London Screen Heritage Programme

 

The London Screen Heritage Programme seeks to care for and make accessible key elements of London's moving image history. Managed by Film London on behalf of London's Screen Archives, the programme is funded by DCMS via the BFI and Screen Yorkshire as part of the Screen Heritage UK Revitalising the Regions programme. Running to September 2011, the programme consists of seven projects that support not-for-profit museums, archives and libraries that hold archival moving image material, but do not have access to specialist film or video expertise. The projects are set up to give repositories access to specialist help, but not to take their time or money. The projects are:

1) The London Inventory: Building on the Finding London's Screen Heritage project, which compiled inventories of the 32 London boroughs' moving image holdings, this project will do the same for up to 40 independent, specialist, HE and community repositories. Specialist consultants will visit the collection and list each film, video and DVD, capturing key technical information about the item.

2) Enriched Cataloguing: A specialist cataloguer will produce full filmographic catalogue records for about 250 hours of footage. In addition to the standard catalogue fields, the record will describe content in detail and give information on social, historical and cultural context.

3) The London Union Catalogue Online: Bringing together the work of the Inventory project, the Enriched Cataloguing project and existing documentation from the source archives, LSA is building an online database and search facility that will create a single public access point for the many film and video collections held across London. This rich resource will allow the screen heritage of the city to be explored in full, whilst retaining the unique contexts of each individual collection. This catalogue will also link to the national project to allow the public to search the records of all public film archives in England, including the BFI and all other Regional Film Archives.

4) Preservation and Digitisation: Over 100 hours of key regional material has been selected for digitisation, creating preservation master files and dvd copies for access. Dangerous nitrate material located during the course of the programme will also be safely stored and digitised.

5) Collections Care and Management Toolkit: A key legacy of the programme, the toolkit will provide a self-assessment framework for determining significance of material and collection care needs, in addition to guidance on all aspects of collection management and use. During its development, the toolkit will be piloted on site with up to six repositories that do not have access to moving image expertise, and then fine-tuned in workshops with 24 others.

6) Central Storage Facility: With the aid of funding from the programme, London Metropolitan Archives are creating a temperature-controlled and humidity-constant store suitable for film and video material that will be available for the use of regional collections at no charge. Further details will be available shortly.

7) Preservation Audit Visits: Specialist consultants have visited 11 repositories to assess storage conditions and management of the moving image collection. Their written report provides prioritised recommendations that address the collection's needs, along with guidance on best practice and advice on sources of supplies and services. The collections that have received a preservation audit visit are:

·   British Red Cross Museum and Archives

·   BT Archives

·   Bromley Archives and Local Studies

·   Port and River Archives, Museum of London Docklands

·   Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Archives

·   Sainsbury Archive, Museum of London Docklands

·   Southwark Local History Library

·   Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives

·   V&A Theatre and Performance

·   Wellcome Trust

·   White Lodge Museum/Royal Ballet School Collections

For more information or to express an interest in participating, please email screenheritage@filmlondon.org.uk or telephone Chris Jones, project co-ordinator, on 020 7613 7697.

LSA YouTube Channel  

London's Screen Archives is a partner in a wide range of projects funded by Film London's Digital Film Archive Fund, including the LSA YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/londonsscreenarchive. If you have material you would like to be considered for the channel, please email screenheritage@filmlondon.org.uk or lsscbbk@gmail.com.

London Screen Study Collection

LSA supported Birkbeck College in the development of the London Screen Study Collection, which was launched in 2007 to provide a publicly accessible reference library of viewing copies of moving image material made in and about London - with 'London' defined in the widest possible terms. The Collection includes fiction with a London setting, non-fiction of all kinds, and miscellaneous material such as advertising, music videos, experimental work and amateur footage, acquired by purchase and donation. We are always pleased to receive donations, especially of London material not otherwise available. Formats held are currently VHS and DVD, and material is constantly being added.

The LSSC forms part of London's Screen Archives, presents regular screenings at Birkbeck, and manages LSA's YouTube channel. The Collection is housed in Room B14 in the new Centre for Film and Visual Media Research at 43 Gordon Square and is now open by appointment to students, researchers and the general public. The LSSC catalogue can be downloaded below. To make a viewing appointment or inquiry, please email lsscbbk@gmail.com.

London Screen Studies Collection Catalogue (PDF)