The atgof website

Monday, September 28, 2009

A future archivist looks back

The Age of Stupid

An ambitious documentary/drama/animation hybrid stars
Pete Postlethwaite as an archivist in the devastated world
of the future.

View the whole film here


Pete Postlethwaite talks to the Guardian about the film

A Kafkaesque archive problem

A very interesting article by Christopher Shultz in Spiegel Online International, about the convoluted and intriguing life of the Franz Kafka archives.

Documenting the Great Depression


The Great Depression in Black and White
This film series begins on Oct. 6 (Tuesday), 7 p.m.,
Wells Library, E174, and continues weekly thereafter.
Sponsored by the Herman B Wells Library and the
Black Film Center/Archive, the series features four films
that deal with racial and economic inequality and injustice,
and show the resilience of people in tough times. The Black
Film Center/Archive was established in 1981 as a repository
of films and related materials by and about African Americans.

* The Green Pastures, Oct. 6
* American Madness, Oct. 14
* I Remember Harlem: The Depression Years, Oct. 21
* Our Daily Bread, Oct. 28

The film event is only one of a number of Great Depression initiatives,
which form part of a nationwide campaign to recognize the importance
of archives to teaching and research, in October the Indiana University
Libraries will present a month-long series of events
documenting
the Great Depression.

Open access scholarly publishing conference

Video and sound files of the proceedings of the OASPA 2009 conference held in Sweden are available online

Visualizing relationships in archives

Visible Archive Series Browser from Mitchell Whitelaw on Vimeo.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Cylinder Preservation UCSB style








With funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services,
the UCSB Libraries have created a digital collection of nearly 8,000
cylinder recordings held by the Department of Special Collections.
In an effort to bring these recordings to a wider audience, they can
be freely downloaded or streamed online.

You can "adopt" a cylinder for $60 in your name.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Pencil of Nature


Wm Henry Fox Talbot's Pencil of Nature, the first ever published book of photographs is being reproduced digitally by the Media Museum, and will be on sale soon (libraries and collectors please queue here...)

Enabling Open Scholarship


EnablingOpenScholarship (EOS) is an organisation for universities
and research institutions worldwide. The organisation is both an
information service and a forum for raising and discussing issues
around the mission of modern universities and research institutions,
particularly with regard to the creation, dissemination and
preservation of research findings.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Ofcom - local and regional media in the UK

Ofcom - local and regional media in the UK. Discussion document available (.pdf, 152 pages).

Monday, September 21, 2009

NLW North Reading Room opened


















































Last Friday (18 September) saw the official opening by Alun Ffred Jones, WAG Heritage Minister, of the North Reading Room of the National Library of Wales. The opening was also attended by Gillian Clarke, Wales' national poet, who presented the Library with a poem, celebrating the completion of the refurbishment of NLW's two main Reading Rooms.

The refurbished room, despite the constraints posed by modernizing a listed building, provides a range of new facilities aimed to cater for the needs of all the main user "types" who nowadays use research libraries.

The user verdict on the refurbishment has been universally positive.

The National Library of Wales is a legal deposit library, and houses a very wide range of materials, - printed books, manuscripts and records, prints, pictures, photos, maps, 3D objects etc., as well as being the home to the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Early technology auction

The most amazing auction of "early technology" - the Michael Bennett-Levy collection fro sale at Bonhams.

What should I go for? how about the Agaphone wire recorder, or, on second thoughts, the Green Ray "read your mind TV" might prove to be a bit of a conversation piece. Bit embarrassing if it worked, though. No. Definitely has to be the Teleavia type P111 console-stand television, designed by Flaminio Bertroni, 1958. It'd go well with my Habitat retro-sofa.


Saturday, September 19, 2009

Film database interoperability standard

Important news via EFG...
Draft European Standard for Cinematographic Works
The CEN (Centre Européen de Normalisation) enquiry
mandated by the Commission regarding the second of
the European standards on interoperability of film
databases finalised on 26 July 2009. Of the 25 CEN
members, 14 agreed with the
possibility of adopting the draft 'Film identification
- Enhancing interoperability of metadata - Element
sets and structures (prEN 15907)' as a European
standard. ...
The CEN Technical Committee (CEN/TC 372) responsible
for this standard will meet in Frankfurt on 29/30
October to finalise the draft standard for its
submission to the 'formal vote' and final adoption.
The European Film Gateway project has decided to use
the future EN 15907 as a part of their semantic
interoperability strategy for filmographic records.


