Erica Titkemeyer, NYPL Reserve Film and Video Collection, Spring 2012, IMLS
The Reserve Film and Video Collection within the New York Public Library Performing Arts center is largely made up of 16mm materials, focused on documentary, experimental, educational, and youth devoted genres. Preservation efforts are very much a part of the duties held by David Callahan and Elena Rossi-Snook who work with the collection, and a significant number of films from the collection have been preserved with funding provided by NEH, NFPF, and others. My internship involved a wide array of projects and tasks. I worked to sketch out a more comprehensive processing plan for future accessions, that would standardize factors such as leader order, metadata capturing, and cataloging. Another project involved writing a screening and panel proposal for Preservation Week at the Shwartzmann building, while tasks included hand inspection of prints screened or preserved at places such as Tribeca Film Festival, UCLA, and Anthology Film Archives. Through the internship I gained more practice handling and inspecting 16mm materials, and acquired a beneficial understanding of what it takes for an institution to continue providing preservation and access to circulating 16mm films.
Erica Titkemeyer at the New York Public Library
