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ernd objectives for the combined preservation effort. It is through contact such as this that the tasks of preservation are discussed, where the territory is parcelled out and where each archive has assumed a special responsibility for preserving certain parts of American production in order to avoid duplication cf effort.
Historically/ the private archives, as well as the Library of Congress have concentrated their efforts primarily on the art of film, on the edited narrative works and documentary films. They have been unable to handle the preservation of huge quantities of actuality material which requires a different approach to cataloging and use than does fiction material. The National Archives, as the agency responsible for the preservation of the permanently valuable records of the United States Government, has been acquiring newsreels for preservation, not as official records but as historical source materials complimenting other records. It has been estimated that well over 40% of the newsreels directly relate to subjects of national interest and importance, particularly to the activities of the United States Government and its officials. It is the preservation of these materials which is the point of these hearings.
When historians, and the general public as well, study our times they will get the most vivid insights from documentary, actuality and newsreel footage. How could one fully understand the last 75 years without having seen the film record of great people and great events? These events and these people are vivid in our national memory because they survived on film.
Last year the Film Institute commissioned a study entitled A NATIONAL PROGRAM FOR THE PRESERVATION OF AMERICAN NEV7SREELS, by VJilliam Murphy at the National Archives. The impetus for this was a desire on the part of the members of the Film Archives Advisory Committee to have solid information and realistic figures on the size and scope of the problem of newsreel preservation.