Friday, September 18, 2009

Job vacancy!

I'm posting this on behalf of Wessex Film and Sound Archive

Wessex Film and Sound Archive - Technical Assistant
Hampshire Record Office, Winchester

Salary: £15,138 - £17,034 per annum

You’ll join a small team responsible for the operation of Wessex Film and Sound Archive at Hampshire Record Office, which provides a regional service to owners and users of local archive cinefilm, video and sound recordings. Your role will include preservation and conservation work, maintaining equipment, digitising unique and fragile items, and the day to day running of the Record Office cinema (lecture theatre) for County Council departments.

A qualification in Electronics Servicing is essential and, ideally, you’ll also have a Portable Appliance Testing certificate (PAT). A friendly and polite manner when dealing with people is also essential, as are method, accuracy and conscientiousness in all spheres of work.

Training will be provided for handling fragile archive materials, but prior experience of working with old and new film and sound formats would be a distinct advantage.

Interview Date: 28 October 2009
Closing Date: 5 October 2009

Click here for an application form .


For further information contact
David Lee

Wessex Film and Sound Archive
Hampshire Record Office
Sussex Street
Winchester
United Kingdom.
SO23 8TH

Thursday, September 17, 2009

BBC Online documentary archive takes form

The BBC strategy for making full content from its archives appears to be taking form. This link to Broadcast mentions the re-use of entire documentary series - Storyville and Arena...

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Europa Film Treasures

Totally forgotten about this site. Brought to us by Lobster Films - 80 cinema treasures from european film archives

More than you ever wanted to know about killing polar bears

CBC archives

Archive material, radio and TV about polar bears, including a 1957 radio interview in which hunters reveal the how they went about shooting bears near the Baring Strait. Other clips are more of our-time-politically-correct.

The strange things one finds in archives.

Silverlight dropped

Silverlight(Microsoft) has been dropped by ITV (UK) for online delivery od "view again" programmes. They have switched to Flash. This appears to make Flash the de-facto basis for network re - view services in the UK.

This info came from the Andrew Shorten (Adobe) blog.

E-memory revolution

Interesting article byJim Gemmell (senior researcher at Microsoft Research) and Gordon Bell (principal researcher at Microsoft Research) in the Library Journal. Well worth reading!

Sub head reads:
"The rise of digital records of daily life means unmatched access to our pasts, presenting both challenge and opportunity to libraries"

Universal digital preservation

Planets posting...

Does your organisation know what to preserve digitally for the future? Do you know how to preserve your collections for the future?

Have you decided which tools and services to use for this? Do you want to discuss your strategies for digital preservation with colleagues and experts?

There has been an explosion in the volume of information world-wide which will grow to 180 exabytes by 2011. But if action is not taken, that information can be lost within five to ten years due to hardware and software obsolescence.

Digital Preservation – The Planets Way is an opportunity to understand what may be done to manage digital content for the long-term. The Planets project invites you to take part in the three-day training event which will be presented by members of the Planets project and established experts in the field of digital preservation. The event will take place on 17-19 November at the Swiss Federal Archives in Bern, Switzerland, providing an opportunity to visit the beautifully located capital of Switzerland with its famous old town, a UNESCO world cultural heritage site.

The event has been subsidised to enable attendance. For the cost of 95 EUR to attend day one and 199 EUR to attend all three days, the event will help you to make a start with, or advance, digital preservation activities in your organisation.

Planets delivers a sustainable framework to enable archives, libraries and other large content holders to approach digital preservation confidently and effectively. The Planets framework and tools, which range from preservation planning to preservation action and the use of a testbed environment, will be presented in full for the first time. The event will give you an insight into the activities involved in preserving digital content and an opportunity to work with Planets tools, with the help of their designers, programmers and developers.

Day 1 will give you, as a decision-maker or preservation staff, an understanding of the case for digital preservation, the benefits versus the costs, the activities involved and how preservation with Planets may fit into your management activities.

