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Streaming history increasing access toaudiovisual archivesLiam WyliePublished online: 03 Jan 2014.

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Journal of Media Practice Volume 7 Number 3 © Intellect Ltd 2006

Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/jmpr.7.3.237/1

Streaming history increasing access to audiovisual archivesLiam Wylie

AbstractThe audiovisual recordings of radio and television have the potential to help usunderstand our past. The broadcast media have slowly gained a cultural recogni-tion that has placed a new significance on their expanding archive collections.Broadcast libraries and archives were established to facilitate the programmemaking. Historians, cultural commentators and the public are increasinglyseeking access to these collections. RTÉ, the Irish national broadcaster, has begunto make items from its archive collections available online. This type of onlineexhibition presents a number of challenges for the broadcaster but may be a wayto help address the growth in demand for access.

Introduction

I must admit that sometimes when I think of television and radio and theirimmense power I feel somewhat afraid. Like atomic energy it can be used forincalculable good but it can also do irreparable harm. Never before was therein the hands of men an instrument so powerful to influence the thoughtsand actions of the multitude.

(Eamon De Valera 1961)

President Eamon de Valera’s address to the nation on the opening of RTÉtelevision on the 31st of December 1961 recognized the potential power ofthis means of communication. The 79-year-old elder statesman expressedboth his nervousness and his hopes for the new media. Here was the indi-vidual who more than any other had come to define Ireland after indepen-dence. De Valera had dominated Irish politics for 30 years. Now the ageingPresident with failing sight was the first person to appear on the new tele-vision channel when Ireland was beginning to undergo social and eco-nomic change. At a time when the world was debating atomic energy andfeeling the threat of nuclear weapons, De Valera expressed his anxietyabout the potential power of a new means of communication. Over fortyyears later we now accept that radio and television are among the mostpowerful forms of cultural expression. The broadcasting media offer us (orappear to offer) a unique accessibility; the potential to examine the societywe live in, to tell that society stories that it needs to hear. Programmesbroadcast on radio and television can give an audience a sense of what ishappening to them and what has happened to them and to their society. If

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Keywordsarchive-basedRTÉweb historyaudiovisual archivesonline historybroadcast archivesIrish broadcasting

history

JMP 7 (3) 237–248 © Intellect Ltd 2006

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we desire knowledge of the past to help us explore and examine thepresent, then we need to be able to tap into the ‘immense power’ referredto by De Valera. It has taken time for television and radio programmes tobe recognized as having this inherent cultural value. With this culturalrecognition has come an increased demand for access to television andradio holdings. In Ireland, as elsewhere in the world, programme makers,students, teachers, academic researchers and the general public areseeking access to broadcasting collections.

RTÉ (Radio Telefís Éireann) is Ireland’s national public service broad-caster. Radio Éireann began broadcasting in 1926 and on New Year’s Eve1961 Telefís Éireann, Ireland’s first own television station came on air.Today RTÉ operates four radio stations, two television channels. The RTÉwebsite http://www.rte.ie/ was launched in 1996. For almost eighty yearsRTÉ has been recording history by making programmes for television andradio. RTÉ now finds itself the curator of the largest audiovisual, social,political and cultural history of Ireland. While recognizing the growinginterest in this material, RTÉ is presented with the challenge of fulfilling itsprinciple function as a broadcaster and addressing the increasing demandfor access. In 2004 RTÉ set out a number of goals relating to the use ofarchive

Establishment of Archive Project Team to produce archive based TV pro-gramming. Increase the volume of archive related programming in theschedules, particularly on RTÉ 2 and to develop archive related web access.

(RTÉ 2004: 19)

This paper will evaluate how the RTÉ Libraries and Archives website pro-vides access to items from the RTÉ archives through http://www.rte.ie/laweb//. It will also examine some of the challenges in producing histori-cal content in this manner for the www. Before looking at how history ispresented on this site by using the RTÉ archives it is important to under-stand what these archives are and why they exist.

Audiovisual archiving without a national policyAlthough Radió Éireann began broadcasting in 1926 and the first filmhad been shot in Ireland in 1897 Ireland has never had a national policyfor archiving audiovisual material. Today’s appreciation of the worth ofaudiovisual material was slow to emerge. It was not until the 1930s thatthe major film archives were established in Stockholm, the CinemathequeFrancaise in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at theBritish Film Institute in London. In the early years of cinema’s develop-ment there appears to have been confusion among cultural institutionsthat may have been interested in undertaking a curatorial role for thisnew invention. Robert Paul the English inventor and film producer asearly as 1896 offered films to the British Museum.

