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The WGAL 8 media archive is a cultural and historical resource of national significance. To preserve, digitize and make accessible this important resource, WGAL 8 and Millersville University announced on Jan. 30 that they will partner together to create the WGAL 8 Media Archive at Millersville University. Dr. Daniel Wubah, president of Millersville University, and Kyle Grimes, president and general manager of WGAL, were present to sign the agreement.
The archive, which covers 1949-1979, contains the only footage of many local and regional events. News coverage of the Susquehanna Valley during this 30-year period offers a unique view into events happening locally, but also at the state and national level, and provides many exciting opportunities for researchers and students.
“We’re delighted to partner with WGAL on this endeavor,” said Wubah. “This is a great opportunity for our students to work on this project and gain valuable experience and skills. When I first saw a portion of the archive in WGAL’s basement, I knew they had an unmatched treasure of historically significant material.”
“WGAL 8 is one of the last television stations in the country with a substantially complete film archive from the earliest days of broadcasting,” said Grimes. “As we celebrate our 70th anniversary in 2019, we couldn’t be more delighted to forge this partnership with Millersville University to help preserve this material for generations to come.”
An MU-WGAL 8 Media Preservation and Digitization Task Force was formed to plan for the necessary technical steps to preserve and digitize the WGAL 8 archive. The task force will research equipment options, identify digital storage solutions, create a staffing plan and establish a budget while identifying possible grants and other funding sources.
Student learning will be at the center of the project. Millersville plans to create an interdisciplinary project team of student interns to work on the preservation and digitization of the archive. Students will help with everything from inventory to developing a scanning process and preparing the film for the in-house digitization process.
Upon completion of the project, the entire archive will be available for educational use.