Days 2 and 3 provide an opportunity to meet and learn from the experts, creators and developers of Planets. Using a sample collection, you can gain hands-on experience of Planets tools and services. There will also be plenty of opportunity to ask questions, network with peers and to take home tools and exercises.

See the full programme

Participation is limited to 60 delegates on Day 1 and 40 delegates on Days 2 and 3. Please register early here

Due to parliamentary sessions, hotel rooms in Bern are in high demand at this time of year. You are strongly advised to reserve your room when registering for the event and no later than October 2 at here

Monday, September 14, 2009

Fast Forward - Society of Archivists Conference

Some views of the SoA conference

The Questioning Archivist 1
The Questioning Archivist 2
The Questioning Archivist 3
The Questioning Archivist 4


Out of the Box

Official conference blog


A Scottish Accent blog

Note, as the conference title suggests, a-v archives were well represented.

Training opportunity - film media technicians

The following is taken from the project press release:

The Film and Media Technician New Entrant Scheme opens for applications

Applications are now open for The Film and Media Technician New Entrant Scheme – a 12-month training and work placement programme. This national scheme provides a unique opportunity for 10 successful applicants to gain the knowledge and skills required to establish a career in the technical areas of film and television media libraries. Available for new starters in the industry, it is delivered by FOCAL International, Film London, and the Hertfordshire Skillset Academy,

A fantastic opportunity for those with an ambition to be a technician in TV/film libraries this scheme provides on-the-job training with two 10 week placements at two industry employers across the UK. Additionally, each trainee is allocated an experienced mentor from the archive sector to offer support and guidance throughout the 12 months. The structured programme involves practical workshops, hands-on technical assignments and will train individuals in the audio visual industry, media archives, the role of media asset management and technical developments in the sector.

Potential applicants must be over 18 and new entrants to the industry and demonstrate a commitment to working in the film archive and library sector. Applications are now available at www.filmlondon.org.uk/filmandmediatechnician, the deadline is Friday 30 October 2009.

Pop Peth

Wales - National History Museum, St Fagans.

Exhibition relating to the Welsh "pop" scene.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Media Museum blog

How events and exhibitions are put together at the National Media Museum (National Museum of Photography Film and Television as was, in Bradford). If you want to know how the other half do it, then this is the place.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Europeana - Open consultation

The EU Commission has launched an open consultation about the next steps of Europeana. Some of the questions also have more general policy implications for the digitisation, accessibility and use of content from cultural institutions, including film heritage institutions.

The deadline for replies is 15 November 2009.

The questionnaire is available here

(info via CEG)

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Digital Libraries and Digital Preservation: ICT Call 6 Information Day

9 October 2009, Luxembourg


This event addresses researchers interested in submitting project proposals to the sixth ICT call under FP7, objective ICT-2009.4.1: Digital Libraries and Digital Preservation.

The information day aims at helping participants to better understand the work programme and criteria for the evaluation of proposals, to facilitate sharing of ideas and experiences, and to meet potential partners for project consortia.

Click here for the full detail.

Malaysia - Memory of the World


National Archives of Malaysia receives 2009 UNESCO/Jikji Memory of World Prize


Sept. 4, 2009.
At the Grand Hall of the Cheongju Arts Centre, in the Republic of Korea, Sidek Jamil, Director-General of the National Archives of Malaysia receives the UNESCO/Jikji Memory of World Prize

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Cambridge film festival

The 29th Cambridge Film Festival will take place between 17 - 27 September.

For details of the event, which showcases "the best in independent cinema from the silents to the present day", visit their exhaustive website.

Asolo Art Film fest winners

The Asoloartfilm festival winners have been announced.

The list can be found here, but be WARNED, the site uses flashing images, which are at best annoying, and at worst, make one feel slightly ill or might even be fit-inducing.

Please Asolo, if you read this, stop flashing. You literally make some people (myself included) feel ill.

Popeth ar ffilm


Over the next few weeks, S4C (UK channel broadcasting in Welsh) will be screening a new series "Popeth ar Ffilm" - Everything on Film.

