Report: “Expertise is Disappearing’: How Canadian Film Archives are Fighting to Save Nearly Forgotten Culture”

From The Globe and Mail:

The preservation of Canada’s audio-visual history relies on these archives, but those who run them say they are struggling with a lack of funding, resources and postsecondary programs to bring in new archivists.

Recently, they’ve also been calling attention to the Trump administration’s cuts to funding and jobs in the U.S. library and archives system, which have raised alarms within the archivist community worldwide. “These cuts make people wonder whether the collections of archives and libraries are safe,” says American film archivist Rick Prelinger.

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In the 1970s and 80s, Prelinger saved more than 60,000 educational and industrial films which were meant to be thrown out because their cultural value was misunderstood. Those films now form the San Francisco-based Prelinger Archives, accessible via the Internet Archive. Prelinger says a common misconception is that archives are where media goes to die, where materials sit on a shelf and accumulate dust. That is not the case.

“Media archives are full of potential,” he says. “They can actively intervene in the flow of culture and life.”

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Jimmy Fournier, director of technology at the NFB in Montreal, says ensuring Canada’s archivist programs teach the fundamentals of film-handling, preservation and the operation of predigital, mechanical equipment is crucial.

Canada’s postsecondary institutions feature renowned archive and library sciences programs, but with the exception of a master’s program at Toronto Metropolitan University, few focus exclusively on film preservation. “Often, candidates need to leave the country to refine their skills,” says [Nicolas} Dulac.

Learn More, Read the Complete Article (about 1400 words)
An archived version of the full text article is available here. 

Direct to Prelinger Archives (via Internet Archive)

Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Funding, Jobs, Libraries, News, Preservation