Mr Robert Paul offered the authorities of the British Museum a series of filmsrecording events of to-day which he thought would be greatly appreciated a

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century hence. Suggestion received with delight by the museum authoritiesas a body. Then arose a question as to the particular authority concerned.Film was neither a print or a book, in fact nobody could say what it was. Thescheme was not exactly a pigeon-holed. The real trouble was that nobodycould say to what particular pigeon hole it belonged.

(The Era: 17th October 1896)

This inability to classify film for reasons of heritage within a cultural insti-tution resulted in the loss of a number of films. In Ireland there was noformal policy of collecting films that were either shown or produced there.During the 1930s the film censor James Montgomery’s personal interestin films of Irish historical relevance meant that a collection of films wereheld at the Censor’s Office. When Montgomery retired in 1940 some of thefilms were transferred to a vault in the Bank of Ireland. At a later date adecision was taken to house the films at the National Library. There wasno formal policy for collecting material but on an ad-hoc basis films weredeposited there. One particular piece of good fortune for Ireland was thatan Irishman Liam O’Leary was the acquisitions officer at the NationalFilm Archive in Britain from 1953 to 1966. O’Leary was an author, actorand a filmmaker but may best be remembered for his campaign for anIrish Film Archive. While working for the British Film Institute, O’Learywas able to maintain his life long passion for international cinema and asAcquisitions Officer keep an eye out for material that was of an Irish inter-est. On returning to Ireland O’Leary went to work for RTÉ as a film viewer.In his spare time and after his retirement from RTÉ he continued hiscrusade of promoting Irish film history and campaigning for a filmarchive. In 1992 the Irish Film Archive was established at the Irish FilmInstitute. Liam O’Leary had laid the foundation stone but sadly died beforethe building was complete. With cinema over a hundred years old, radiocelebrating its eightieth anniversary and television in its fifth decadeIreland still has no national policy for audiovisual archiving.

It took another decade before tentative steps towards the formulation ofa state policy began to emerge. In November 2002 the Department ofCommunications, Marine and Natural Resources (DCMNR) published areport to its Minister in consideration of the recommendations of a ‘Forumon Broadcasting’ held earlier that year. This Forum was charged to makerecommendations to the Minister on the future of radio and televisionbroadcasting in Ireland. Among the Forum’s terms of reference was thequestion, ‘what, if any are the responsibilities of different broadcasters tomake and conserve national audiovisual heritage?’ (DAHGI 2002) TheForum’s recommendation that there should be a national policy on audio-visual archives was accepted in the Report: ‘the Minister fully supports thisproposal and would like to see a national digital archive available for thegeneral public and scholars alike’. (DCMNR 2002: 34)

This official recognition for the need of some national policy on audio-visual archiving is to be welcomed although the notion of some form of adigital national archive is some way off. There is a need for an evaluationof the various audiovisual collections and a consultation with their cura-tors if a way is to be devised that will allow increased access to these

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archives as they grow and to their back catalogues. The cultural, technicaland financial debates surrounding Ireland’s sluggish approach to formu-lating a policy to protect our moving images heritage have been prefiguredbefore in many other countries. The archiving of audio-visual materialinternationally has come about as a result of the dedicated enthusiasm ofindividuals, the establishment of archives where material could bedeposited and the recognition of both the cultural and financial value offilm, radio and television. The acceptance of the significance of theserecordings as documents and testimonies of our society has come at leastpartly with a commercial realization of the value of audiovisual archives.Broadcasters have more hours to fill in increasingly expanding schedules.Repeat transmissions and archive-based programming have becomeincreasingly important to schedules, while publishing archive material onDVD, CD or by podcasting have also increased.

