Information Services
Independent Media Arts Preservation
IMAP is a consortium of professionals working to preserve and advocate for independent media preservation, IMAP is a key resource on the care and preservation of older media formats and provides information and referral on such issues as collection management, cataloguing and re-mastering. IMAP's primary interest is to support the preservation of works reflecting the early history of independent media. IMAP focuses on the preservation of non-commercial productions such as video art, audio art, and technology-based installation art; independent documentary and narratives; community media; and documentation of arts and culture. IMAP was formed to continue the leadership formerly undertaken by the New York-based organization Media Alliance.
The International Association for Media and History
The International Association for Media and History is a group of professional film and television broadcasters, scholars, and others who are concerned about film, radio, television and their relations to history. Activities include conferences, a journal, The Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television,
an E-mail forum, and critically evaluated links to related websites.
The International Federation of Television Archives
FIAT/IFTA is a non-profit association of television archives organized in 1977 to encourage cooperation among members, and to promote the compatibility of audio-visual documentation systems as well as documentation exchange. FIAT holds periodic conferences and publishes a newsletter, available in full on the web site. Also included on the web site is information about FIAT/IFTA Handbook Recommended Standards and Procedures for Selection and Preservation of Television Programme Material.
Media Alliance
Founded in 1979, Media Alliance is an advocacy and service organization dedicated to advancing the independent media arts. Media Alliance provides media arts information and referral, publishes a bi-monthly newsletter, Media Matters, and convenes members for workshops, conferences and working groups on pressing issues. Media Alliance also provides funding to rural media groups through the Media Action Grant. In 1991, Media Alliance and the New York State Council on the Arts conducted a national survey of video art collections, and organized the first conference on video preservation for media arts organizations the same year. Since that time Media Alliance has served as an information clearinghouse on video preservation for the media arts field. Since 1991, Media Alliance has provided the media arts field with comprehensive information and technical assistance on all aspects of preservation, and is nationally recognized for its collaborative projects, including a Regional Cataloging Project coordinated by cataloger Jim Hubbard, and a series of preservation surveys conducted by conservator Paul Messier. In recent years, Media Alliance also published Video Preservation: Securing the Future of the Past, by Deirdre Boyle, and the Magnetic Media Preservation Sourcebook, edited by Mona Jimenez and Liss Platt
Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc.
Founded in 1979, the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc. (ART) is a not-for-profit organization representing a diverse group of more than 330 archivists, librarians, and records managers in the New York metropolitan area. It is one of the largest local organizations of its kind in the United States with members representing more than 160 repositories.
The Regional Alliance for Preservation (RAP)
RAP was began in February 1997 as a pilot project of the Commission on Preservation and Access (Washington, DC) to foster cooperation among the Preservation Field Service programs funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. When pilot-project funding ended in February 1998, participants decided to continue RAP as a cooperative program, and in October of that year, the alliance expanded to include members of the Association of Regional Conservation Centers (ARCC). Initial funding enabled RAP to begin publishing an occasional newsletter. The Institute for Museum and Library Services has funded the development of this Web site.