Heading to AMIA 2019 in Baltimore

Corporate and other archives, media companies, libraries, historical societies, universities and…LAC Group’s media and archiving specialists. 

Tim Knapp, SVP, Media & Archive Services at AMIA 2018.

These are some of the organizations represented by the Association of Moving Image Archivists or AMIA. LAC Group has been an AMIA member and conference sponsor for many years. Every year in November, I’m joined by some of my film preservation team as we travel from southern California to wherever the conference is being held—this year in Baltimore, November 13-16.

We are a Gold-level sponsor again this year, though we have opted not to have an exhibit booth so we can focus our time on learning and networking. Here are a few workshops and other conference activities that I’m looking forward to.

The Pavilion for film preservation skill sharing

In 2018, AMIA created the Pavilion as a central exhibit hub for “ask an expert” space, poster presentations, exhibit booths and other information-sharing activities. We’ll be checking out the latest in film and digital archiving tools and technologies, such as:

• Cinequal, which makes a film analysis system using computer vision technology for analyzing the physical condition of motion picture film.
• Digital Bedrock, a Los Angeles-based company for digital preservation, with an off-cloud architecture featuring object storage technologies for searching unstructured data.
• Kodak, to see the latest in film stocks available for capture and preservation.  LAC Group is a distribution partner for Kodak at our PRO-TEK Vaults location in Burbank, CA. 
• Lasergraphics, to get the latest from the maker of the Director 10K motion picture film scanning system that LAC Group uses to produce the highest resolution and steadiest archival scans available for your original film elements.

This is just a small sample. While not fast-paced and rapidly growing like some industries, I do find it amazing how archiving technology continues to change and advance, especially now in our digital age.

Educational film archiving workshops

There’s something for everyone with over half a dozen workshops for technical and non-technical audiences alike. Some of them are hands-on, like the AMIA/DLF Hack Day, which is a partnership between AMIA and the Digital Library Federation, joining archivists and managers with developers and engineers to explore audiovisual preservation solutions.

Other notable AMIA 2019 workshops:

• Audiovisual & Preservation Technology Basics for Non-Engineers presented by the Library of Congress. A lot of my work involves education and de-mystifying archiving terms and concepts, which have become even more technical with the shift to digital. This workshop was first conducted in 2014 as a half-day format; thanks to popular demand, in 2019 it will run the full day, from 9:00 to 5:00, to give attendees a good grasp of technology and technical issues in plain English.
• Cataloging the Moving Image: Data Modeling, FRBR, BIBFRAME and PBCore will be a joint presentation by HBO, Library of Congress, NASA and WGBH, Boston’s PBS station. This session is about data models for bibliographic description and other cataloging and metadata concepts. LAC Group’s history and expertise in providing library services (including multiple, unrelated projects at the Library of Congress and NASA) gives us a huge advantage in the world of film archiving. Data models have become important in making sure that media assets are usable and discoverable for streaming and other forms of digital access and monetization.
• The Reel Thing Technical Symposium is an annual tradition at AMIA, sharing current thinking and examples of progress in the field of preservation, restoration and media conservation.

If you’re unable to attend but are interested in knowing more about any of this year’s workshops and other activities, or if you have other film and media archiving questions, please contact me and I’ll do what I can to gather and provide information for you.

We always look forward to seeing the latest trends, the diversity in preservation projects around the world, and of course, seeing clients and friends. Hope to see you there.

AMIA 2019 registration and more information