Data and Digital Preservation teams

Our collections team protects and provides access to the treasures in the BFI National Archive. These exist in a range of formats – from film and videotapes to a rapidly growing collection of digital assets.

The Data and Digital Preservation teams are responsible for defining and implementing the data models and standards used to describe the BFI National Archive collections in our Collections Information Database (CID), and the digital preservation policies, practices and workflows implemented in the Digital Preservation Infrastructure (DPI).

The Collections Data Manager leads the team responsible for the Collections Information Database (CID) and its Collections Search interface, which offers an online entry point for searching all material held in the BFI National Archive. This manager is also responsible for the standards and processes related to information about the BFI National Archives and the BFI cultural programme. They manage a team of information and documentation specialists who provide CID training and data standards support, and develop CID cataloguing guides. This team also creates the BFI Filmography, documents all films reviewed in Sight and Sound, and catalogues some film and television acquisitions into the BFI National Archive collection.

The Digital Preservation Manager leads the team responsible for the Digital Preservation Infrastructure, a suite of systems for ingest, preservation and access to the digital collections; defines digital preservation standards, policies and practices, and leads the implementation of workflows for validating, preserving and making accessible the born digital and digitised collections in the BFI National archive. They also lead the team of Digital Media Specialists who undertake digital preservation and access work for the digital collections; and manage the metadata and digital media workflows for mass digitisation and access projects such as our UK-wide videotape digitisation programme, and BFI Replay access platform.

The Knowledge and Collections Developer creates and maintains software solutions and workflows to address the key challenges in acquiring, documenting, preserving, analysing and accessing BFI National Archive collections, often with an emphasis on automating high volume processes using the Application Programming Interfaces of the collections systems. Typically these are written in Python, and together they form an integrated digital collections infrastructure. Increasingly, those scripts are open sourced in the department’s GitHub.

You can discover more about the work of the data team by reading the profiles of our team members below.

Stephen McConnachie, Head of Data and Digital Preservation

Stephen is responsible for the BFI National Archive’s data and digital preservation policies, standards, practices and infrastructure.

Read Stephen McConnachie’s profile

Joanna White, Knowledge and Collections Developer

Collections Data

Louise McAward-White, Collections Data Manager
Jennifer Macmillan, Collections Information Database Specialist
Natasha Fairbairn, Information Specialist
Patrick Fahy, Documentation Team Leader
Kevin Lyons, Documentation Editor
James Taylor, Documentation Editor

Digital Preservation

Lucy Wales, Digital Preservation Manager
Sequoia Read, Digital Preservation Infrastructure Specialist
Mat Fernandes, Digital Media Specialist
Michael Norman, Digital Media Specialist
Hannah Smith, Digital Media Specialist