When labs go defunct, they often dispose of a lot of original film elements that were used for making copies. I think they came from a film laboratory closure. That title sequence was for the intro they began using in the 1972 season, and was made by an animator named Carmen D’Avino. Oh, and also the opening animated credits to the Black Journal television show. We’ve also had several home movie collections come in, which are always fun to work on. I think the interview was conducted in the 1980s, so that was really cool and surprising.

In it, Parks talks about her work in the Civil Rights movement, but also about what she thought were the major issues affecting African Americans at the time. WF: Can you share something about recent acquisitions you’ve helped bring into the museum?ĬKM: One of the first things I worked on was an audiocassette interview with Rosa Parks that a 16-year old student made, after Parks moved to Detroit. They vote on whether, or not, to acquire it. I work with various curators on that research, and then the justification goes to the museum’s Collections Committee. They include the history of provenance for the objects or collection, statements about their significance, and rationales for why the museum might want to acquire them and how they might use or exhibit them in the future. WF: Can you tell us about what ‘collections justifications’ are?ĬKM: Justifications are a museum tool that we research and write in order to acquire collections. I also work on collections justifications. and Amanda Stafford Center for African American Media Arts (CAAMA). When I’m not onsite, I help create public programming for the Smith Center and the Earl W. Like my title says, I work on conservation and digitization of media collections.

Smith Center for the Digitization and Curation of African American History. But I also work with staff from the Robert F. I work with Blake McDowell, AJ Lawrence, and Ina Archer, who are my main team of folks. I’ve been working here for three years-it will be four, in July. I’m a Media Conservation and Digitization Specialist at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Can you introduce yourself to our Unbound blog readers?ĬK Ming: Hi Walter.

Walter Forsberg: Hi CK! Always great to see you. CK Ming currently serves as a Media Conservation and Digitization Specialist at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).

This is the fourth in a series of ongoing blog posts from Smithsonian Libraries and Archives’ Audiovisual Media Preservation Initiative (AVMPI), spotlighting the labor of Smithsonian media collections staff across the Institution.

Black by Russell Blake