The Community Media Preservation Strategies & Archiving Workshops program is a statewide initiative to help community makers safeguard aging audiovisual recordings—through a baseline survey, practical webinars, and hands-on workshops that build sustainable archiving skills. This program is being developed by Minnesota Media Arts (MNMA) and St. Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN). This program has been financed in part with funds provided by the State of Minnesota from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the Minnesota Historical Society.

Program Overview

This joint SPNN × MNMA program tackles the *magnetic media crisis*—the rapid deterioration of analog formats and loss of playback gear. The program focuses on practical steps communities can take now to stabilize, describe, digitize, and share their recordings responsibly.

Who It’s For:

- Community media centers and public access channels
- Museums, libraries, archives, and historical societies
- Artists, filmmakers, educators, and independent producers
- Community groups preserving local history and culture.

What You’ll Gain:

- A better understanding of media preservation basics, our proven process and workflow
- Plain-language training on preservation concepts and workflows
- Hands-on practice with cleaning, handling, and digitizing media
- Templates for inventory, metadata, and digitization checklists
- Guidance for access, rights, and distribution planning

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Program Phases

1. AV Media Preservation Survey

In Phase One of our AV Media Preservation Survey (August 1–September 12), we conducted a short intake survey to map formats, quantities, and risks. We received 55+ responses so far, documenting over 98,000 at-risk media assets (videotape, photo, slides, and audio tapes/cassettes) in critical need of preservation. These early findings confirm an urgent, region-wide need for support with inventory, digitization, storage, and access. Survey findings help shape our webinar topics and workshop design.

2. Webinars: AV Preservation Basics

Introduces key preservation concepts—deterioration, stabilization, metadata, codecs, and planning digitization with realistic budgets.

3. Hands-On Workshops

Practical sessions with live demos and participant practice using VHS, DVDs, and audio cassettes. Participants learn signal path setup, quality control, and file management.

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Workshop Curriculum — Core Process Steps

- Collection Care: Environment, handling basics, housing, and risk triage.
- Stabilization: Cleaning, rehousing, labeling, and preparing media for transfer.
- Visual Inventory: Rapid photo-driven inventory with simple metadata.
- Digital Conversion: Signal path, capture settings, mezzanine vs. access files, QC.
- Distribution & Access: Rights checks, access copies, descriptive context, and discovery.

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Timeline & Participation

Milestones:

- Survey Window: July 15-September 15, extended to 12/31/25 or 6/30 2026
- Webinar Series: planned for Jan 19th-22nd, 2026
- Hands-On Labs: planned for Feb 9th-12th, 2026

How to Join:

1. Learn more about our survey and contact us for a link to fill out the survey.
2. Register for webinars and hands-on labs. We recommend all workshop registrants go through the Survey first
3. Bring sample items (optional) for evaluation and practice.

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"Media preservation is more than converting tapes to files — it’s a thoughtful process of care, organization, and access. Through these workshops, SPNN and Minnesota Media Arts empower communities to plan, stabilize, digitize, and share the voices that define Minnesota’s cultural legacy."

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Your participation and input on these Community Media Archiving Workshops is essential. Thank you for helping us preserve the past for the future.

This program is a partnership between are Minnesota Media Arts (MNMA) and St. Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN).

This program has been financed in part with funds provided by the State of Minnesota from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the Minnesota Historical Society.