Photograph of the Suffolk Collegiate Institute discovered
Every once in a while, an archive can yield a treasure that hasn’t been seen in many years. Such is the case with a photograph that was recently found in the Elon University Archives & Special Collections. The photograph is of the Suffolk Collegiate Institute, which along with Graham College was a forerunner of Elon College, now Elon University. What is unique about this find is that it may be the only remaining photograph of the Institute, and it is the first time a photo of the institute has been seen in many years. Suffolk Collegiate Institute was founded in 1872 in Suffolk, Virginia, by the Eastern Virginia Conference of the Southern Christian Convention of the Christian Church. W. B. Wellons, one of the Christian Church’s most influential figures of the time, was the school’s first president. It was part of a movement within the Christian Church to establish denominational…
Read MoreConverting Analog Video to Digital: The Basics
Linda Lashendock April 18, 2014 Forty years ago people were video recording movies, television shows, celebrations, and events (political & current) on film or via analog tape (VHS, Beta, U-Matic, etc.). Today, people are using state-of-the-art video cameras such as professional digital cameras, iPads, and smartphones to capture video content. With these technologies it becomes vital to preserve both analog and born digital video content. However, as of now there are NO effective national best practices for video format preservation. In other words, if these video formats are not being preserved in a Digital Asset Management System (D.A.M.S.) solution, media chaos occurs in the future. According to the Association of Moving Images Archivists (AMIA) it is predicted that video national best practices for digitizing, compressing video files, and attaching metadata to the video files will be established within 25 years by 2039. Even though there are no best D.A.M.S. solutions,…
Read MoreIt’s Christmas in the Archives!
Katie Nash December 21, 2012 For those of you who regularly follow our blog, this post will be different from all the previous entries. Our goal in 2013 is to include more blog posts about what we do in the Archives and Special Collections, as well as include any interesting projects we are working on throughout the year. Let this post be a sneak preview to other posts that will be written in 2013. Enjoy!
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