This light ents series is based around a few holdings of the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales, and uses the archive footage to inspire communities to make their own films. S4C programmes are available with English language subtitles.

The series is made by Cwmni Da, which won the BAFTA Gwyn Alf Williams award for their amazing series on WWI, "Lleisiau'r Rhyfel Mawr" (Voices of the Great War) which elegantly combined archive footage and original letters from the front line.

"Popeth ar Ffilm" can be viewed anywhere in the UK over Sky, or post broadcast (I believe!) over the web via S4C's own "view again" CLIC service

FIAT/IFTA conference


The FIAT/IFTA World Conference will be held in Beijing 22 - 26 October.

The conference theme is "A New World - A New Deal for Archives".

Details can be found on the FIAT/IFTA website.

Cinecon 45

Roundup of Cinecon 45 by Allan Ellenberger.

Cinecon is is a festival organised by the Society of Cinephiles in LA.

To quote from Mr Ellenberger's blog..
"Highlights of the weekend included the North American premiere of The Dawn of Tomorrow (1915), a Mary Pickford film thought to be lost when a tinted nitrate print with Swedish titles turned up in the Archival Film Collections of the Swedish Film Institute. Pickford’s costars were David Powell, Forrest Robinson and Robert Cain. The film was dedicated to Robert Cushman, photo archivist of the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who recently passed away".

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Grassroots TV and digital archive


Presto Prime - be competent

Keeping audiovisual content alive.

First PrestoPRIME dissemination event - Vienna [ 5 & 6 October 2009]


The Dissemination Event will be your first possibility to hear all about the PrestoPRIME programme and its Competence Centre. Come get to know our plans and ideas and share your experiences in beautiful Vienna!

Monday, September 7, 2009

Oral History Seminar at Winchester

The eighteenth annual Oral History Seminar, organised to encourage and
inform those recording people’s memories, is being held in Wessex Film
and Sound Archive Cinema at Hampshire Record Office, Sussex Street,
Winchester, from 10am to 4pm. on 14 October 2009.

Contributors will include:-
Padmini Broomfield
from the Oral History Society
David Lee of Wessex Film and Sound Archive and
Dominique Rawlings, Project manager of Hampshire County Council’s Ethnic Minority Learning Disability Project.

Contact David Lee at the Hants. Record Office if you wish to attend.

BL making noises

Thanks to funding from the UK's Joint Information Systems Committee, this
week thousands of traditional and classical music and spoken word
recordings, plus images of historic recordings and playback equipment, were
added to the British Library's Archival Sound Recordings website:


The Archival Sound Recordings website (main page)
provides free access to 45,500 rare recordings and thousands of images of
record labels and early record catalogues available for UK university and college
researchers. 23,700 of the recordings are available to anyone worldwide.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Bravia new world

5 (UK) seals deal with Sony for on-demand content via internet enabled screens.

George W

And you thought that the George W Bush ERA was over? Read on.

3D in a living room near you

Another piece of "3D is the future" hype (this time for your living room...).

Blue Ray standards for 3D

Come to think of it, my living room, and everywhere else for that matter, is already in 3D.

Not forgetting in the Netherlands

A future for our digital memory:
permanent access to information in the Netherlands
interim report (English version)

Job! ... but not AV

TATE Head of Conservation, British Art
or
TATE Head of Conservation, International Art

A candidate briefing pack with application form can be downloaded here

Closing date for applications is September 11th 2009.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

IASA Conference - Athens - very soon!


The annual IASA (International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives) conference will be held in Athens between 20 - 25 September 2009

Details can be found on the conference website

ARSC Proceedings






Audio recordings of presentations delivered during the 2009 ARSC Conference
in Washington, DC are freely available online in M3U and MP3 formats
In a few cases, PowerPoint slides and other supplementary materials are
included.

EU's lack of common web copyright solution

Europe's Digital Library doubles in size but also shows EU's
lack of common web copyright solution

Yesterday (28 August 2009) the European Commission declared in a policy
document as its target to bring the number of digitised objects
available through Europena to 10 million by 2010. To address
all these issues, the Commission launched a public consultation
on the future of Europeana and the digitisation of books that
will run until 15 November 2009.
The press release and the online consultation are available here