Second Century Forum

How can Internet Help Archives to Address the Challenges of the Second Century of Cinema
Session chair: David Francis
Co-chairs: Paolo Cherchi Usai, Pat Loughney

In previous 2nd Century Forum’s we have talked a lot about digital preservation. There is another aspect of the digital revolution that is easier to understand and can offer significant help to film archivists on a day to day basis now - the World Wide Web.

Everyone has their favorite sites. In this years Forum we would like to hear about your’s and understand why you consider it so valuable. Please bring the web address so that we can put it up on the screen while you are making your brief remarks. When you arrive in Ljubljana let either Paolo Cherchi Usai, Pat Loughney or David Francis know which site you have chosen to talk about.

We would like to illustrate as wide a range of sites as possible so we are interested in those that offer technical advice, filmographic information, cataloging methodology, etc. We would prefer them to be in English or French but if there are sites in other language that have universal value, we want to include those as well. In addition we would like you to tell us a bit about your own archive’s web site if you feel that it contains information that would be valuable to the film archive community as a whole. There will also be brief presentations on FIAF’s web site and those of UNESCO, AMIA, SEAPAAVA etc.

This years Forum is an appetizer for something more elaborate that we are preparing for next year.. Then we are going to take a frank view of all the initiatives that FIAF has championed over the years to see how useful they have been to Members. We will consider whether they are still relevant in today’s world , whether they need to be developed further or whether they should be shelved and replaced by new projects. You are getting advance warning because the success of this session will depend on your informed participation.