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The National Library, Sound and Image Archive/Rana
The National Library of Norway began its activities in Rana on 2nd October 1989 after a parliamentary resolution of 23rd April the same year. It is geographically located in the middle of Norway, approximately 1500 km from both the northern and the southern point of the country. The National Library today has 160 employees working in 5 specialized departments and 3 staff departments. The specialized departments are The Legal Deposit Department, The Bibliographic Department, The Repository Library, The Media Laboratory and The Sound and Image Archive.
Both The Media Laboratory and The Sound and Image Archive have divisions working on film and video matters. The laboratory divisions do technical analyses on the condition of the received material, they copy material to new and durable media formats, they produce master copies and copies for other purposes of films, sound tracks and videogrammes, and they do full scale preservation of both nitrate and old color films.
The film division of the archives will collect and make available both new and historical parts of the Norwegian film and video production. The activities include the receiving, storage and making available of moving images and material. This includes cataloguing and the coordination of preservation activities. The division is to handle both material received under The Act on Legal Deposit of Public Accessible Documents, great historical collections and other material delivered on a voluntary basis. In fact the Sound and Image Archive is the first institution in Norway responsible for all audiovisual material on a national basis. We are collaborating with The Norwegian Film Institute, the Norwegian Universities, the major Norwegian broadcasting institutions, film production companies, museums as well as private individuals. In addition to film and film related material, the Archive receives photos, music, and recordings of most of the Norwegian radio and television broadcasts.
Presently we are concentrating on two major changes that will affect our work in the future. The laboratory has just started up the color processing activity, which requires the work of the archive on a restoration plan for color film and the coordination of certain restoration projects. In the first half of 1996 we alsohave been working on the installation and adaptation of a new database, which will cause some changes in our working routines.
Ole André Werring