Blog Archives

Jerome Robbins and the NYPL: How can dance, history, and politics interact in an archival context?

Posted on February 9, 2019 by Dlachenm

The task of archiving dance is notoriously sisyphean. As an inherently ephemeral medium, what constraints is dance archiving subject to, and how can those be overcome? Further, choreographers are historically “behind the scenes,” not often subject to the scrutiny and…

Tagged with: dance, drama, film, LGBT, New York City history, photography
Posted in Archives, Cataloging, Classification, Libraries, Linked Open Data, Preservation, Uncategorized

National Film Registry Adds Historically Significant Silent Film

Posted on December 13, 2018 by Dlachenm

The Library of Congress’ National Film Registry announced on December 12th its selection of 25 new works to their archive. Among the selections is Something Good-Negro Kiss, a silent film from 1898 of great historical importance. The University of Chicago’s…

Tagged with: film, film archive, film history, film preservation, history, Library of Congress, National Film Registry
Posted in Archives, Uncategorized

Meet Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the original Mickey Mouse

Posted on December 3, 2018 by Dlachenm

A legal dispute in the late 1920s forced Walt Disney to abandon his early signature character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Disney rebounded from this setback by morphing many of Oswald’s key features into Mickey Mouse, the iconic figure of his…

Tagged with: animation, disney, film, film history, film preservation, Preservation
Posted in Archives, Preservation, Uncategorized

Behind Netflix’s ~76,897 Altgenres

Posted on November 27, 2017 by Dlachenm

If you happen to have a Netflix account (or, say, your ex-boyfriend’s mother’s login credentials), you might have noticed the slew of weirdly-wordy sub-genres that sometimes pop up on the home page. Visually-Striking Crime Dramas featuring a Strong Female Lead?…

Tagged with: controlled vocabulary, film, human tagging, internet, metadata, Netflix, Tagging, television
Posted in Cataloging, Classification, Research Projects, Uncategorized

“Get Out” Classified as a Musical/Comedy?

Posted on November 21, 2017 by Dlachenm

Jordan Peele has coined his 2016 movie “Get Out” as a social thriller (Collider.com). «It’s drama of the most riveting and original kind, one that sucks you into a vortex of (justified) paranoia, turning into a nightmare that suggests a…

Tagged with: categories, comedy, drama, film, jordan peele, race
Posted in Classification, Uncategorized