Increasing diffusion: Rediscovering the Smithsonian’s media collections through the Audiovisual Media Preservation Initiative

The Smithsonian Institution has collected, produced and exhibited audiovisual media for well over a century. This paper discusses how, during the last decade, the institution’s concerted efforts at inventorying and cataloguing the hundreds of thousands of analogue media objects in its collections have led to the development of the centralised Audiovisual Media Preservation Initiative (AVMPI). As a pan-institutional service initiative, the AVMPI’s project team, media digitisation and conservation laboratories, and best practice workflows are advancing collections care and digital access activities across the Smithsonian’s 22 museums and research centres. Software such as Airtable and a new accessibility-friendly streaming video platform built by the Smithsonian are integral to these efforts.