Our 8 miles of shelving includes a special room for audio-visual material – film, photographic and audio records. This room is slightly drier and cooler than the paper and parchment repositories. Physical items are stored in archival packaging and labelled with a reference number so we can find them again.
The challenge is that the technology used to create and view archive film is rapidly disappearing. Some film has already been transferred to more modern formats, either video or in the best cases, digital.
Film from one of our favourite collections, Windrose Rural Media Trust, is available via the Close Encounters Media Trail website. The collection includes snapshots of rural life over the past century – changes in farming practice, collaborative cider production and traditional rope-making all feature. We are excited to be working with Windrose on a Heritage Lottery funded project to digitise more of the collection and make it available for people to enjoy. Watch this space for information about upcoming film shows!