Access to moving images involves two different perspectives: that of the user who wishes to find and use moving images in a collection, and that of the archives that must balance the responsibility for the physical care of the collection with making the collection accessible to the public. The MIC Web site facilitates access to and within the archival community by putting in one place the information needed to find archives and what they have in their collections.
Individual Users wanting to find and use moving images within a collection, or learn more about moving images and moving image preservation, can access MIC through either of two portals—customized information spaces—designed to support these users:
Archives & Archivists can access information through a portal which facilitates information sharing, collaboration and research among moving image archive professionals. The starting point for archivists is the
Learn more about MIC portals.
MIC integrates information about individual moving images with information about the organizations that own them.
The MIC mission is to immerse moving images into the education mainstream, recognizing that what society uses, it values, and what it values, it preserves.
The goal of the Moving Image Collections portal is to provide a window to the world's moving images for educators, researchers, exhibitors, and the general public that also allows archivists to collaborate in describing and maintaining these unique resources and thus avoid costly duplication of effort and further loss of our cultural heritage.
Moving images are unique in the use of multiple information streams (audio, visual and textual) to provide a compelling and immersive educational experience. Yet, moving images have remained isolated from the mainstream as an information resource, rarely cited in research papers, for example, or consulted as primary reference sources. Therefore another important goal of the MIC is to bring a very flexible but standardized metadata architecture to these diverse resources to integrate moving images into the information mainstream with the understanding that society values most highly what it understands and uses.
The history of MIC began in 1994 with publication by the Library of Congress, in consultation with the Library’s National Film Preservation Board, of the national film preservation plan … [MORE]
Many projects and organizations led up to MIC.
Timeline of milestones that paved the way
MIC is a collaboration of organizations and individuals in moving image archives, information technology, and digital education. Participants are committed to the preservation and use of moving images to support people and societies around the world.
MIC is sponsored by the Library of Congress and the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA), and funded in large part by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the first development phase (2002-2005). MIC is part of the National Science Digital Library
The Library of Congress will serve as the permanent host site for MIC, providing infrastructure and management staffing to support MIC's long-term maintenance and ongoing development. AMIA, in accordance with its organizational mission, is responsible for developing MIC's educational content. AMIA committees, interest groups, task forces, and other voluntary participants develop the site's informational resources through the working groups of the MIC Education and Outreach Committee.
MIC is governed by a Steering Committee and two standing committees: the Education and Outreach Committee and the Technical Committee.
MIC’s technical developers are funded by the NSF grant through the first development phase and include Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Washington. Thirteen alpha sites contribute records to the MIC Union Catalog and are actively involved in the testing, evaluation, and revision of all initial MIC functionalities. Also serving in an advisory capacity are the Science Educators Advisory Board and the MIC Evaluation Teamat the Rutgers Rutgers School of Communication, Information and Library Studies
Coordinating all MIC activities is Jane D. Johnson, MIC Project Manager at the Library of Congress.
Updated: March 18, 2005
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