If you've ever wanted to get your hands on a piece of history, now is your chance.
The National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) in Canberra is giving away 77 pallets of international sound material which curators say do not fit within the scope of their collection.
The archives' head of collection, Jacqui Uhlmann, says there are thousands of old records, wax cylinders and a MasterTouch Collection of international pianola rolls up for grabs.
"We've got a lot. We've got three large sound collections," Ms Uhlmann said.
"We've determined that they don't fit within our collecting remit, the scope of what we collect, and we've put out a call for expressions of interest for anyone who might be interested."
Supplied: The National Film and Sound Archive
)The NFSA collects and preserves works integral to Australia's history, and the collections being given away are "international in nature".
"Obviously our focus is on Australian material and material that's contextual around Australian creative output and audiovisual output," Ms Uhlmann explained.
"We collect some international material, but really just to provide a context."
Over 100,000 items to be given away
The collection being discarded by the NFSA includes 80,000 International Main Run Shellac discs — which Ms Uhlmann said people would know as "the old 78s" — predominantly from the US and UK.
Supplied: The National Film and Sound Archive
)"We've got a MasterTouch Collection of [12,500] international piano rolls. The old pianola was [a] pretty popular entertainment form before we could download whatever we wanted on Spotify," she said.
"And we've got international wax cylinders, which was a precursor to the record of last century, also known as phonograph cylinders — around 11,900 of those.
"So it's quite a bit of material."
Ms Uhlman said the process of giving away these materials was "a culmination of a lot of years of research, analysis and getting ready to do this".
"Obviously we don't just decide to get rid of something on a whim; we need to be really careful when we're looking at material, that it's material that we don't want on our collection," she said.
"Our curators have been going through this material for some years, to make sure that there's nothing in there that's of particular significance for the NFSA and for Australia, and then, obviously, we've needed to package those, and our collection management team's done a huge amount of work in getting it all ready to be able to offer to people.
"Because of the scale of this collection, it's something we're offering publicly."
Supplied: The National Film and Sound Archive
)The tender process for the materials closes on June 25, and interested parties are invited to place a bid — although there is no minimum dollar amount required, and the way collectors plan to use the items will form part of the decision.
"We're hoping that there are collectors out there, institutions, organisations, who might just have a particular interest in, or they're looking for something that is in, that collection," Ms Uhlmann said.
"It's not a revenue raising exercise … we're offering it to people who are able to transport it."
Indeed, collectors need to be able to transport the pallets from the NFSA's warehouse at Mitchell in Canberra's north themselves, and there are approximately 1,300 to 1,500 items per pallet.
The only catch is that collectors will not be able to view the material on offer; instead, each pallet will be something of a lucky dip, with staff able to give general details rather than an itemised account.
"We do have some general listings for the 78s, the pallets, that will give people an idea of what might be there," Ms Uhlmann said.
"People are able to come out and have a look, they could talk to our team."
Ms Uhlmann said the shedding of the items did not relate to the NFSA's funding in any way, but was part of their ongoing collection development work.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiWGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIxLTA1LTI2L25mc2EtZ2l2aW5nLWF3YXktc29tZS1vZi1pdHMtY29sbGVjdGlvbi8xMDAxNjU2OTDSAShodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTAwMTY1Njkw?oc=5
2021-05-26 02:59:27Z
52781622489153
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "National Film and Sound Archive giving away some of its international collection - ABC News"
Post a Comment