Access and expectationsAs a public service broadcasting organization in a country of some fourmillion people, RTÉ is owned by and is accountable to the public. Theoldest and largest national broadcaster, RTÉ has a special relationship withthe Irish public that creates a feeling of connection between audience indi-viduals and the institution of RTÉ. For many years RTÉ was the sole broad-caster in Ireland; its radio and later television offered a connective forumfor listeners and viewers to raise a wide range of issues in a public, elec-tronic daily debate. Hosted by Gay Byrne, television’s The Late Late Show inthe 1960s and 1970s and his morning radio show in the 1980s and 90swere notable for demonstrating how broadcasting was a pivotal mediumof the social changes that Ireland experienced over a generation, offering aspace where views and responses were aired and exchanged. Publicfunding from a licence fee generates a feeling of investment in and demandfor accountability from RTÉ, creating a sense of a shared ownership of theorganization. People are passionate about what RTÉ does and feel the rightto be highly critical of output that they feel does not match expectation.Perhaps it is this attachment to the national broadcaster that has createda sense of ownership of RTÉ’s archive collections and the perception thatthey should be accessible to the public.

This perception is certainly shared by specialist users such as acade-mics. Writing in the preface to his book, The Real Ireland: The Evolution ofIreland in Documentary Film, the author expressed his frustration at notbeing able to access RTÉ’s television archives.

There are many films I have not yet seen, and many I probably never will.RTÉ’s extensive archives are only open to researchers for whom commercialrates do not prompt a choice between viewing films and paying rent.

(O’Brien 2004: x)

With the growth in recognition of the value of radio and television pro-ductions as historical records has come an increased expectation thatthese collections should be publicly accessible. This notion has been com-pounded by a lack of understanding on behalf of those seeking access and

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a lack of explanation on behalf of broadcasters holding the collections. Tounderstand the significance of any archive and the possibilities for histori-cal research, there is a need to understand what the archives are and howthey came to exist. In this respect broadcast archives are no different totraditional print archives where material is to be used to form the basis ofany historical research, interpretation or interrogation. RTÉ does not havethe facilities or the resources to be in a position to offer on demand accessto its collections for academic or historical research. Scholars must learnto understand that broadcast archives do not exist, were not created forand are not organized for the purposes of scholarly research.

Equally broadcasters must be aware of the potential usefulness of theircollections as tools to explore, investigate and interrogate contemporaryhistory. To help this mutual understanding broadcast archives need toinform users about the nature of their collections, describe what was keptand why. They also need to admit the mistakes of the past and explain howrights and preservation issues may limit access to certain items. All accesswill be dependant on the quality of an archive’s catalogues no matter whatwonders digital technology promises. Producing detailed cataloguesrequires dedicated staff to shot list or itemize content in a way that willmake it easier to search collections. The standards of most broadcasters’catalogue records will have varied over time and have been dependent onavailable resources, resources that have been subject to the exigencies ofdifferent regimes with fluctuating priorities.

Archive practice in the pastBroadcasters across the world have lost, never recorded or erased material,which they produced due to a combination of cultural, technical and eco-nomic reasons. This was often not a direct malicious act against radio andtelevision but was more to do with the prevailing professional and culturalpractice that treated broadcasting media as being ephemeral and cultur-ally insignificant. RTÉ was no different in this regard. In the early days ofboth radio and television, output was often live there was no apparentneed to record programmes. Viewing or listening was for immediate recep-tion by the audience. Techniques for recording changed with time. Radiorelied on acetate discs before the arrival of √ inch magnetic tape in the1930s. Discs were complex to make, were limited by their playing durationand recordings had to be done in ‘one go’. Tape would make productionand recording a lot more adaptable. Content could be edited, sound effectsadded, voice and music mixed and recording became more portable.Broadcasts no longer needed to come live from the studio which maderecording more flexible both in terms of location and the appearance ofperformers or guests. The tapes were expensive but the sound quality wasexcellent and they could be used again and again. In Radio Éireann amobile recording unit was established in 1947. Recordings were made ondisc. This outside broadcasting unit was principally set up to record speechand music from Irish speaking areas of the country. In 1949 √ inch taperecording was introduced and allowed for a more mobile mode of produc-tion. It became easier for reporters to gather stories from around thecountry and abroad. Michael Lawlor, a former news editor with Radio

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Éireann, is captured on the RTÉ archive discussing the impact of √ inch[ed?] tape on reporting the news (http://www.rte.ie/laweb/brc/brc_1940s.html) his main point being that the production of news becamemore flexible as reporters could record at the location of the event.

