Some 4,000 hours of programming produced by public radio and television stations between 1941 and 1999 will be digitized and made available to the public, thanks to a federal grant for the Brown Media Archives at the University of Georgia Libraries.
UGA’s archives and the WGBH Educational Foundation will partner with the American Archive of Public Broadcasting to administer the grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to preserve and provide access to the programs, all of which were submitted to the George Foster Peabody Awards. By adding the programs to the archive, this project will ensure that preservation copies are maintained at the Library of Congress for posterity. This also will expand access from only on-site at the Brown Media Archives to the American Archive of Public Broadcasting’s public website and on-site research locations.
In addition to the special collections libraries, American Archive of Public Broadcasting staff will work with the Peabody Media Center to curate two online exhibits focused on topics or events of historical significance that showcase the Peabody Awards Collection alongside local and national news, public affairs and cultural programming contributed by other AAPB participating organizations. When the project is complete, the Peabody Media Center also will present a series of public screenings of Peabody Awards Collection programs digitized through this project.