The Moving Image Research Center provides access and information
services to an international community of film and television
professionals, archivists, scholars, and researchers. The Library of
Congress began collecting motion pictures in 1893 when Thomas Edison
and his brilliant assistant W.K.L. Dickson deposited the Edison
Kinetoscopic Records for copyright. However, because of the difficulty
of safely storing the flammable nitrate film used at the time, the
Library retained only the descriptive material relating to motion
pictures. In 1942, recognizing the importance of motion pictures
and the need to preserve them as a historical record, the Library
began collecting the films themselves; from 1949 on these also
included films made for television. Today the National Audio-Visual
Conservation Center (NAVCC) holds approximately 1.9 million items
and is responsible for the acquisition, cataloging and preservation
of the Library's motion picture and television collections. The
holdings complement the video recordings of the American Folklife
Center, and the sound recordings served in the Recorded Sound Research
Center.
Because most collections are stored offsite, researchers will need to
schedule an appointment to access materials.
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