What We Do
Our mission: To preserve Australia's audiovisual culture for all to enjoy
The National Film and Sound Archive, is the treasure house of Australian audiovisual history. The Archive, preserves and shares Australia's moving images and sound recordings from the first film images of our young country to the modern classics Strictly Ballroom, Shine and beyond; from Blue Hills to Blue Heelers, the songs of Peter Dawson and today's Top 40 Hits. From Chips Rafferty, Jack Davey and The Sentimental Bloke to John Farnham, Yothu Yindi and Muriel's Wedding, the Archive's Collection documents Australia's rich cultural history.
Our heritage is preserved for all to share - today and tomorrow. Making the collection accessible to all people is achieved in many ways - by supplying footage and recordings for use in television and radio productions, through regular screenings of some of Australia's greatest films, through innovative exhibitions, travelling shows, live presentations, educational programs, video and audio products, and on the website.
A vast and important collection
The Archive collects a diverse range of material from the 1890s to the present day: from Dame Nellie Melba and The Story of the Kelly Gang to Dame Edna and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Given the enormous output of the sound and screen industries in Australia, it is impossible to collect everything. Items of enduring cultural significance and those which document Australia's creative achievements in the audiovisual media are given priority.
The National Collection includes more than one million items. In addition to discs, films, videos, audio tapes, phonograph cylinders and wire recordings, the Collection includes supporting documents and artefacts, such as photographic stills, transparencies, posters, lobby cards, publicity, scripts, costumes, props, memorabilia and sound, video and film equipment.
Organising more than one million items
Managing a collection of more than one million audiovisual items is a huge task requiring special skills and systems, and more than a little imagination. To cope with the great variety of material and the special needs of such a diverse collection, the National Film and Sound Archive has developed an innovative computer software. MAVIS - Merged Audio Visual Information System - is now being marketed successfully to other audiovisual archives throughout the world.
Too important to lose
Preservation is the essence of audiovisual archiving. Films, magnetic tapes and other material have limited shelf lives. They degrade over time in various ways and their formats may become obsolete.
Through cutting-edge research and preservation practices, the National Film and Sound Archive has become internationally recognised as a centre of excellence. Its new state of the art technical facilities and expertise in audiovisual preservation techniques have earned it widespread recognition.
The National Film and Sound Archive's Offices and Access Centres in most capital cities allow wide public access to the Collection. The Centre for Scholarly and Archival Research and Library in Canberra contain a wide range of specialised books and journals.