In its infancy, television used ‘telerecording’ to record selected pro-grammes as they went to air, a crude system that involved recording thetelevision pictures from a monitor with a film camera. Initially this wouldhave been used to allow repeat broadcasts of material; it meant that anevent that went out live in the afternoon could be shown again in theevening. Although telerecording offered the possibility of recording forpreservation it was mainly used to record items that were deemed signifi-cant, state occasions and sporting events considered noteworthy and rec-ognized as having a historical value at the time. For RTÉ this meant itemslike the opening night television celebrations (1961/1962), the visit ofPresident John F Kennedy (1963), All Ireland Football and Hurling Finalsand coverage of state occasions like the public ceremonies commemorat-ing the 50th anniversary of 1916.

Even, in the 1950s, the arrival of videotape did not greatly improvethis situation. This technology’s development was significant in that itmeant that the electronic signal that produces a television signal coulditself be recorded onto magnetic tape. Now it was possible to record thesame quality of picture that had been relayed live. Videotape becamewidely used, especially for studio productions that could be recorded fortransmission later. Here was a format that allowed programmes to be pre-recorded, edited and then transmitted. Videotape was seen by programmemakers as a means of making and transmitting programmes with little orno thought given to the possibility of preserving programmes on video-tape. As with √ inch magnetic tape in radio, videotape could be wipedand reused, a great advantage for those making and scheduling pro-grammes but rather unfortunate for the audiovisual archivist. Indeed itwas this ability to be reused that was seen as videotape’s most significantquality. Videotape was also expensive, which was a considerable eco-nomic disincentive since the cost of a single videotape often exceededRTÉ’s production cost for a single programme! From a fiscal point of viewit made more sense to wipe the tape and reuse it. This has meant that fewstudio productions from this period survive, so children’s programmes,dramas, variety or light entertainment programmes that went out live orwere recorded on videotape for broadcast were rarely kept. So not onlydid television and radio productions struggle to gain cultural recognitionthat would deem them worthy of being kept but there were technical andfinancial hurdles to be overcome.

Broadcasting as historyIn January 1961 with Irish television only days on air Desmond Williams,Professor of Modern History at University College, Dublin, wrote of thenew medium.

The coming of Irish television should affect the historian. At least, it certainlymight. Historians are primarily interested in the past and TV apparently

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serves the present and the future. But the present of today will be the past oftomorrow and technical developments in this direction can only enlargelater acquaintance with the recorded facts.

(Williams 1962: 28)

While Williams saw the potential for television to record history and thevalue for the historian of these recordings it appears to have been thepotential to reach beyond the classroom that really excited him.

The relevance of the TV for the historian is not merely limited to its functionas a recording machine; it also has possibilities for instruction. The first classteacher or lecturer need no longer be confined to the circumscribed audienceof the class room. He can address the whole country

(Williams 1962: 28)

Naturally as well as being a recorder of history over the last eight decadesRTÉ has also presented history as part of its radio and television schedules.For some historians, history will always be best presented in the tradi-tional form of a book, academic journal or a lecture and ‘proper’ history isnot done over the airwaves. Yet radio and television have been used as ameans to interpret history often with the input of contemporary histori-ans. History on television in particular has often been viewed with disdainor at least with deep suspicion. The desire to address an audience is sharedby the traditionalist historians and the most populist history productionsfor radio and television. Among growing numbers of historians there nowappears to be less of a hang up about television productions dealing withhistory. More historians take part in television and radio shows as presen-ters, consultants, script advisors, contributors and even critics of pro-grammes that have dealt with historical subject matter.

There has been a growth in the acceptance of radio and television asboth recorders of history and as a conduit for presenting historicalcontent. Historians are likely to want to access programmes that haveinterpreted history and the recordings of actual events captured by broad-casters. This acknowledgement arises out of the recognition of the elec-tronic media as another means of dealing with history along with thewritten word. For those who feel that television has been too light in itstreatment of a subject there will always be greater depth and nuance pos-sible with the written word. Television history productions often have theability to reach large audiences, promote debate or stimulate interest inthe subject and perhaps even a tie in with a book about the matter underdiscussion. But there are potentially more radical and innovativeapproaches to presenting or representing history that exploit the capabili-ties of new media such as the internet.

