Information Exchange, PBCore in Austin

At the November Association of Moving Image Archivists annual conference in Austin, Texas, our Hidden Collections project had several engagements. The full-day PBCore Workshop was held at The Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas, Austin. Workshop participants came from institutions including the Academy Film Archive, Appalshop, British Film Institute, Cinémathèque québécoise, Harry Hunt Ransom Humanities Resource Center, Library of Congress, LBJ Library, Miami Dade College, and University of Arkansas Pryor Center. Twenty-four of the responding participants are responsible for descriptive and technical metadata in their jobs; of these 21 concluded after the workshop that PBCore is potentially useful for their work.

Attendees particularly appreciated the participatory exercises and case studies of current implementations of PBCore. Following the workshop, we received requests for "Training in PBCore, workshops/working groups on implementation," and "more hands-on workshops like this!"

Patrick Lunsford, University of Arkansas Pryor Center (left), Stephen McConnachie, British Film Institute (right). Instructors: Brian Graney, Kara Van Malssen, Jack Brighton, Yvonne Ng, Dave Rice.

The conference Archival Screening Night program at the Paramount Theatre included Northeast Historic Film's selection of newly preserved film (funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation, laboratory work by Cinema Arts, Inc.), the 1939 New York World's Fair reel by Cyrus Pinkham. The original 16 mm. film was blown up to 35 mm. to ensure optimal exhibition and longevity.

The Open Source Committee meeting, with a brief show and tell on this project's work with CollectiveAccess for PBCore, and the CollectiveAccess users group meeting the following day focused attention on new tools, directions and needs.