Art institutions were unsure of how to deal with the tapes. They offered everything, a climate controlled stable environment and continued public access to the material. At the same time as the search, Hubbard began inventorying hundreds of hours of tapes in several locations. Greg and Catherine have a couple of hundred hours. Once that tapes were logged, they had to be transferred to a higher quality, Beta SP, for permanent storage and a VHS for the viewing copy.
Video is a constantly changing medium.
Beta SP was chosen because of its durability and hope that it will be around until the next technology takes over. The library is only paying for the storage. It is up to the Preservation Project to get the tapes to the museum in one piece. Funding for the project has so far come from The New York State Council on the Arts and The Royal S. Marks Charitable Trust. The next stage of the project involves a national effort to preserve 1,000 hours of tape.