The web of HistoryOne approach RTÉ is exploring is the presentation of history from itsarchive collections through the website [http://www.rte.ie/libraries].Presenting content in this manner raises a number of challenges: decidingthe basis on which material is used to create ‘content’, establishing and

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clearing copyright, the design of web pages and judging the pitch ofwritten text, the production of video and audio clips and creation ofstreaming files. A further consideration is dealing with audience expecta-tion. On hearing that it is possible to see or hear items from RTÉ’s archivespeople often think that the entire archives are available online and fullysearchable. This confusion is compounded by the misuse of the word‘digital’ where digitization is thought of as the ultimate means of preserva-tion. There is a misguided perception that suggests that once somethinghas been digitized it will be there for ever and it should be instantly acces-sible. Although this is some way off, the RTÉ site does present the opportu-nity to see and listen to a selection of clips from these unique audiovisualcollections. There is however a world of a difference between digital preser-vation and the digitizing of material for access purposes.

The initiative for the website came from within RTÉ Libraries andArchives with the backing of the Director General’s office. The site hasbeen produced by staff from within RTÉ Libraries and Archives. Obviouslythis required having archive staff with a good knowledge of the collections,an understanding of television and radio production and the skills toproduce web pages. As well as offering the opportunity to sample some ofthe RTÉ collections [http://www.rte.ie/libraries] aims to be the centralcontact point for RTÉ Libraries and Archives. A place where the public canlearn, what we do, why we do it and how we do it. The word ‘public’ ismeant in the very broadest sense, as well as RTÉ audiences, the intentionis to reach policy makers, external programme producers and even RTÉstaff. In this way a visitor to the site should be able to find out about thevarious RTÉ collections, learn the basics about the archives as well asbeing able to make a private or professional request for use of material andsee what costs are involved. However, it is of course the provision of onlineaccess to archive material that is the main feature of the site.

The criteria for the choice of subjects for these online collections is keptopen ended but is in keeping with RTÉ’s continuing principle of providingcontent that informs, entertains and educates the audience. RTÉ’s ongoingaudience research shows that Irish people continue to want distinctiveIrish content. The RTÉ Libraries and Archives hold images and soundsrecorded from Irish life during the last 80 years. What makes the produc-tion of this type of online content exciting is that visitors are offered theopportunity to look and listen to some of these collections, collections thatreflect how radio and television have told and continue to tell the stories ofIreland, its heritage, its history, language and people.

The content producer for the site http://www.rte.ie/libraries comes upwith ideas for subject matter. Once a topic has been decided on a search isconducted in each of the collections (television, radio, photographic stillsand written archives) for material that may be appropriate. Programmesare viewed or listened to and potentially useable extracts identified andtaken into consideration. Items may have to be transferred from their orig-inal format of film or audio tape to a contemporary working format.During this process the original item will have been cleaned and old splicesreplaced to ensure that the best quality copy will be used. Now thesetransferred recordings are edited to the required duration for presentation

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on the website. Records must be checked for any rights issues regardingactors, music or archive and clearances may have to be sought. Streamingvideo and audio files are created so that visitors to the site can look andlisten to these clips using RealPlayer. All clips presented are accompaniedby basic information that includes production credits and the first date oftransmission. Notes introducing topics or accompanying clips have beenkept short but aim to give some context to the recording of the item.Because of the complication of the various rights that may be contained inboth television and radio productions, all audio and video files are createdfor streaming and not downloading. Unlike the Creative Archive project atthe BBC [http://creativearchive.bbc.co.uk], the more modest aim ofhttp://www.rte.ie/libraries is to simply offer online ‘visitors’ a chance toview and listen to material from the RTÉ archives online.

The presentation of material from the archives in this manner allowsdifferent media produced in different eras to be accessible at any one time.A television clip, a piece from radio, a scanned document, pieces ofephemera or a still image can exist providing multi-textual information ona topic. Approaching a subject in this way allows for the possibility ofinsights beyond the original intention of the individual programme. Itbecomes possible to present a fuller, more nuanced view, or trace how asubject was treated over time, to show opposing sides of a debate or tosimply provide a richer context for a particular piece of radio or television,throwing new light on both Irish social and media history. Publishingcontent in this way presents events in Irish life from the last 80 years asthey have been covered by radio and television. So when the site offers thepoet Patrick Kavanagh as a topic this becomes a look at Kavanagh’s lifeusing television and radio recordings of Kavanagh himself and extractsfrom programmes that dealt with the poet and his work, but there is noclaim to be providing the definitive version of any subject.

