Archives Found

Tree outside of Heinz Chapel, Pittsburgh

On this gorgeous and unusually warm Friday, I’m looking out at the beautiful leaves on campus from the top floor of the library and thinking about some writing that I’d like to finish this weekend. I’ve been finding a lot of good projects and links lately, and thought I’d share a few with you here:

Call for Papers- DH2010 – Digital Humanities conference at Kings College, London- the theme is “cultural expression, old and new.” Deadline for paper abstracts is Nov 15; conference is in early July 2010.

THATCamp Columbus- regional Digital Humanities unconference based on the popular annual THATCamp at George Mason University. They’re taking proposals now for the January 2010 conference that will be held at Columbus State. I participated in THATCamp Austin this summer, and had so much fun that I’d like to go to Columbus, too– I found it to be a great place to generate discussion and ideas.

Digital Humanities Quarterly- lots of interesting articles in this open-access, peer-reviewed journal, and I’ve been catching up on my reading.

Vectors Journal of Culture and Technology- This is an interesting place to look at the ways in which technology can shape discussion, knowledge and scholarship.

I’m also following the folks at the fall MARAC conference on Twitter– you can too! #marac

Have you found any good resources that relate to the study/use of “digital humanities” that you’d like to share?

Please post ‘em here!

What are your plans for Saturday, October 17th?

If your answer was anything other than “of course I’ll be celebrating Home Movie Day!” you have plenty of time to change your mind. Rake the leaves during the week, set up Tivo to capture the college football games, grab the popcorn and head over to your local Home Movie Day.

What is Home Movie Day? Started in 2002 by a film-loving bunch of archivists and moving image folks, HMD is a sort of ad-hoc amateur film fest, and a celebration of home movies at the local level. You can read more about it here.

Coincidentally, October is also Archives Month. Have you thought about hosting, or perhaps providing film-friendly expertise for your local Home Movie Day? This could be a great opportunity for outreach, and for connecting with your community. Do you have any home movies in your collection that would be of interest during HMD? (Incidentally, this could also serve as a yearly reminder to check the home movies and other films in your collection for any new deterioration or issues).

Anyway, you have almost three weeks until HMD. That could be enough time to secure a projector and a room, haul out the A-D strips, get the word out to the community, and start on the popcorn. Or you could start planning ahead for next year.

Related links:

August 2003 NPR story on Home Movie Day- Lost and Found Sound: Exploring Home Movies and Ephemeral Films

Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) and Film Forever (the AMIA Home Film Preservation Guide)

The Orphan Film Symposium

Living Room Cinema: Films from Home Movie Day

National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF)