Providing digital access to newsfilm and news videotape content at the University of Georgia Libraries: A brief history

The Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection (BMA) at the University of Georgia Libraries has been providing online digital access to newsfilm content for over a decade. Its largest collection of local newsfilm is from Atlanta’s WSB-TV and dates from 1948 to 1982. The BMA’s existing database, a home-grown system developed in 2000, has served well; however, it is approaching the end of its useful life and it is time to decide how best to provide ongoing access to current content and anticipate the future needs of the Archives and its users. The BMA also houses the WSB Videotape Collection, which dates from 1976 to 2010, and is providing descriptive access to part of that collection using Collective Access, an open source content management system. This paper looks briefly at the history of the news collections, discusses the challenges associated with the provision of digital access to such historic content and considers the BMA’s evolving needs, including the migration of metadata and digital content going forward.