Motion Picture Research Libraries
Nontraditional Workplaces for Librarians
Motion Picture Research Libraries? I've Never Heard of Such a Thing!
When you think of a library, the natural instinct is to then think: books. It may come as quite a surprise to find that there are entire libraries dedicated to Motion Picture Research and Archiving. Three of the most prominent are: the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Disney's Animation Research Library, and the Lucasfilm Research Library.
Librarian duties may include, but are by no means limited, to:
- Digital Archiving- digitizing photos, manuscripts, posters, etc. in order to preserve materials and make them more accessible to the public.
- Cataloging- items used in production, duplicates, etc.
- Storage and Conservation- maintaining temperature and humidity controlled rooms with sensitive documents
- Providing Education
- Research for Production- providing historically accurate details for set designers and costumers, providing artist with inspirational materials, fact checking plausibility of scenarios, etc.
- Basic Reference Duties
Disney Animation Research Library
The "ARL," as it is referred to as, houses over 65 million pieces of original production artwork. Everything animation art-related that can be found is brought here for cataloging, digitizing, databasing, storing and in some cases, restoring. The librarians working at the ARL have many different duties, including digital archiving, and working closely with the Walt Disney Animation Studios. The library is not open to the public, but has a number of items that are circulated to different museums.
Photo taken from: http://www.asparkleofgenius.com/disney-animation-research-library/
Lucasfilm Research Library
In 1970, George Lucas created his own research library to support Lucasfilm productions. The library houses thousands of books, videos, audio recordings, pictures, early scripts (including early drafts for Star Wars), and hand written notes by George Lucas himself. The librarians have a significant hand in the production of many films, whether it is working with artists needing inspiration for new creatures, or contacting nuclear physicist to discuss the plausibility of various scenarios. Only Lucasfilm employees can check out materials from the library.
Photo: © Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Margaret Herrick Library has been around for 80 years, and holds the largest amount of Motion Picture data and history. Within the Margaret Herrick Library there are over 10,000 film scripts, 35,000 posters, over a million photographs, countless numbers of story board sketches, manuscripts, sheet music, disc recordings, tapes, and of course an extremely knowledgeable reference staff that is there to assist in any motion picture related research. The library is open to the public, however its collection is non-circulating.
Photo taken from: http://www.oscars.org/library
Examples from Librarians
- Mary Ann Williams, Digital Archivist for the Disney ARL: "Many of our requests can be quite challenging, but one of the more odd questions in recent history was for artwork featuring eyelashes-made by production staff while working on The Princess and the Frog. I suppose they wanted to make Tiana’s eyelashes really sparkle!" ("Disney Animation Research Library")
- Jo Donaldson, Manager, Lucasfilm Research Library & Robyn Stanley, Research Librarian: For the Indiana Jones movies, we provided story research on a wide variety of subjects to George Lucas, and costume and set research for the designers. We often get interesting requests during the script development phase which sometimes requires contacting experts in various fields. For the infamous “nuking the fridge” scene in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, we contacted a nuclear physicist to discuss the plausibility of various scenarios. ("Lucas Film Research Library")
Boxes of Artwork at Disney's ARL
Painted Glass Slides
Painted Background Art from Sleeping Beauty
Resources
- (2012, January 31). Lucasfilm Research Library. Retrieved from http://www.ilovelibraries.org/article/lucasfilm-research-library
- Disney Animation Research Library. Retrieved from http://www.ilovelibraries.org/article/disney-animation-research-library
- Mehr, Linda Harris. (July 2009). Oscar's very special library: the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Art Libraries Journal, 34 (3). Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=08b5f98d-8e34-4fcd-863a-d4d795d0e530%40sessionmgr113&vid=1&hid=120
- Sarto, San. (2013, February 20). Oscar Tour SoCal Day 2: Disney's ARL- Animation Research Library. Retrieved from http://www.awn.com/blog/oscar-tour-socal-day-2-disneys-arl-animation-research-library