07 September 2007

Forum on screen heritage update

The future of screen heritage in the UK: a symposium on strategy

Roehampton University
Roehampton Lane, London
Saturday 22nd September 2007
10am to 4 pm

Is our screen heritage -- everything from film to phone clips on YouTube -- slipping through our fingers? Will we know how to research and find moving image material in 10 years time? What will our archives and libraries be archiving in 50 years, and in what form? Can we afford it? Can we afford not to?

Technology is developing so fast that while new types of screen works are being produced, the UK’s moving image archive institutions are struggling even to maintain current collections. The amount of moving image material produced is overwhelming decisions about selection, and raising questions about what exactly needs preserving. And has preservation become an access issue? Or copying, with the attendant Intellectual property questions? Will archivists and librarians in the future merely label certain copies of items deemed important, and save them to a server? And how will we use them?

Funding levels and institutional divisions complicate these questions. There are threats to current collections as well as future ones. This symposium is intended to bring academics, archivists, collectors, historians and other stakeholders to a discussion about the vision for the future. Confirmed speakers include Amanda Nevill (British Film Institute); Adam Lee (BBC), Murray Weston (British Universities Film and Video Council), Lynne Brindley (British Library) and James Patterson (Film Archive Forum). Prof. Stephen Coleman (Leeds) will act as rapporteur.

Registration is free and places are limited. Refreshments are provided free, morning and afternoon, and lunch is available for £10. Limited car parking will be available. To register contact Blanca Sainz-Garcia (B.Sainz-Garcia@roehampton.ac.uk), or register on-line at:

http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/researchcentres/crfac/events/

The symposium is supported and organised by the Centre for Research in Film and Audiovisual Cultures, Roehampton University; and by the Louis Le Prince Centre, Institute of Communication Studies, University of Leeds on behalf of MeCCSA.

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