Article

SAA AV Archives Night Wrap Up

By: Joshua Ranger
August 19, 2014

Thanks to everyone who made the First 1st Annual AV Archives Night party a success, both the archives who contributed content (program is available here ) and all of you who came out in support of the great work these archives do to preserve the audiovisual record. It was a spectacular collection of audio and video from DC area archives (you haven’t lived if you haven’t seen 1930s color Kodachrome). And, collectively, we totally blew the minds of the Black Cat crew, which is saying something.

Being our first attempt, we learned a few things this year that we’ll be sure to improve next year.

Yep, you heard us correctly, AVPreserve is planning to host the Second 1st Annual AV Archives Night in Cleveland at SAA 2015 to again celebrate the archives in the region. Any current or former Clevelanders, we would appreciate suggestions for venues that would 1) Have an AV system and the ability to project/play audio and video materials, 2) If possible have a meaningful cultural connection to Cleveland, and 3) Have a bar. Please contact me with any tips so I can start investigating.

Also, this is a preliminary call for regional archives to start thinking about submissions we can show off. Our initial idea is to present the broader region of Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania so we can get a representation of areas that may not have the opportunity to host an SAA conference. The preference is for content highlighting the region, but we are open to institutions that do not have a specifically regional collection of audio or moving image materials. A more formal call will go out next year, but please contact me with any questions. This event is built to promote the work AV archives do, and we look forward to your contribution.

We would also appreciate any feedback you have on this year’s event, given it was our First 1st annual. We want to keep it semi-casual so we can be flexible with event spaces, timing, and participation, but improvements can always be made. Quieter space for viewing? A more casual affair that is something more like background images for a party? Ways to improve the presentation? And we’ve already heard “Free beer”, so don’t bother with that one.

Thanks again for celebrating with us. See you around the stacks…

Joshua Ranger

2014 Contributors:
University of Maryland Digital Collections
American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
High Performance Sound Technologies for Access & Scholarship
Library of Congress Veterans History Project
Archives of American Art
University of Baltimore
University of Maryland Special Collections in Mass Media & Culture
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Steven Spielberg Film & Video Archive
National Archives Motion Picture Preservation Lab

“PM Magazine: Playboy Bunny Reunion”, submitted by University of Baltimore