Fall 2008 - Tuesdays 6-10pm, 721 Broadway, Rm 674

Introduction to Moving Image Archiving and Preservation H72.1800

Syllabus 1.86
(also see Fall 2005 or  Fall 2006  or Fall 2007 syllabus)

(latest version of syllabus always at http://miap.hosting.nyu.edu/program/08fall/intro-syllabus08.shtml )

Instructor: Howard Besser         Office Hours: Tu 4:00-5:45 PM, 665 Broadway, rm 612, and by appointment

Course Description:  This graduate-level course introduces and contextualizes aspects of the archiving and preservation of film, video, and new media.  We will consider the moving image and sound recording media as material objects, as technologies with histories.  We will contextualize them within culture, politics, industries, and economics. Topics include: conservation and preservation principles, organization and access, restoration, collecting, curatorship, and programming, legal issues and copyright, and emerging issues in digital media.    

Designed for students entering the profession of moving image archiving, the course examines the history of archiving and preservation and the development of the field’s theories, practices, and professional identities.  We will consider the tasks and areas of specialization practiced by moving image professionals and how these are changing and multiplying in the digital era.   

Required readings:  There is no single book, or even set of books, for this multiperspectival, interdisciplinary field and course.  The book that should start out the course is out of print, but read it on reserve.

 • Penelope Houston, Keepers of the Frame:  The Film Archives (BFI, 1994)  [one at Bobst Library Reserves Desk, TR886.3 H68]  (& A .pdf file of part of the book will be online at the Blackboard site)

          The other readings will be essays and documents handed out in class or (most often) made available in digital form (available through links on the course website or pdf files on the course Blackboard site; and electronic library documents via Bobst Library portals).  The U.S. national plans for television/video and film preservation are on-line, as are NFPF publications.  We will also read articles from the AMIA journal, The Moving Image.  The 2004-06 issues are available to you in .html and .pdf formats via Project Muse (see Bobst Library databases).

            Note:  Some readings (ie those in the "Restricted" directory on Howard's website) are only available if you have logged in via the NYU domain.  If you are using another ISP, you must either run a proxy server or be on campus to access these documents.  Please print paper copies for yourself when any electronic versions are required reading.  Keep them handy for marking, reviewing.

       “Blackboard” – This online resource will host some of the course documents. Access NYU Blackboard Course Sites with a valid NYU Net ID and password through the Blackboard Classes list in NYUHome (https://home.nyu.edu).   Click on the “Academics” tab, then click on the course link in the list provided.  If the class link does not appear in your list, try clicking the "Update Classes Information" link at the bottom of the channel.  Help is at ITS Client Services (212) 998-3333, or NYU Blackboard Help Request Form .

Objectives:  After completing the course you should be able to  …

Requirements:  Course grades [A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D, F] will be determined by performance in the following areas. MIAP students must earn a grade a B or better to advance. 

Attendance and Participation (25%)  Attend all meetings of the course.  Participate actively in all discussions. 
Participation will also measured by your completion of short assignments given occasionally.  These required short assignments will be announced throughout the semester.  Most will consist of a brief written response (ca. 500-words), sometimes due a week after its assignment.  All assignments and readings will be listed on the syllabus on the date due, so be sure to scan ahead on the syllabus.
You must also monitor the electronic discussion supervised by the Association for Moving Image Archivists (AMIA-L).  Subscribe via e-mail.

Group Research report (25%)  Research and write a report on a single piece of under-researched film or video.  You and one or two classmates will be provided an access copy of an original item about which little is known.  Studying the film’s content, historical context, archival and material conditions, your group will compose a written report assessing the piece’s significance and recommend a preservation and presentation plan.  Your group will also have to present this as an oral class presentation.

Proposal  (10%)  A proposal for your final project, including preliminary research bibliography and a prospectus .  (3-4 pages). 

