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Access to the Collection: Private and Not-For-Profit Professional Researchers

What is available for viewing?

A significant proportion of the NRFTA's collection is available for viewing by private individuals and those working for non-profit organisations (e.g. academic researchers). Our access policy aims to make as much of the collection available as possible. At present our catalogue is not able to be consulted directly by researchers, and in the first instance we would ask you to contact our access officers (Brian Barker at Middlesbrough or Lisa Bond at Newcastle), giving as much detail about the material you are interested in as you can.  We will then conduct a search of our records and, if appropriate, contact you to set up an appointment.

How can I see it?

Film and video material can be viewed in one of two ways by private researchers. You can come and view at our Middlesbrough or Newcastle offices, or in some circumstances we can send you a DVD viewing copy (we cannot supply viewing copies on VHS - sorry). There is no charge for private research viewing on our premises, but we do charge for supplying viewing copies. The cost for this can be found in our current rate card.

Research viewing at the NRFTA's Newcastle office using a Steenbeck
continuous-motion viewing machine for 16mm film.

We would ask you to bear in mind that...

There are some circumstances in which we may have to restrict access to our holdings. The two main ones are when we only hold 'master status' copies (e.g. the original piece of film that was exposed in the camera) of a title and allowing them to be viewed would endanger their preservation, and if the copyright owner refuses permission for his or her material to be seen. Although this is rarely a problem, we would ask users to bear in mind that an archive is not a lending library.  A library usually holds books and periodicals which are one of a large number of published copies: therefore, it doesn't matter if that individual copy is slightly damaged or subjected to wear and tear by users, and in law a published book or periodical has no copyright restrictions preventing members of the public from reading it. An archive, on the other hand, contains what is often the one and only surviving copy (if more than one was ever made) of a written or printed document, or in our case of a film or videotape. Films and videotapes can easily be damaged by the equipment needed to play them, and therefore the only way of ensuring their preservation is to make a copy, which is then used for access. For technical reasons this is often easier said than done. We also have to work within the constraints of copyright. The law guarantees that anyone can read a published book or periodical without restriction. This is not the case with moving image material, and the person or company which owns the copyright can determine who can and cannot see their film or videotape throughout the period of copyright (usually 70 years from the end of the year of production). We normally ask our depositors to allow research viewing without restriction, but they don't all agree to this.  We therefore have to secure the permission of the copyright owner before allowing you to view the material or to make a copy.

Supply of Material Other than for Research Viewing

If you are interested in using material from our collection over and above initial research viewing - for example, showing in a school as part of a lesson, or using stills in a book or article - we will do our best to help you achieve this. Copyright clearance would have to be obtained in most cases, and we would make a charge to cover our costs (but a lot less than commercial users would be charged).

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This page was last updated on 13 April 2006. The text and images on this page are copyright of NRFTA Ltd. or of third parties and published here with their permission. You may not copy or use any part of this page in any way without our written permission.