Our primary piece of advice:  PLAN AHEAD!

1. Because our holdings are non-circulating, you may need to visit the Film and Media Archive in person in order to do your research.  Our hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 5 pm. The archive is located in the West Campus Library and is not open weeknights or weekends.  Users may request that items be digitized for individual research use off-site; however, it can take up to 2-3 weeks to process your request and make the items available to you.  When you receive a digitized item from the archive, please INSPECT IT IMMEDIATELY to be certain you are able to use it as you wish.
2. To explore our holdings for a research project, we recommend that you:
   • Do a search on MavisWeb, our catalog.  Remember, however, that many items in the archive are not yet in the catalog.
   • Take a look at the relevant documentaries created by the filmmakers whose materials we have (for information on the films of Henry Hampton, click here; for William Miles, click here).  If you see a topic of interest in the documentary, the archive is almost certain to have research materials related to the subject.  Remember, however, that documentarians collect far more material than they can possibly include in their films.  Thus, we have many research materials in our archive that were never discussed in the documentaries themselves.
   • Consult with staff members!  Staff members are an invaluable resource when using any type of archive.  They may be able to alert you to materials that you wouldn't be able to find on your own. 

Audiotapes from our vault

Manuscript materials from our vault