Web presentation allows radio and television clips to sit side by side inthe same audio-visual space. The publishing of content in this mannerallows the casual visitor to view or listen to clips while scholars wishing toaddress the material as documents have the opportunity to interpret thematerial presented. The items on Kavanagh can be used by schoolchild-ren, third level students, Kavanagh fans, literature students or those witha specific interest in Kavanagh’s self-scripted television appearance in ‘SelfPortrait’. The intention is to offer as many people as possible the opportu-nity look at and listen to clips and interpret them for their purposes. Re-mediated archive works on a number of different levels. By placing clipsrecorded at different times, from different productions and different mediain one place it becomes possible to tell another story or provide more infor-mation about the subject matter. A small example of this is in the sectionin the Patrick Kavanagh topic that deals with the origin of the poem ‘OnRaglan Road’ [http://www.rte.ie/laweb//ll/ll_t03i.html] and how itbecame a popular song. In a radio interview from 1974, Benedict Kielydescribes how he was probably the first to see the words of the poem andhow he and Kavanagh sang it to the air of the ‘Dawning of the Day’. Formany people Luke Kelly’s version of ‘On Raglan Road’ is the definitive one,and in a television appearance from 1979 Kelly performed the song and

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described how he met Kavanagh only once. Lastly in an interview, firstshown on television in 1987, Hilda Moriarty who inspired ‘On RaglanRoad’ explains the origins of the poems. The three clips combined give aninsight into the origins of the poem.

The creation of the website also provided the opportunity for RTÉ toexplore, interpret and publish some of its own broadcasting history. Shortwritten pieces, a decade by decade of key moments, a timeline and a bibli-ography contribute to a history of public service broadcasting in Ireland.However it is the audiovisual clips, accompanied by scanned original doc-uments from RTÉ’s written archives and contemporary text that offer afitting, media-rich presentation of Irish broadcasting history. Where previ-ously De Valera’s reply to Churchill on the 16th May 1945 has been pub-lished in written form it is now possible to put the speech online and allowa visitor to the site to listen to the broadcast as it was recorded. The abilityto hear the recording of De Valera’s voice [http://www.rte.ie/laweb/brc/brc_1940s.html] adds a new, performative dimension to interpreting thetext in rhetorical terms of a famous speech at a key juncture in Irish polit-ical and media history.

The simple exhibition of audiovisual clips grouped in this way has thepotential to be more than just a compiled list. The topic ‘Look Who VisitedIreland in the Sixties’ [http://www.rte.ie/laweb//ll/ll_t01_main.html]takes the simple premise of showing short television interviews with someof the international celebrities who came to Ireland during that decade.The interviews are brief and have not been seen on television that often.Situating them here offers the opportunity to view them as a collection ofvisiting international celebrities and showing the innocence of a timewhere a television crew would stop the visiting celebrity and hope to elicita few words. Mick Jagger answers questions about the length of his hair ona railway station platform [http://www.rte.ie/laweb//ll/ll_t01i.html], BingCrosby is persuaded to sing as he gets into a car at Dublin airport[http://www.rte.ie/laweb//ll/ll_t01j.html], a camera crew follows LouisArmstrong into his dressing room [http://www.rte.ie/laweb//ll/ll_t01b.html]and a reporter asks Jayne Mansfield what she makes of the Dean of Kerrycalling her a ‘goddess of lust’? [http://www.rte.ie/laweb// ll/ll_t01n.html].From such apparently trivial and ephemeral material an insight into thepreoccupations of the Irish media and how they treated internationalcelebrities at this time can be shown.

