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Meet the Archives Staff What kind of people work in the CBC Archives? Meet six of them here - three from radio and three from TV. Each has a passion for their work: for history, for detail, for technology, for Canada. Beyond that, both they and their jobs are as varied as the CBC itself. A Visit to the Archives Preservation and Restoration Formats Equipment The Archives Project The Archives at Work Meet the Archives Staff   R. McMillen and B. Clarke R. Evans and L. Wirachowsky R. Harris and D. Cikovic Glossary Russ McMillen, Film Library co-ordinator, sitting in front of a Steenbeck. [Click photo to enlarge.] Russ McMillen Film Library Co-ordinator If you see a tall man in the CBC basement wearing a winter jacket in the dead of summer, that's probably Russ McMillen. As the Archives' Film Library Co-ordinator, McMillen spends much of his day in the Library's two refrigerated vaults where approximately 105,000 "cans" of archival film and tape footage are stored for effective preservation and easy retrieval. McMillen keeps the vaults at a "technically cool, not cold" 2 Celsius. "Basically, when the film goes in there, virtually all the deterioration stops," McMillen says. "Film is all chemistry. So colder, drier temperatures slow down the chemical reaction." Since 1998, McMillen has been actively preserving the CBC's old film by "re-canning" it - removing it from old metal tins, cleaning it up and repackaging it in ventilated plastic containers that inhibit further deterioration. To date, he says they've re-canned more than 50,000 cans. "I've got 11,000 to 12,000 cans in my 'to-do' pile and another 21,000 cans of outtakes left," he says. "Of those, I figure there's about 6,000 cans that we haven't looked at yet." McMillen, who collects vintage motion-picture equipment in his spare time, is passionate about his work - and it shows. "I'm here to freeze time - literally and figuratively," he says. "Filmmakers use the medium to make a statement. My part is to keep that statement available to future societies." Archives researcher Barbara Clarke refiles a DAT in the Radio Archives' main storage area. [Click photo to enlarge.] Barbara Clarke Program Researcher, Radio Archives CBC listeners and viewers probably don't think twice when they hear excerpts of CBC Radio broadcasts - interviews, speeches or performances - aired on current programs. But none of those nostalgic sound bites would be possible without people like Barbara Clarke digging deep in the CBC Radio Archives to find them. "Basically, we supply material to Programming," says Clarke. "That includes CBC Radio across the country. Also CBC TV. Sometimes they ask for something specific. Or someone may be doing a documentary on a topic and they just ask us to come up with stuff. Then there are times when someone thinks they heard someone say something once and they want us to find it." Clarke relies on the Radio Archives' computerized database to locate requests. In some cases, specific quotes or segments are listed right in the catalogue. Other times, she finds herself poring over hours of audio tape or CDs to find the right item. With more than two decades of experience, her best detective tools may be her own memory and experience - especially when the requests come from news staff working on a tight deadline. "Often we have to work fast, " Clarke says. "I remember I was just about ready to go home when news came across that Pierre Trudeau had died. Well, guess who didn't go home that night?" If she has time, Clarke also fills external requests - from filmmakers, schools, even the occasional person who wants to hear the recorded voice of a late parent or grandparent. "The thing I like best is when I'm handed a problem and I find it," she says. "There's a sense of personal achievement."     Previous page: The Archives at Work: Buried Treasures Next page: Meet the Archives staff (2 of 3)