net collection catalog project

The National Educational Television (NET) Collection Catalog Project

AMIA, November 21, 2015

Alan GevinsonAAPB Project Director, Library of Congress

Sadie RoosaAAPB Metadata Specialist, WGBH

Who? Where?WGBH Media Library and Archives ... and

Library of Congress

• Comprehensive catalog of 8,000-10,000 entries covering 1953-72• Descriptive data/location of assets

• Programs are scattered• Descriptions are limited and in obscure sources • No publicly accessible list of titles

• For collection managers: inform prioritization for preservation• For researchers: bring programs into the light

What? Why?

When?

• Began: June 2015 • Completion: June 2018

How???

Sadie will explain in a few moments ...

But first ...

A brief history of NET, Phase 1

• Founded by foundations (for the most part)• 1952: FCC’s Sixth Order and Report reserves 242 channels for

noncommercial use• 1952-53: Ford Foundation’s Fund for Adult Education (FAE) establishes

the Educational Television and Radio Center (ETRC) headquartered in Ann Arbor and encourages the reservation of channels for educational use

• 1953: First educational television station (KUHT)• 1954: Programming service begins (film and kinescope)• 1954-58: Growth to 36 affiliates and more than 7 hours/week

First Educational TV stations• May 1953 KUHT (Houston)• Nov. 1953 KTHE (Los Angeles)• Jan. 1954 WKAR (East Lansing)• Apr. 1954 WQED (Pittsburgh)• May 1954 WHA (Madison)• June 1954 KQED (San Francisco)• July 1954 WCET (Cincinnati)• Sept. 1954 KETC (St. Louis)• Nov. 1954 KUON (Lincoln)• Dec. 1954 KCTS (Seattle)• Jan. 1955 WAIQ (Montgomery, Alabama)• Jan. 1955 WUNC (Chapel Hill)• Apr. 1955 WBIQ (Birmingham)• May 1955 WGBH (Boston)• Aug. 1955 WILL (Champagne-Urbana)• Aug. 1955 WTHS (Miami)

• Sept. 1955 WTTV (Chicago)• Oct. 1955 WTVS (Detroit)• Jan. 1956 KRMA (Denver)• Feb. 1956 WOSU (Columbus)• Apr. 1956 KETA (Oklahoma City)• June 1956 WKNO (Memphis)• Aug. 1956 WCIQ (Dozier, Alabama)• Mar. 1957 KLSE (Monroe, Louisiana)• Apr. 1957 WYES (New Orleans)• Sept. 1957 KTCA (Minneapolis-St. Paul)• Sept. 1957 WHYY (Philadelphia)• Oct. 1957 KOAC (Corvalis, Colorado)• Oct. 1957 WMVS (Milwaukee)• Jan. 1958 WIPR (San Juan, Puerto Rico)• Jan. 1958 KUED (Salt Lake City)• Feb. 1958 WETV (Atlanta)

A brief history of NET, Phase 2• 1959: Use of videotape begins• 1959: ETRC main offices move to New York• 1962: ETRC becomes NETRC; weekly

package of 10 hours• 1964: NETRC becomes NET; first in series of

$6M annual Ford grants

A brief history of NET (continued)

1963-64: Ford Foundation encourages centralization of production• NETRC becomes NET; first in series of $6M annual Ford grants• Provides 1/3 of programming to stations• No more grants for instructional television• No more radio development• No more final editorial control by affiliates or independent producers• Half of NET’s programming to be devoted to public affairs

1965-67: Carnegie Corporation of New York involvement• 1965: Carnegie Commission on Educational Television formed• 1967: Carnegie Commission report: Public Television: A Program for Action

A brief history of NET, Phase 3

Reorganization: Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 • Corporation for Public Broadcasting• Public Broadcasting Service (not Network)

NET is disbanded• Ford funding ended• One of six national production centers• Disputes with PBS and local stations• Merges with WNET

Library of Congress NET Collection

• 8,000 – 10,000 titles covering 1955 to 1972

• Audiovisual material acquired in multiple parts– 1965-67 acquisition: 550+ 16mm prints from Ann Arbor– 1982 acquisition: 1,019 prints and negatives from University of Indiana– 1984 acquisition: 8,000 titles from PBS– 1990 acquisition: 43 2-inch masters from PBS– 1993 acquisition: ? 2-inch masters and 16mm kinescopes from PBS

• NET microfiche– 1986 acquisition from PBS

What and Where is“The NET Collection?”

• OCLC WorldCat

• Library of Congress MAVIS

• WGBH internal database

• AAPB inventory records

A Smattering of Electronic Records

What Do We Do Now?

Thank you!Alan Gevinsonagev@loc.org

andSadie Roosa

sadie_roosa@wgbh.org