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Press Release from Primary Research Group, Inc.
Library special collections in photography and film are thriving, concludes Trends in the
Management of Library Special Collections in Film and Photography (ISBN#1-57440-001-01),
a new report from Primary Research Group. The growth of the web has given these programs a
new avenue to reach appreciative audiences, allowing them to emerge from relative scholarly
obscurity. New access technologies promise to make their collections even more accessible and
widely used.
The report looks at the digitization and collection development policies of leading special
collections such as the Newsfilm Library at the University of South Carolina, the UCLA Film
Archives, the National Archives and Records Administration Special Media Division, the
Berkeley Art Museum’s Pacific Film Archives, The University of Washington’s Digital
Initiatives Program, The University of Louisville’s Photographic Archives, the American
Institute of Physics Emilio Segre’ Visual Archives, the University of Utah Multimedia Archive,
and the Vanderbilt University Television News Archive.
Although sources of economic support for the collections varies, most seem to be able to
significantly supplement university funding with foundation and government grants, donations
and for-fee services, and some obtain most of their financing in these ways.
Many have proven very clever in their pursuit of support from the local population, and have
become in fundamental ways part of the community, to a far greater extent than generally the
case with special scholarly collections. Another factor in the generally bright future outlook is
that, for the most part, the scholarly collections profiled in this report have built their archives
through donations, both solicited and unsolicited, and have been able to operate with virtually no
acquisitions budgets at all.
Digitization has proceeded further in the photography than film collections. Film librarians tend
to view digital production as a new medium rather than as a way to preserve older mediums,
while photography librarians are most excited about the prospects it offers to expose and license
their collections directly from websites. Special collection directors are scrambling to keep up
with the technology explosion in this area and much more will unfold as search engines and
other web technology exploiters turn to cataloging and presenting images (and possibly film) as
imaginatively as text.
Skilled staff of film and photography special collections have acquired highly specialized skill
sets. Cooperation with other departments of a university, library or museum has become more
practical and desirable as the staff of film and photography collections acquire unique skills in
content digitization, metadata development, equipment selection and evaluation, web distribution
of images, copyright clearance, Ecommerce, exhibit development and image archiving.
For more information, to request a review copy or to place an order, please contact James Moses
at Primary Research Group (212-736-2316). A print version of the report is available for $80.00;
a PDF electronic copy, $80.00. Both versions are available together for $125.00 with usage
restricted to one institution. Reports can also be ordered from our website at
www.primaryresearch.com.
Trends in the Management of Library Special Collections in Film & Photography
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