AMIA Newsbriefs

USC to Create an Oral Archive of Behind-the-Scenes Hollywood

Now it can be told! The stories behind the Hollywood stories from years past will apparently find their way into history via a new oral archive project at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. The now-retired Times correspondent Bernard Weinraub, who long held the Hollywood beat, is listed among the first contributors to the archive.

Read more here

Copyright 1710-2010 “For the encouragement of learning”

The world’s first copyright law was passed by the English Parliament on 10 April 1710 as ‘An Act for the Encouragement of Learning’. Its 300th anniversary provides a unique opportunity to review copyright’s purposes and principles.  If today we were starting from scratch, but with the same aim of encouraging learning‚ what kind of copyright would we want?

The responses we received are collated in the Ideas Bank and were discussed at the launch of the Copyright 1710-2010 forum, hosted by NESTA on the eve of the 300th anniversary. The forum will now travel to Shanghai for the next event on the 9th June 2010.

Read more here

National Archives Launches Its First-Ever Social Media Scavenger Hunt on April 26

Beginning Monday, April 26, the National Archives will be hosting a Civil-War themed social media scavenger hunt to advertise its newest exhibit "Discovering the Civil War." The event kicks off on the National Archives main Facebook page

Read the story here:  http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-archives-launches-its-first-ever-social-media-scavenger-hunt-on-april-26-at-noon-91937284.html

Rolling Stone Unveils Archive for a Fee

"We're taking control of our digital destiny," Steven Schwartz, chief digital officer of Wenner Media, told the AP. He called the online archive "the collected history of everyone who's grown up over the past 40 years."

Read the story here:  http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/business/Rolling-Stone-Unveils-Archive-for-a-Fee-91056019.html

Personal Archiving Day at the Library of Congress

Pass It On: Personal Archiving Day at the Library of Congress celebrates the first national Preservation Week (May 9-15) . It is sponsored by Library of Congress, the American Library Association (ALA), the Institute for Museum and Library Services and partner organizations. This joint initiative highlights libraries and other collecting institutions as good sources of preservation information.

Read more here

Graffiti Analysis

Graffiti Analysis is an extensive ongoing study in the motion of graffiti. Custom software designed for graffiti writers creates visualizations of the often unseen motion involved in the creation of a tag. Motion data is recorded, analyzed and archived in a free and open database, where writers can share analytical representations of their hand styles

Watch video here.

USC, Armenian Film Foundation agree to archive 400 survivor testimonies

The USC Shoah Foundation Institute, part of the USC College of Letters, Arts & Sciences, signed an agreement with the Armenian Film Foundation and Dr. J. Michael and Antoinette Hagopian on April 13 to help the preservation and dissemination of the largest archive of filmed interviews with survivors of and witnesses to the Armenian Genocide.

Read story here

1913 Abraham Lincoln Film Found in NH Barn Cleanup

In a tale celebrating the romance of movies, a contractor cleaning out an old New Hampshire barn destined for demolition found seven reels of nitrate film inside, including the only known copy of a 1913 silent film about Abraham Lincoln.

Read the story here:  http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04/13/arts/AP-US-Lincoln-Film-Restored.html?_r=3

Twitter's Entire Archive Headed to the Library of Congress

The US Library of Congress announced this morning via its official Twitter account that it will be acquiring the entire archive of Twitter messages back through March, 2006. In addition to a massive printed collection, the Library already has an extensive collection of other digital assets.

Read story here

NASA partners with Internet Archive to archive digital imagery

NASA gave a nice shout-out to the Internet Archive for helping them address their Open Government Initiative requirements. http://www.nasa.gov/open/plan/records-management.html

Read more here