Episode 10: Heather Linville & George Willeman
It might be difficult to conjure up exciting images when someone brings up the library. Quietness, stacks of books, and card catalogs likely come to mind. But the Library of Congress? Well, that’s different. It’s the American people’s library, after all. And it’s the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. The Audio-Visual Conservation at the LOC in Culpeper, Virginia is home to more than 1.1 million film, television, and video items. With a collection ranging from motion pictures made in the 1890s to today's TV programs, the Library's holdings are an unparalled record of American and international creativity in moving images.
In our tenth episode, we get to speak with two incredibly talented and knowledgeable librarians at the LOC: Heather Linville and George Willeman. We get to hear about all the goodies stored in the library that you probably have no idea about. We talk about how to store and catalog over a million sound and video items and we find out what technology the library uses to keep all these items available for the future. And you want to hear about nitrate? You got it! The big question is: are they librarians or archivists? You decide!
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Heather Linville is the Motion Picture Laboratory Supervisor at the Library of Congress’ National Audio Visual Conservation Center (NAVCC). Heather manages NAVCC’s film digitization and 35mm black and white photochemical operations. Prior to arriving at the Library in 2018, Heather was a Film Preservationist at the Academy Film Archive in Los Angeles for 14 years. She has supervised over 300 digital and photochemical projects including eight films on the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry.
Geo. Willeman is the Nitrate Film Vault Leader for the Library of Congress National Audio Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, VA and feels having the words “film leader” in his job title is very cool. Geo. has been enamored of motion pictures as far back as he can remember. His epiphany came when his dad took him to see The Ten Commandments in a local movie house in Ohio and he became hopelessly hooked. While earning a degree in Motion Picture Production at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, Geo got a part time job inspecting nitrate film at the LOC’s vaults at Wright-Patterson AFB next door. He figured it would be a temporary job until graduation---this May will mark thirty-eight years with The Library of Congress.