Voices & Images of Alaska (VIA)
The VIA Inventory Project
The Voices and Images of Alaska (VIA) Inventory and Assessment Project, which sponsored the VIA 2002 and VIA 2005 moving image and sound preservation conferences in Anchorage, is undertaking a renewed effort to inventory Alaskan film, video, and audio collections. Data collection for this inventory will take place largely by telephone. If you or someone you know has a collection of Alaskan film, video, or audio that you think should be included in this inventory, please contact the VIA project—and watch this page for updates and developments as the inventory progresses over the coming months.

The VIA inventory is an important first step toward the wider effort of media preservation and access. Scarce funds for preservation work must not be spent on poor quality films, if the original production elements or higher–quality duplicates exist and are accessible. For this reason, having a single resource to reference when determining if other copies of a given Alaskan film, video, or audio recording exist will be quite useful; and this inventory is the starting point for developing that resource.

The inventory document produced by the VIA Project will also be a useful research tool. As interest in Alaskan history education has increased in recent years, curriculum developers have been turning to AMIPA for moving images to illustrate historical events. Program developers need to research and locate footage; and archives and other collection holders need to know proper techniques to avoid damaging unique materials as they are accessed—the type of information that was disseminated at the VIA sponsored conferences in 2002 and 2005, as well as during the ongoing outreach conducted in the course of the present inventory.

It is also noteworthy that the VIA inventory is contemporaneous with similar initiatives around the world, such as the development of the Moving Image Collections (MIC) catalogue and directory website; a project sponsored by the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) and the Library of Congress, with major funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Another benefit of the VIA sponsored conferences and outreach includes encouragment to develop local catalogues in standard formats, which will facilitate the sharing of data with national and international initiatives such as MIC.

The staff of the VIA project would like to acknowledge the assistance provided by Christie Ericson and Susan Mitchell of the UAA/APU Consortium Library Technical Services Department in conducting the inventory of Alaskan film, video, and audio collections.

Contacting the VIA Project
To contact the VIA Project, telephone Kevin Tripp, Archivist, at the AMIPA office:
907.786.4980

Or e-mail:

via@amipa.org

Funders of the VIA Project
The VIA Project is funded in part by:
The Inventory & Assessment of Alaska Audio Visual Collections sponsored by AMIPA is an Official Project of Save America's Treasures, a public-private partnership between the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the National Park Service, dedicated to preserving our nation's irreplaceable historic and cultural treasures for future generations.

This program receives Federal financial assistance for identification and protection of historic properties. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, the U.S. Department of the Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, or disability in its federally assisted programs. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire further information, please write to:
Office of Equal Opportunity
National Park Service
1849 C St, NW
Washington, DC 20240

Upated: December 14, 2006