RTÉ libraries and archives present the 50th anniversary of the Easter RisingIn 1966 the Irish state commemorated the 50th anniversary of the EasterRising with a week of official events and ceremonies. Two years prior tothe outbreak of the Troubles in Northern Ireland the official week longcommemorations were somber but had a celebratory tone. During theweek, from 10 to 18 April 1966, RTÉ radio and television devoted fortyhours (approximately) of their output to covering the state commemora-tions and broadcasting a range of productions, including dramas, docu-mentaries, musical concerts commemorating the Easter Rising of 1916.2006 was the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising and 40 years since the

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1966 commemorations. The RTÉ Libraries and Archives website has repli-cated the schedule for both the radio and television output of that week.An online exhibition offers visitors clips from the radio and televisionoutput accompanied by text scanned documents and stills providing back-ground to the various productions. This is an example of a broadcasterusing documents (programmes) that it produced and now curates, topresent an exhibition that should be of benefit to historians and scholarsalike. The emphasis is on the 50th anniversary of the Rising and how Irishradio and television covered the official state ceremonies and producedprogrammes commemorating the events of 1916. It is unlikely that theseprogrammes will be broadcast again in their entirety but it is highly likelythat scholars and historians will want to write about the state’s commem-oration of these events. It is one thing to be able to read an account of thelargest military parade held in Dublin on Sunday 10th April 1966 butsomething else to be able to watch the television coverage of the event. TheRTÉ Libraries and Archives site offers almost 90 streamed video and audioclips from RTÉ’s output in 1966 ranging from the drama series Insurrec-tion to previously unseen colour film of the public ceremonies and includ-ing many interviews with survivors from 1916.

ConclusionThe first run of content on the RTÉ Libraries and Archives website has takentopics that will have a popular appeal, maybe of use to students and can tellthe visitor something about the history of RTÉ itself. The site offers a windowinto a small sample of the collection that make up this audiovisual record ofIrish life. The subject matter is aimed at a wide audience, as befits RTÉ’spublic service remit. For those interested in using the RTÉ Archives foranalysis or scholarly inquiry, some of this material may prove useful orprovide the researcher with a further line of investigation. For those who arereading an electronic version of this paper it is possible to look at or listen tothe radio and television clips as they are cited. Unless the reader hasattended the conference where the paper was originally delivered with anaccompanying audiovisual display, then he or she is left with challenge oftrying to obtain copies of the programmes on video or CD. Online access tocollections offers a potentially exciting addition for broadcasters and cura-tors of audiovisual collections to present material. Historians are now lessdismissive of history mediated through television and radio productions.Where historians were obliged to work exclusively with written documentsthey are now likely to turn to radio and television recordings to assist theirwork. The recognition of television and radio output as having culturalvalue offers us additional sources that may help us examine and understandour past. The challenge is to find ways that make more of that past capturedby television and radio accessible to wider audiences in the future.

ReferencesAnonymous (1896), The Era, 17 October1896, Dublin: National Library of Ireland.

Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands (22 March 2002), ‘NewForum on Broadcasting’, Press Release of the Department of Arts, Heritage,Gaeltacht and the Islands.

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Department of Communications Marine and Natural Resources (2002), Forum onBroadcasting Report to the Minister for Communications Marine and NaturalResources.

De Valera, Eamon (1961), ‘Presidential Address’ on the Opening Night of TelefísÉireann 31st December, Cited from Opening Address taken from viewingrecording of same.

O’Brien, H. (2004), The Real Ireland – The Evolution of Ireland in Documentary Film,Manchester: Manchester University Press.

RTÉ (November 2004), Guiding Principles – Implementing the Public Service Broad-casting Charter, Dublin: RTÉ.

RTÉ (2005), http://www.rte.ie/libraries// [Date site live Autumn 2005. All clipscited remain available at time of publication.]

Williams, D. (1962), ‘TV Eye Should Pierce the Veil of History’, RTV Guide, 1: 7.

Suggested citationWylie, L. (2006), ‘Streaming history increasing access to audiovisual archives’,

Journal of Media Practice 7: 3, pp. 237–248, doi: 10.1386/jmpr.7.3.237/1

Contributor detailsLiam Wylie is Content Producer for RTÉ Libraries and Archives Website, anarchivist and filmmaker with fourteen years experience in the field. Former Headof Collections at the Irish Film Archive, he has written for Film Ireland and in 1996he set up Red Lemonade Productions to make documentaries. He is the pro-ducer/director of several films including: Harvest Emergency (1997) Bringing theMessage Home (1999) Bog Landscape (2000) The National – A Ballroom of Dreams(2001) and If You’re Not In You Can’t Win (2003). Contact: RTÉ Reference Library,Donnybrook, Dublin 4, Republic of Ireland. Tel: 00-3531-208-3037.E-mail: liam.wylie@rte.ie

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