Imperial War Museum awarded grant to digitise film archive

The Imperial War Museum has been awarded £997,000 from the Public Sector Research Exploitation fund (PSRE) to advance the digitisation of its collections, in particular significant parts of the Film and Video Archive.
This vast, rich and authentic collection includes highlights such as the 1916 film 'The Battle of the Somme' which recently became the first ‘document’ from any British archive to be accepted into UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register; the Oscar-winning Second World War documentaries 'Desert Victory' and 'The True Glory'; and huge quantities of material recorded by cameramen of the services’ own units.
Over a three-year period, the grant will enable the Museum to facilitate increased access to this tremendous research resource and to maximise the commercial potential of this significant asset.
By the end of the project, researchers will have remote access to enhanced cataloguing, research and viewing facilities, as well as the means for online payment and licensing and, increasingly, a system of online delivery.
The project will ensure the Museum can meet the changing technological demands of the existing commercial market and help it to gain access to new markets, including the general public, overseas enquirers and new media markets such as narrowcasting and podcasting. It will build on a major programme undertaken by the Imperial War Museum during 2005 to digitise thousands of images, works of art, documents and sound recordings. (CD)