The Library of Congress collected its first motion picture in 1893 and designated a special staff to acquire, catalog, and provide research access to moving image materials in 1942.  From that time to the present, the Library’s moving image collection has grown to exceed 300,000 titles and includes all physical formats of film and video introduced since the origins of the film and television media.  Today, the Library’s Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division (M/B/RS) sustains the full range of acquisition, cataloging, preservation, and public research activities that define the modern moving image archive.  Publication of the second edition of Archival Moving Image Materials: A Cataloging Manual continues the commitment of the Division’s moving image cataloging staff to fill the need of archives and libraries for a comprehensive, up-to-date guide to describing archival moving image materials.

The first edition of this manual, published in 1984, through the initiative of Harriet Harrison and Wendy White-Hensen, was soon recognized as a seminal work by the international moving image cataloging community.  However, the intervening years have seen a rapid growth in the number of national and international institutions committed to collecting moving image materials, and the development of computer based strategies for coping with the intricacies of cataloging and managing complex multi-media collections.  The dedicated staff who committed themselves to this project–often while maintaining a full work load–were well aware of the need for a complete revision that incorporated the accumulated knowledge of professionals inside and outside the Library of Congress.  Great efforts were made to seek input and comments from catalogers in other institutions and interested members of professional organizations, such as the Association of Moving Image Archivists, during all stages of a project lasting nearly three years.  This second edition is truly a collaborative work, and the complete list of contributors can be found in the Acknowledgments.

Our purpose here is to single out the members of the Processing Unit of the Division’s Moving Image Section who comprise the AMIM Revision Committee and whose leadership, public spirit, scholarship, and dedication have made this important publication possible.  They are:  Arlene Balkansky (Chair), Laurie Duncan, Pearline Hardy, Stephen Kharfen, Marzella Rhodes, and Betty Wilson.

Barbara Humphrys

Head, Processing Unit

Moving Image Section

M/B/RS

Patrick Loughney

Head, Moving Image Section

M/B/RS

See also:

Archival Moving Image Materials:  Contents