Last week several staffers from the WGBH Media Library & Archives attended the annual conference of the Association of Moving Image Archives in Philadelphia. Always a productive time for us, we presented, worked, networked, enjoyed rare archival film screenings, and consumed many a cheesesteak!

Our director Karen Cariani chaired two popular sessions – one which featured a panel of funders discussing their priorities for funding moving image projects, and one which featured legal experts discussing the challenges faced by archivists trying to make materials accessible online.

WGBH Legal’s Jay Fialkov provided an overview of copyright and Christopher Bavitz of Harvard’s Berkman Center presented on their work for our Boston TV News Digital Library: 1960-2000. Chris outlined 4 sections of law which the Berkman report will address: copyright, trademark, state law (privacy, defamation, etc.) and contract law. Both panels were well received for their practical bent and slides from the copyright panel available here:

Opening the Archives for Access
Jay Fialkov – Understanding Copyright Barriers (ppt)
Christopher Bavitz – Legal Issues for Media Archivists (ppt)

Other highlights of the conference included a strong presence by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s American Archive Initiative, the opportunity to network with our public broadcasting colleagues from Wisconsin to Louisiana and a visit to WHYY, Philadelphia public media station, to discuss our American Archive Content Inventory Project.

Read more about the conference in this Philadelphia Inquirer article, “Film restorers focus on timeless home movies at Phila. convention.”