Individual Final project  (40%)  A substantive, in-depth, individual research project.  Integrate archival research with one or more set of moving image materials (or related materials, such as audio, photographic or paper documents), or develop an essay and documentation on an archival project stemming from issues in the course.  This project will have a written component, plus you will be graded on your class presnetation of your project during the final class session.
            The topic of your final project must be approved before submitting a formal proposal.  You will receive an additional list of possible projects, but you may also propose a project of your own invention.  Look at the MIAP web site to see projects that students have done previously.  The best projects tend to work with available primary materials. 
            Some general options to consider include:

---------------

Sept 2 Introduction to Entire Class

Topics covered:

Sept 9 Modes and Artifacts of Moving Image Production: Video, Audio, and New Media; Issues of Risk Assessment with all forms of Moving Image Works

Assignments due before class:
Topics covered:

Sept 16 Modes & Artifacts of Moving Image Production: General Discussion & Film, Basic Distribution Issues

Assignments due before class:
Topics covered:

Sept 23  Film Artifact & Preservation Issues

Assignments due before class
Topics covered:

Sept 30   Collections Management: Issues and Approaches

Assignments due before class:
Topics covered:

Oct 7  Collecting in Context: Theoretical Underpinnings

Assignments due before class:
Topics covered:

Oct 14  NO CLASS (School Holiday)


Oct 21 Collecting Institutions: History and Culture of Museums, Archives, and other Repositories

Assignments due before class
Topics covered:

Oct 28  Perspectives on Collecting, Conservation & Preservation

Assignments due before class:
Topics covered:

Nov 4  Video & Audio Preservation Issues

Assignments due before class
Topics covered:


Nov 11 New Media & Digital Preservation Issues

Assignments due before class:
Topics covered:
Note: next week we will switch back and forth between rooms 674 and 648


Nov 18  Access, Curating & Programming

Assignments due before class:
Topics covered:

Nov 25 Copyright, Legal Issues, & Policy

Assignments due before class:
Topics covered:

Dec 2  Digital Public Television Preservation

Assignments due before class:
Read: Guest: Kara Van Malssen, Senior NDIIPP Fellow, Preserving Public Television
Class will end approximately 8:30 PM to give you time to work on your final projects.

Dec 11 Final Classroom Presentations

Assignments due before class:
Topics covered:

Other Information

MIAP Digital Archive:  In addition to any paper or other materials that must be submitted for a course project, all MIAP course projects will be submitted with accompanying electronic copies.  The ‘e-versions’ will be made part of the MIAP digital archive.  Provide all files with (1) a MIAP Submission Form and (2) file names that follow MIAP guidelines (which you will receive soon).  Identify on the Submission Form any content that might require access restrictions. 

Plagiarism Advisory:

Plagiarism and other violations of the University’s published policies are serious offenses and will be punished severely.  Plagiarism includes presenting or paraphrasing a phrase, sentence, or passage of a published work (including material from the World-Wide Web) in a paper or exam answer without quotation marks and attribution of the source, submitting your own original work toward requirements in more than one class without the prior permission of the instructors, submitting a paper written by someone else, submitting as your own work any portion of a paper or research that you purchased from another person or commercial firm, and presenting in any other way the work, ideas, data, or words of someone else without attribution. These are punishable offenses whether intended or unintended (e.g., occurs through poor citations or confusion about how to reference properly).
           
You are encouraged to read additional texts and to discuss the issues of this course and your papers with others; but if you use ideas that come from others, you must acknowledge their help.  It is always better to err on the side of acknowledging other people than to fail to do so.  

Other offenses against academic integrity include: collaborating with others on assignments without the express permission of the instructor, giving your work to another student to submit as his/her own, copying answers from another student or source materials during examinations, secreting or destroying library or reference materials. . If you have any questions about how to cite sources, what constitutes appropriate use of a text, or other matters of academic integrity, please discuss them with your course instructor. 

Anyone caught plagiarizing will fail the course.  In addition, violations of academic integrity, including plagiarism, call for disciplinary action through the University.