NARA Teams With Google to Offer Historic Films Online

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has announced an exiting program to make its collection of historic movies, documentaries and other films available to the public via Google Video.

"This is an important step for the National Archives to achieve its goal of becoming an archives without walls," said Archivist of the United States Professor Allen Weinstein in a press release. "Our new strategic plan emphasizes the importance of providing access to records anytime, anywhere. This is one of many initiatives that we are launching to make our goal a reality. For the first time, the public will be able to view this collection of rare and unusual films on the Internet."

The online film project currently features 101 films from the audiovisual collections of the National Archives. A few highlights include:

• U.S. government newsreels, documenting World War II, 1941-45

• A sampling of documentaries produced by NASA on the history of the spaceflight program

• Motion picture films, primarily from the 1930s, that document the history and establishment of a nationwide system of national and state parks

• The earliest film preserved in the National Archives holdings by Thomas Armat, "Carmencita - Spanish Dance," featuring the famous Spanish Gypsy dancer,1894

Ultimately, the Archives-Google collaboration team hopes to expand the the on-line film collection and make the Archives extensive textual holdings available via the Internet. What a boon to researchers that will be.

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