SHREVEPORT, La. ( KTAL/KMSS ) – Archivists at Louisiana’s Digital Media Archives are in a race to preserve pieces of Louisiana’s media history before historic film and tape deteriorate.

LPB President and CEO Clarence “C.C” Copeland says we’re in a “race against time” to preserve our state’s history.

“We recognized over a decade ago the need to preserve this media,” said Copeland, who stressed that the dedication of the LDMA staff has been monumental.

The Louisiana Digital Media Archive website was initially launched in Jan. 2015 but has recently been redesigned and now has easily accessible features that connect to an expanded digital history connection. An improved search function makes it easier to search through thousands of digital offerings.

LDMA houses LPB’s Digital Collection and the Louisiana State Archives multimedia collection. The project is the result of a 15-year-long digital archive collaboration. It is the first project in the nation that has combined the media collections of a public broadcaster with those of a state archive.

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Louisiana’s Secretary of State, Nancy Landry, said the Department of State is tasked with preserving history through the State Archives and nine museums.

“I am thrilled that my staff has been working with LPB for this first-in-the-nation project to maintain these intriguing and informative digital records for generations to come,” said Landry.

Landry hopes members of the public will find great value in this effort.

The archives preserve the video collections from LPB, WWL, KLFY, WBRZ, WVLA, and KNOE. The LDMA’s mission is to preserve historic media recordings for future generations.

Melanie Counce Montanara is the State Archivist and Executive Director of the Louisiana State Archives. She said the archives’ audiovisual holdings are primarily historical footage received from TV stations that covered anything from local news to statewide disasters.

“Staff have cataloged and tagged the footage with a variety of metadata so that the public can easily search by keyword or date and locate clips on different topics of interest,” said Montanaro.

LPB Archivist Leslie Bourgeois encourages anyone teaching about the Civil Rights Movement to search the archives.

“We encourage everyone to type in a subject,” said Bourgeois. “You might be surprised at what you will find!”

The project began in 2010 with a joint National Leadership planning grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

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