DONE!

by Karin Carlson

[caption id="attachment1186" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Iventoried Cans, Courtesy of NHF"]<a href="http://bostonlocaltv.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/IMG2016.jpg">[/caption]

When I first came to Northeast Historic Film I began what then seemed like the endless task of creating an inventory of the WCVB collection.  Now, a year and a half later, I finally made it through all 3,759 of those red cans.  I have placed barcodes and collected information on 14,713 reels which total about 3.5 million feet of film.  This collection is far from fully processed, but we now have an idea of what is on these reels and have taken the first step to providing access to this massive amount of film.

[caption id="attachment1187" align="alignleft" width="300" caption=""Bird" Reels, Courtesy of NHF"]<a href="http://bostonlocaltv.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/IMG2009.jpg">[/caption]

I am not completely done with the collection.  We have a lot of videotapes and a few more random boxes of news film with intriguing labels like “birds” and “Kennedy” which need to be looked through, but just walking into the vault and seeing the rows of labeled red cans gives me a feeling of accomplishment.  I can see that progress has been made and am excited to share this information with the public and move onto the next big step: making not only the limited information about these reels visible, but bringing the images and stories hidden within these cans to the public.

[caption id="attachment1188" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The Vault, Courtesy of NHF"]<a href="http://bostonlocaltv.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/IMG2006.jpg">[/caption]