Libraries in the Mainstream | Rachel Maddow

Last Friday’s episode of Rachel Maddow is worth a watch, especially for the AV archivists in the audience. It involves “a minute or so” (Maddow’s words) of footage disappearing from the C-Span Archives. If I didn’t, ironically enough, have an epic final in my archival administration course tomorrow, I would expound further on my reaction to this clip. For now, all I’ll say is, “Oh no, they didn’t.”

UPDATE: Oh man, I LOVE video digitization discussions in the mainstream! They explain, for those who think archivists are wasting time and money by their very existence, why keeping records is such an important endeavor.

On Monday, December 21st’s episode of The Rachel Maddow Show, the McCain/C-Span video archive missing footage issue was cleared up (skip to 2:15 if you’ve watched the clip from 12/18/09):

We have re-digitzed and re-posted this particular Senate session directly from the original analog tapes. -Statement from the C-Span Archives to TRMS regarding the footage in question

It’s situations EXACTLY like these that justify a solid records management program for a given institution, ESPECIALLY one related to governmental affairs. I have no further comments.