The Digitisation of Audiovisual Assets Salvaged from the Jagger Library Fire A Practical Overview

Abstract

When a wildfire ripped through the Jagger Library on 18 April 2021 at the University of Cape Town (UCT), firefighters engaged in strenuous efforts to control the flames. Within days of the fire, a formal disaster management project was initiated, led by UCT Libraries. While the Reading Room was destroyed by the fire, the basements housing Special Collections survived. Within days, the flooded basement was drained and teams of volunteers arranged by UCT Libraries were organised to extract the materials, carrying labelled crates to the surface. In the lowest basement underground, significant flooding occurred, and audiovisual materials below the water mark were impacted, including video and audio tapes, causing water damage and instances of mould infestation. Following extraction, the Audiovisual Digitisation Project (AVDP) was launched to mitigate the potential loss of data on already-fragile carriers. The project formed part of a broader, ongoing disaster recovery response to salvage and recover Special Collections surviving the Jagger Library fire. With nearly 35,000 unique items affected and a range of damage to the carriers, the project was expedited at a scale of operation unprecedented within UCT Libraries. With little time to plan, the team had to execute a comprehensive audit and digitisation project of all the materials exposed to moisture during the fire. While planning is a critical part of any project, the circumstances of the AVDP were unprecedented and required significant agility and dedication by the team involved. The digitisation itself was outsourced to a company known as Video Restoration Television (VRTV), with UCT Libraries working closely with the vendor to digitise these fragile holdings. This article outlines the processes involved in the successful completion of the AVDP, unique not only as a digitisation project but also as a disaster recovery project, which resulted in the comprehensive audit and digitisation of the entire audiovisual archive in Special Collections.