archives

Will archives survive digitisation?

ARCHIVE MONTAGE

At a joint event put on by RTS London and the Federation of Commercial, Audiovisual Libraries (FOCAL) in late February, the experts said that – although it is a huge task – they would be able to digitise the best of telly’s vast archive of tape programmes. 

Steve Daly, head of technology at BBC Archives described his job as “looking after everything the BBC would like to keep forever”. This includes paper records, radio archives, sheet music, social media archive and music libraries, as well as telly programmes.

Do you need £4000 for a history of television project?

The Shiers Trust grant, now in its 18th year, is normally worth £2,000. This year, to mark the 90th anniversary of the RTS, it has been raised to £4,000. 

Launched in 2000, the Shiers Trust grant is named after George Shiers, a distinguished US TV historian.

The grant has enabled a range of projects, including the digitalisation of back issues of the Radio Times and the creation of a website which presents a collection of historical consumer electronics images.

RTS celebrates 90th anniversary in Yorkshire

Melvyn Bragg touring the ITV Archives with RTS Yorkshire (Credit: RTS / Paul Harness)
The RTS was founded in September 1927, following a lecture at Leeds University from one of the future inventors of television, John Logie Baird.
 
“Invented before TV – the RTS was always ahead of its time,” said RTS Yorkshire Chair Fiona Thompson, while introducing Bragg to a sell-out crowd at ITV’s Leeds Television Centre in late-November.
 
During a wide-ranging address, the veteran arts broadcaster argued: “All new inventions provoke wonder and horror; hope and fear.” Television, too, has “a dark side”.