Tavi Veraldi, “Archiving and Cataloging the Patricia Mellencamp 16mm Film Collections”
Mentor: Tami Williams, English and Film Studies
Oral Presentation Block 2

The core of our research we are working on right now with the film archives is re cataloging all the 16mm feature films in a comprehensive spreadsheet for students and faculty to have access to projecting and handling film. There needs to be a comprehensive list of what we have in the archive so that faculty or students can access the film for classes or on campus groups for decades to come. Access with 16mm films is fun and important. It is a great tool for Film Studies majors and makers to know how film was once exhibited and shown in classrooms and theaters before our recent technology of watching everything on varying screens. Some terms that should be familiar with all students in film gauge. The films we are handling in this collection all 16mm. 16mm is a gauge of films that is smaller than the standard exhibition size (35mm) and is standard for educational films and classroom exhibition. The methods we are using for this project are simply organizing all the film by its name and assigning it a catalog number. For Example, we have film A with two reels in the film cataloging we will assign in FILM A – REEL 1 – PM – 001.1 FILM A – REEL 2. – PM – 001.2. This will allow faculty and staff to n ow how many reels there are supposed to be for future exhibitions and if someone is compelled to re-catalog the films in the future. In conclusion, working with these collections of films to ensure that they can be used for many decades to come is an act of keeping the rich history of film exhibition and creation. We are hoping to have a fully comprehensive list of all the 16mm features inspected and re cataloged.