Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection

WRDW preserves video archives through UGA libraries

Submitted by cleveland on

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

(News 12 First at 5)

ATHENS, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Over the past 64 years, many of you or your family have appeared on News 12, as well as countless stories and events. All those memories are now being preserved for future generations.

The WRDW archives show everything from old anchor signoffs, to James Brown interviews, to Masters coverage decades back. Now, we’ve donated those tapes to the University of Georgia in hopes of preserving all our history.

Margaret Compton is a media archivist at UGA. Her job is to keep these cherished records safe for years to come.

“As stations have been saving their tape, that really compares to a family's home movies. The home movies of Augusta are at the TV station,” Compton explained the value, both educational and sentimental, of these ¾” tapes.

Enhanced description of Georgia town films and home movies digitized by the Brown Media Archives now available

Submitted by cleveland on

The Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) is pleased to announce the availability of Georgia town films and home movies digitized by the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection (BMA). The Georgia Town Films Collection is available at https://dlg.usg.edu/collection/ugabma_bmatf and the Georgia Home and Amateur Movies collection is available at https://dlg.usg.edu/collection/ugabma_bmahm.

DLG staff provided enhanced description of these moving image resources that enables users to locate segments of the moving image footage without having to view the footage in its entirety.

Federal grant awarded to preserve and provide access to local public broadcasts

Submitted by cleveland on

Some 4,000 hours of programming produced by public radio and television stations between 1941 and 1999 will be digitized and made available to the public, thanks to a federal grant for the Brown Media Archives at the University of Georgia Libraries. The programming was originally submitted for consideration for Peabody Awards.

Libraries’ Tech Named UGA Student Employee of the Year

Submitted by amywatts on

Tyler Ortel, a student audiovisual technician in the Walter J. Brown Media Archives, was awarded first place in the UGA Student Employee of the Year Awards, sponsored by the Career Center and Office of Student Affairs. 

Ortel, an entertainment and media studies major in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications, has been employed by the Brown Media Archives for almost two years, and he has completed digitization of hundreds of hours of film, audio, and videotape in that time. This work includes inspecting archival materials to assess the condition, performing minor conservation treatments when necessary, and playing the materials on analog playback machines connected to specialized converters and adapters to capture preservation-quality digital signals. 

Special Collections Community Events and Tours Suspended

Submitted by amywatts on

The University of Georgia Libraries have suspended tours and community events in the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries through March 29.

The decision is in accordance with the University System of Georgia decision to suspend classes at UGA and other universities amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

The building houses the operations of the Libraries’ three special collections units, the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Russell Library for Political Research and Studies, and Brown Media Archive. Research activities will continue by appointment only.

In addition, the Georgia Capitol Museum, a unit of the Russell Library at the Capitol in Atlanta, is closed for tours.

For updates, visit libs.uga.edu.

Subscribe to Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection