AFI Research Collection

Brief description

The AFI Research Collection is a specialist film and television industry resource open to the public.

Full description

ABOUT AFI RESEARCH COLLECTION
The AFI Research Collection is a specialist film and television industry resource open to the public. The Collection has materials encompassing cinema and television from the world over (with particular strengths in screen theory and history and in Australian cinema). The collection features a diverse range of newspaper clippings files, books, journals, film and television scripts, directories, reports, film promotional material, and film festival catalogues.

There is no charge to visitors to the AFI Research Collection to access its materials. The AFI Research Collection is a non-lending collection (though some items may be loaned out via Libraries Australia Document Delivery service). A bonus of this is that the items clients require when they visit will almost always be on hand. We have a photocopying/scanning facility and a microfilm scanner that can be fully utilised by RMIT University staff and students. On request we can allow clients to use viewing and listening facilities for our small collection of videos, dvds, and music.

The AFI Research Collection staff are always happy to assist clients with their research needs and have vast experience in searching film, tv, and media databases and archives. For those who are unable to visit the collection but would still like to obtain some of our resources we run a research service. For more information please visit the Research charges page.

History
The Australian Film Institute began operating a library in 1978, which was located in Cardigan Street in Carlton. Later that year a joint venture between the AFI and the Victorian Federation of Film Societies expanded the library’s resources. The library was named the George Lugg Library after a founding governor of the AFI and the Federation, whose collection of information resources formed the core of the Library. From 1982, the Library became known as the AFI Research and Information Centre.

A second notable part of the original library resources was a rare collection of books on pre-cinema and early cinema history, part of the valuable David Francis Collection (David Francis was a curator of Britain’s National Film Archive), purchased by the Victorian and Australian governments in 1975. The early cinema artefacts in this collection are now housed at the Scienceworks Museum in Melbourne. The Library also maintains a unique collection of film and personality clippings which form the basis of its research services to the media and public.

In December 2002 the AFI Library moved to RMIT University where it was relabelled as the AFI Research Collection. It now operates under the auspices of the School of Media and Communication and continues to provide resources and research services to the general public, the media and members of the Australian film and television industries.

Partnership with RMIT and AFI/AACTA
The AFI Research Collection (AFIRC) was created by the Australian Film Institute/Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AFI/AACTA) and much of the library’s holdings and operations are due to the good work done by the original custodians of the AFIRC. Many of the unique materials at the AFIRC were collected during its time at AFI/AACTA, and these items are a major strength of the overall holdings of the AFIRC.

The AFI Research Collection is open for use today due to the assistance given to it by RMIT University. Since 2002, RMIT University has been the source of funding for the AFIRC, as well as allowing it extensive office space. This has been done so that it the AFIRC can operate and provide quality research opportunities to RMIT University students and staff, as well as the general public.