comprise the WGBH multi-media archive and it is now a fait accompli! A vault, that contains close to 200,000 assets is dedicated to the media history of this broadcast giant where one can access any piece of their moving image collection within seconds is now a reality.
Recognizing the value of preserving media for posterity, WGBH designed a specific temperature and humidity controlled vault dedicated as a media archive at its new headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. Their vault includes all master radio and television programs plus original footage from popular shows that have become part of our culture.
Highlights of the collection include a Eleanor Roosevelt’s interviews with world leaders on the monthly Prospects of Mankind; early episodes of The French Chef, which introduced cooking icon Julia Child; conductor Arthur Fiedler striking up the band for the first telecast of WGBH's Evening at Pops; original film from the award-winning Masterpiece Theatre series dating back to 1971; Nova science adventures; Frontline’s journalism and American Experience’s history documentaries are now readily available along with thousands of others.
When WGBH moved its climate-controlled vault to the station’s new headquarters, and its external storage site to a new location, WGBH hired the library relocation and management team at William B. Meyer, Inc. The company employs a system that can read any barcode and thus customize the storage options for any institution.
During the summer of 2006, William B. Meyer, Inc. pulled 127,000 items of original footage tape from WGBH’s external storage site. The tapes had been stored within 15,000 boxes, and are now in WGBH’s new vault, along with all of the master radio and television programs transferred from the original vault.
The project included identifying an assortment of media comprised of 8mm, 16mm and 35mm film; Beta cassettes; Digital Beta tapes; DVDs, CDs, VHS tapes, audio cassettes, Mini DV tape, 1/4” audio, DATs, audio tape and any other recorded material in existence since the early 1950’s. These are just some of the media formats within the WGBH collection.
Segregating and identifying original footage from a list of 127,000 titles was part of William B. Meyer, Inc.’s mission as well. Over a period of three months, all original footage item records were electronically downloaded to several workstations. From the hardcopy list, the William B. Meyer Inc. team segregated each item and placed them on carts to be processed at the workstations where they were linked to the appropriate item record. At the end of each day, information was synchronized to a database and all newly linked items records were updated in the WGBH system. The original footage was then sorted into four size formats to prepare for the new vault configuration.
Once the new WGBH headquarters were completed, the film, video and audio were relocated to the vault, placed on specifically designed shelving. William B. Meyer, Inc.’s customized palm pilot inventory locator system was employed to identify specific shelf location for each piece of media.
“William B. Meyer, Inc. was honored to be entrusted with the task of handling rare, one-of-a-kind program titles that went into the WGBH media archive. This project has given us a unique opportunity to participate in the important role of preserving a media heritage for an extraordinary broadcasting company,” states Tom Gillon, president, William B. Meyer, Inc. “We are delighted and find it very rewarding that WGBH’s fifty plus years of media can now be located within seconds for all to access and view.”
Since 1982, William B. Meyer, Inc. has relocated over 1,000 libraries throughout the United States. The largest of those moves was the Los Angeles Public Library with over three million volumes. Just to tickle your imagination, that’s over fifty-six miles of books if they were laid end to end. Their clients include Yale University; Harvard School of Business; Cornell Law School; Salt Lake City Public Library; United States Department of Energy; Folger Shakespeare Library and one of the oldest independent collections in the country, the Boston Athenaeum.
The project at WGBH was William B. Meyer, Inc.’s first venture into the world of multimedia archiving utilizing their library relocation techniques. In addition to relocating libraries and rare book collections throughout the country, William B. Meyer, Inc. is responsible for the ongoing management and maintenance of the New England Regional Book Depository and the materials housed there. The list of libraries currently utilizing this service in addition to Simmons College include Bowdoin College; Bates College; New England School of Law; Emerson College; Boston Athenaeum; Redwood Library and Athenaeum and Boston Architectural Center.
WGBH Boston is America's preeminent public broadcasting producer, the source of fully one-third of PBS's prime-time lineup, along with some of public television's best-known lifestyle shows and children's programs and many public radio favorites. Its production menu is diverse, including Nova, Frontline, American Experience, Antiques Roadshow, Masterpiece Theatre, Arthur, and Postcards from Buster on PBS and The World and Sound & Spirit on public radio. WGBH is the number one producer of Web sites on pbs.org, one of the most trafficked dot-org Web sites in the world. WGBH is a pioneer in educational multimedia and in technologies and services that make media accessible to the 36 million Americans who rely on captioning or video descriptions. WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors: Emmys, Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards…even two Oscars. In 2002, WGBH was honored with a special institutional Peabody Award for 50 years of excellence. For more information, visit www.wgbh.org.
William B. Meyer, Inc. is a diverse, fourth generation family-owned company celebrating its 92nd year as one of the largest transportation and storage providers in the Northeast. Known for their innovative solutions to relocation and logistic needs, William B. Meyer Inc.’s areas of expertise are vast. They include household and commercial moving; office interiors; library relocation and management; order fulfillment; records management, courier services and rigging. William B. Meyer, Inc. is headquartered in Stratford, Connecticut with locations in New York, Hartford and Massachusetts. For more information about William B. Meyer, Inc., go to www.williambmeyer.com.
Contact: Helen L. Koven
Public Relations Consultant
203-322-3130
203-273-4410-cell
HLKoven@aol.com
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