First of all, we would like to congratulate all the athletes who participated in the Vancouver Olympics! As the Olympic Creed states: 

“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

The Olympic Museum itself was an idea of Pierre de Coubertin, mentioned for the first time in 1915 after having established the IOC’s headquarters in Lausanne. However, for a long time - several decades - this remained in an embryonic phase. On September 6th 1921, Lausanne signed the agreement which placed premises at the disposal of the IOC for the first time. When it moved from the Montbenon Casino to the Villa Mon Repos in 1922, however, the Olympic Museum was only a collection of the Baron’s personal possessions. It was after the election of Juan Antonio Samaranch as IOC President, in 1980, that the project for a new Museum was launched. In 1982, a provisional Museum opened its doors in the centre of Lausanne, on Avenue Ruchonnet, where its task was to prepare for the future by making an inventory of the existing collections and develop them further. In 1982 and 1984, the City of Lausanne and the IOC acquired the two properties which today house the Olympic Museum and Park. In 1988, work began, The Olympic Museum was inaugurated on June 23rd, 1993.

And do you know what?

  Yes…the archives of the past games are preserved in STiL cans!

If you wish to have a virtual tour of the Museum, take a look at this link: http://www.olympic.org/en/content/The-Olympic-Museum/Museum-Tour/ 

Acetic acid (Vinegar Syndrome) detection in Cellulose Triacetate (CTA) motion picture film materials

Introduction
One of the most significant failure mechanisms of CTA film support is its degradation due to exposure to hydrolysis inducing storage temperature and relative humidity (RH).  The rate at which this degradation occurs varies with storage environment, manufacture, efficiency of laboratory processes, the coating on the film, i.e. magnetic sound coating doubles the rate of degradation as compared with film materials with a photographic emulsion. It is also influenced by the material of which the container  is made, and whether it traps the acetic acid (vinegar) or allows its evacuation.

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I stumbled upon this article and wanted to share it with you:

Scorsese and friends race to save film classics from destruction - CNN.com
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/27/world.cinema.foundation/index.html

 Led by Martin Scorsese, these celluloid crusaders are racing to save some of cinema’s masterpieces from the ravages of time.

We are trying to fight “for the existence of a memory,” Brazilian filmmaker and foundation member, Walter Salles told CNN.

Sad event in Haiti - What will the National Archives become?

On August 20, 2009, the culture and communication Minister (Mr. Oslen Jean Julien) launched the planning of the activities for the 150 years commemoration of the National Archives of Haiti (created in 1860), which was to take place on August 20, 2010. Among the activities that were planned; a documentary on the National Archives, workshops on teaching the history of Haiti, an exposition baptized “Treasures of the National Archives” and the construction of the “City of Archives” whose first stone should have been placed solemnly on August 20, 2010.

Olsen Jean Julien and Jean Wilfrid Bertrand, Director of the National Archives mentioned the problems involved in the archives of the country, the particular difficulty in accessing and conservation of the documents. According to the director of Anh, the documents of the 19th Haitian century remain inaccessible today and many are currently in danger, because their conditions of conservation are inadequate. “If nothing is done, he added, we go in the next years towards an amnesic society. ” (statement made on August 20^th, 2009)

Photo taken very close to the National Archives of Haiti after the tragic earthquake:

An amnesic society? I don’t think so! Our hearts and prayers go out to all the Haitian people!

Québec, Canada - January 6th, 2010, STiL Casing Solution started the New Year by launching two (2) NEW sizes of their audio tape box: http://www.stilcasing.com/analog_audio_preservation.html

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As 2009 is coming to an end what a great time to look back and remember what we succeeded and where we were this past year.

January: Official launch of our new web site www.stilcasing.com and name: STiL Design became STiL Casing Solution
March:  New product; the Acetate Hub
April: Leap into Web 2.0; the birth of our blog
May: Our 1^st participation at the ACA Annual Conference
June: Conference at for the 22^nd FIMAC (Festival International des Médias Audiovisuels Corporate) in Bourgogne, France
August: Launching of our new & unique Audio Tape Box at the SAA Conference in Austin
November: AMIA Conference in St. Louis
December: Announce of two new formats for the Audio Tape Box; 10″ and 7″

We would like to say a warm thank you to all our clients, who besides the financial crisis and budget costs, you all stayed loyal, it is always a pleasure to do business with each and every one of you.

We’d like to wish you and yours Happy Holidays and may the New Year bring you happiness, health and prosperity. We look forward to working with you in 2010!

Have a safe and peaceful Holiday!

 Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année !
¡Feliz Navidad y próspero año nuevo!
Fröhliche Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr! 

EXTRACT OF AN ARTICLE WRITTEN BY
The Late ED ZWANEVELD
(from the Technological Research and Development of the National Film Board of Canada)

The choice of film-friendly containers

The choice of containers requires a clear understanding of the life expectancy objectives, consideration of the macro-environmental (storage vault) conditions, the nature of film material, and whether the container will remain inert and stable during the lifetime of the film element stored inside it. All enclosures used must pass the Photographic Activity Test (PAT), described in ANSI Standard IT9.2.

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I came across this article from the New York Times this week and I wanted to share it with you: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1942834,00.html 

In the article they have stated: 

“Call it the Decade from Hell, or the Reckoning, or the Decade of Broken Dreams, or the Lost Decade. Call it whatever you want — just give thanks that it is nearly over.”

Since the 1890s each decade has been named:
1890s - Gay Nineties (as in merriment)
1900s - I only found the 1900s, or “The aughts” or “naughts”
1910s - I couldn’t find a name
1920 -  Roaring Twenties or Jazz Age
1930s - The Turbulent Thirties or Threadbare Thirties
1940s - The Flying Forties.
1950s - The Fabulous Fifties or the Nifty Fifties
1960s - The Swingin’ Sixties.
1970s - The Disco Era
1980s - The Decade of Decadence or Greedy Eighties
1990s - The Decade of a New Generation

What would you suggest for the 2000s?

Here is the testimony of the former Head of the Preservation Centre, Mr. Jean-Pierre Lachapelle.

         “There is no need for conservation if we do not preserve, preservation begins with an access to the correct support, these products correspond perfectly to our standards in preservation”

The archives of CBC was one of our first clients. We would like to share this link so you can also discover their archives: http://archives.radio-canada.ca/info/archives/archives_en_00.asp

A well-deserved success for audio archives! I was happy to present you our last born.. a versatile case for the preservation of audio reels. http://www.stilcasing.com/preservation_analogique_audio.html

I would like to thank all the members of the AMIA for their comments on our products and their great mood during this conference. This annual meeting gave me the occasion to reconnect with all of you and discuss about our passions and goals.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/55D8BA23042B568D862576670024AEFD?OpenDocument

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