BBC Archives

The BBC Archives encompass numerous collections containing materials produced and acquired by the BBC. The earliest material dates back to 1890. The archives contain 15 million items on 60 miles of shelving spread over several sites, and include approximately 1 million hours of playable media. The BBC works in partnership with the British Film Institute (BFI), The National Archives and other partners in working with and using the materials. This book describes the BBC's archive collections and offers guidance around on how items from the collections can be reused online. ==Buildings==

From 1963 to 2010, the majority of television material of nationally networked programmes in the BBC Archive were housed at the archive centre in Windmill Road, Brentford, in west London. Television programmes were also stored by the Open University in Milton Keynes, and by BBC nations and regional libraries around the country. In the late 1990s, and early in the 2000s material from the radio side of the BBC were also stored on the site. The condition of the three Windmill Road buildings deteriorated over the years and suffered occasional flooding incidents, and eventually the archive was relocated to a new centre at Perivale Park, Perivale, three miles north of the old site. The new BBC Archive Centre was opened in Summer 2010 and all material was successfully moved by March 2011. Material is stored in thirteen vaults, controlled to match the best climate for the material inside them, and named after a different BBC personality depending on the content contained in them. In addition to the vaults, new editing, preservation and workrooms have been added so that the material can easily be transferred between formats as well as viewed, restored and digitised for future posterity. The building has also been fitted with fire suppression systems to protect the archive in the event of an incident at the centre, so the total loss of the archive is avoided. As of April 2019, the BBC Archives employ around 200 staff, most of whom are based at the Archive Centre in Perivale. ==Television Archive==

The BBC Television Archive contains over 1.5 million tape items as well as over 600,000 cans of film material. The archive itself holds extensive material from approximately the mid-1970s onwards, when important recordings at the broadcaster were retained for the future. Recordings from before this date are less comprehensively preserved; the process of telerecording was originally invented in 1947 while videotape recording was gradually introduced from the late 1950s onwards, but due to the expense of the tapes, recording was seen for production use only with recordings subsequently being lost. Today, the majority of programmes are kept, including news, entertainment, drama and a selection of other long-running programmes such as quiz shows. The remaining material from the television archive is offered to the British Film Institute prior to being disposed of. ==Sound Archive==

The BBC Sound Archive contains the archived output from the BBC's radio output. Widespread recordings exist in the archive from the mid-1930s, when recording of programmes and speeches were kept for rebroadcast; the catalyst for this was the launch of the BBC Empire Service in 1932 and the subsequent rebroadcast of speeches from political leaders at a time convenient in the different time zones. Prior to this, the broadcast of recordings was seen as being false to the listener and was avoided. Any recordings made were frequently disposed of and it was the efforts of Marie Slocombe, who founded the Sound Archive in 1937 when she retained recordings of prominent figures in the country, that the archive became into being officially when she was appointed the Sounds Recording Librarian in 1941. Today, all of the BBC's radio output is recorded for re-use, with approximately 66% of output being preserved in the Archives; numerous gramophone records made from both shellac and vinyl, as well as numerous more recordings on tape, CD and on digital audio tape (DAT). The difficulty of these different formats is the availability of the machines required to play them; some of the records in the archive are 16 inches in diameter and require large phonograph units to play, The Radio Digital Archive has been capturing radio programmes as broadcast quality wav files since 2008, with over 1.5 million recordings, a number growing daily. Some of the wax cylinder collection has been donated to the British Library. The Sound Archive is based at the BBC Archive Centre in Perivale, along with the television archive, and was previously based at Windmill Road, Brentford. ==Written Archives==

The BBC Written Archives contain all the internal written documents and communications from the corporation from the launch in 1922 to the present day. Its collections shed light into the behind the scenes workings of the corporation and also elaborate on the difficulties of getting a television or radio programme to or off the air as the case may be. The archive guidelines state that access to files post-1980 is restricted due to the current nature of the files; the general exception to this rule are documents such as scripts and Programme as Broadcast records. The Written Archives are located at the BBC Written Archives Centre in Caversham, Berkshire, near Reading. The centre houses the archive on four and a half miles of shelving along with reading rooms. The centre is different from the other BBC Archives in that the centre opens for writers and academic researchers in higher education. ==Photographic Library==

The BBC Photographic Library is responsible for approximately 7 million images, dating back to 1922, created for publicity purposes and subsequently kept for future use. In addition to programme promotion, a large number of images are of historic events which are often incorporate into the daily news bulletins; as a result, half the photographic library team work specifically with these images. The images themselves are kept as originals in the archive, with digitisation only utilised when a specific image is required for use, when the image is sent in a digital format. Copies of images are also used in case any images are damaged due to vinegar syndrome and other issues. The most requested images from the Archive include Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice, Michael Parkinson interviewing Muhammad Ali, Martin Bashir interviewing Diana, Princess of Wales and a picture of Delia Derbyshire at work in the Radiophonic workshop at the BBC. ==Archive Treasure Hunt==

At the turn of the millennium, the BBC launched the BBC Archive Treasure Hunt, a public appeal to recover pre-1980s lost BBC radio and television productions. Original material of many programmes was lost due to the practice of discarding recordings because of the need to reduce costs, copyright issues and for technical reasons. The resolution of this appeal was that over one hundred productions were recovered including The Men from the Ministry, Something To Shout About, Man and Superman, ''The Doctor's Dilemma, I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, Hancock's Half Hour, I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue, and The Ronnie Corbett Thing'' in addition to recording sessions with Elton John, Ringo Starr and Paul Simon. In addition, the Peter Sellers Estate Collection donated numerous recordings featuring Peter Sellers. ==Creative Archive Licence==

The BBC together with the British Film Institute, the Open University, Channel 4 and Teachers' TV formed a collaboration, named the Creative Archive Licence Group, to create a copyright licence for the re-release of archived material. The Licence was a trial, launched in 2005, and notable for the re-release of part of the BBC News' archive and programmes made by the BBC Natural History Unit for creative use by the public. While artists and teachers were encouraged to use the content to create works of their own, the terms of the licence were restrictive compared to copyleft licences. Use of Creative Archive content for commercial, "endorsement, campaigning, defamatory or derogatory purposes" was forbidden, any derivative works were to be released under the same licence, and content was only to be used within the UK. The trial ended in 2006 following a review by the BBC Trust and works released under the licence were withdrawn. ==Voices from the Archives==

Voices from the Archives was a former BBC project, launched in partnership with BBC Four that provided free access to audio interviews with various notable people and professions from a variety of political, religious and social backgrounds. The website ceased to be updated in June 2005, and the concept was instead adopted by BBC Radio 4 as a collection of film interviews from various programmes. ==Heritage Collection==

The BBC Heritage Collection is the newest of the BBC Archives and holds historic broadcast technology, art, props and merchandise. The collection was created out of personal collections and bequeaths by former staff members, as the BBC had no formal policy on the heritage collection until c.2003. a BBC-Marconi Type A microphone, as well as props including an original TARDIS from Doctor Who and the children's television puppet Gordon the Gopher. ==Programme Catalogue==

Over the years, the BBC has used various programme catalogue databases to keep a record of the programmes in the archives. Internal databases include Infax and Fabric, and publicly accessible databases include BBC Genome and BBC Programmes. ==See also==