As part of our ongoing film project in the Clarke, processing student Jen Bentley and I are entering some of our films into the AVCC, an open source web application for rapid inventory of film, video, and audio materials. AVCC was developed with funding from the Library of Congress’ National Recording Preservation Board, the Metro NY Library Resource Council, and the NY State Documentary Heritage Program. The plan is to inventory film, video, and audio materials in production-based, archival, and other collections of unpublished media which are hard to access, uncataloged or not even inventoried. Also, it registers films which are suffering preservation issues, as so many are.
We have films in numerous collections. Tressa (a former student assistant in the Clarke) and I completed processing, identifying, rehousing and cataloging of non-Channel 9 & 10 films. SK and Jen (current student assistants) and I are still working on all those verbs for Channel 9 & 10 films. I think it is an excellent idea to register the films in AVCC for wider discoverability. I opened a free account for the Clarke and for each film we will fill in a template for each film we register. This is an important step in getting the Clarke acknowledged as holding films of interest at the state and national level and providing accessibility to a broader audience.
First, we added the 8mm and 16mm films in the Joe De Bolt collection documenting CMU Vietnam Moratorium student protests. The films are part of the Joe De Bolt Central Michigan University Vietnam Moratorium Committee Records, 1967,1983. The films are described in the Centra catalog record here: De Bolt catalog record
The films now appear under the heading of the Clarke: https://avcc.avpreserve.com/records/ (Must be signed in to a free account in order to view the record)
Here is how the films actually look:
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| De Bolt 8mm |
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| and cover off |
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| 16mm |
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| pamphlet |
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| beautifully cored |
We've also added two CMU. Films collection films documenting 1944 Homecoming and 1960s Homecoming and football events. The link to the catalog record is here: catalog record CMU Films
Jen and I both have to work together to add each film as we need to add additional information beyond what Tressa and I documented. We prioritized non-Channel 9 &10 films that we believe are of value to CMU, MI and nationally. As we finish processing, identifying, and rehousing Channel 9 &10 films we note which films are of particular interest to CMU, MI and nationally. These will be our next top priority to add to the national inventory.
We will not add all the films to the inventory. In most cases an example is part of a larger collection and the inventory information will lead interested researchers to those collections and additional films.
You can learn more about AVCC here at their blog https://www.avpreserve.com/blog/announcing-the-release-of-avcc-inventory-collection-management-tool/
There is also a review of the AVCC site in the American Archivists reviews portal here https://reviews.americanarchivist.org/2016/08/01/avcc/
Lastly thanks to Matthew Wilcox at Michigan State University Archives who has collaborated with us about film and informed me about the inventory site.