Baby socks help to preserve our Audio-Visual heritage

Discover the surprising role of baby socks in preserving our audiovisual heritage in this behind the scenes story for UNESCO's World Day for Audiovisual Heritage.

During the quiet time of Christmas holidays, our Film Preservation Officer found themselves battling a recurring foe: a clogged U-matic video head, courtesy of degraded oxide. U-matic tapes, the first professional video cassette format, predate the likes of Beta and VHS. But time is running out for such media, as Deadline 2025 looms. Deadline 2025 is the agreed international cutoff for when the contents of magnetic audio and video tapes risk being lost forever. With that in mind, the State Library made it a priority to digitise its magnetic media collection. 

Staring down at the U-matic machine, tools in hand, our officer wondered if there was a way to make this player more reliable. Tape cleaning machines for this format do exist but come with a hefty price tag, not ideal for a medium sized collection. So, off came the cover of the U-matic, in hopes of finding a spot to attach a cleaning cloth to help with the internal mechanism. Unfortunately, there wasn’t one. The tape, when loaded, spins 300 degrees around the head. 

Loading and unloading the tape repeatedly, the officer racked their brain. Then, bingo! 

There is a polished steel tensioning guide, spring-loaded and mostly static while the tape plays. An idea sparked: why not modify a cotton glove, slipping a small piece of fabric along the steel shaft? Testing the theory, our officer found it worked. The fabric gently cleared loose oxide from the tape without damaging the mechanism. 

Because the tape played from right to left, it had to be fast-forwarded to the end and then played in reverse, dragging the tape over the fabric before it could clog the heads. It was messy, though, as the fabric would quickly become overloaded with degraded oxide, necessitating fresh pieces of glove. 

Then came the real lightbulb moment: socks. Could tiny socks work? A quick trip to a baby shop, and some premature baby socks proved to be the perfect fit. The snug socks slipped over the mechanism, and with just a slight rotation after every few tapes, they could continue digitising without constantly replacing fabric. 

This simple yet clever solution not only saved time but also sanity. No more repetitive attempts at digitising the same tapes, and quality was vastly improved. Thanks to this innovation, the entire U-matic tape collection was digitised a lot quicker than expected, allowing the team to shift focus to the rest of the magnetic media collection. 

With our sights set on ‘Deadline 2025’, the State Library is now on track to preserve its collection before it’s lost to time. 

Written by Michael Veitch, Film Preservation Officer