Speaker Sessions with Q&A
Thursday 11 June 2026, 3.00pm – 4.30pm. Online, via Zoom.
To book, please visit: Digitising Film Archives: preservation and accessibility Tickets, Thursday 11 June • 15 – 16:30 GMT+1 | Eventbrite
Image: Photo by Ablestock.com on FreeImages
This Rural Museums Network online seminar will share experiences of three archives digitising their moving image archives.
Museum collections contain more than 3D objects. Books, documents and moving images are also cared for by museums and archives. This online seminar will share stories about preserving and making accessible film holdings. We will be joined by Brónagh McAtasney from Northern Ireland Screen, Jen Patterson and Hannah Silver from The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) and Andy MacKinnon from the FAODAIL | FOUND project, Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Arts Centre.
Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive is a free public access resource containing thousands of hours of moving image titles, spanning from 1897 to the present day. They share the moving images through their website and by delivering themed presentations to audiences and community groups.
Hear from The MERL’s project, supported with a grant from the BFI, that is digitising rural films, making them more accessible to researchers and the public. Historic farming films to be digitised for wider access – University of Reading.
The session will be chaired by Madeleine Ding, Collections Officer for The Museum of English Rural Life and Reading Museum.
Brónagh McAtasney is Public Engagement Manager for Heritage & Education at Northern Ireland Screen. Her role focuses on developing scholarly and public engagement with the Digital Film Archive, facilitating access, interpretation, and collaborative use across communities, partnerships, and educational contexts.
She has contributed to and led a range of public history initiatives across Northern Ireland with a particular focus on women’s voices and rural communities.
Jen Patterson is currently the Project Archivist at the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL), Reading University working on the BFI-funded project Inclusive Approaches to Accessing Rural Films. She will be appraising the film collection of farmer Richard Watts, choosing 80-100 to be digitised and then cataloguing to ensure accessibility and allow the films to be used for engagement purposes.
Jen has about 10 years of experience working in archives and museums, including as a Digitisation Officer at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University on the May Beattie Archive and as an Archivist Assistant at the Weston Library. She is a qualified archivist with an Archives and Records Management degree and Museum Studies MA.
Hannah Silver is the Engagement Officer for the BFI Project at the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL), Inclusive Approaches to Accessing Rural Films.
She is working closely with the archive team to support their cataloguing and digitisation of the collection, as well as with local partner organisations to develop accessible and inclusive screenings of the archival films.
With over ten years’ experience working in film and TV production specialising in history documentaries and archival content, Hannah is passionate about bringing historical films to rural communities and underrepresented audiences.
Andy Mackinnon is leader of the FAODAIL | FOUND project. The aim of this project from UistFilm, part of Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Arts Centre, is to digitise a variety of recently unearthed collections of 8mm film.
These home movies from the 1970s and 1980s document Outer Hebridean history from an islanders’ perspective. The project will make digitised films accessible online and in venues across the Outer Hebrides. https://www.taigh-chearsabhagh.org/film/found/
Madeleine Ding works as the Collections Officer for both The Museum of English Rural Life and Reading Museum.
Her role involves hands on work with the collections, accessioning objects, facilitating research access, creating temporary exhibitions and responding to queries.
This session is part of the Rural Museum’s Network’s Rural Voices Seminar Series which bring expert speakers and museum professionals together to share how rural collections and rural sites can better include a wider range of voices in the stories they tell. These sessions are on the Zoom platform and are FREE for members (institutional and individual) of the Rural Museums Network, AIMA and BAHS, and £5 for non-members.
To book, please visit: Digitising Film Archives: preservation and accessibility Tickets, Thursday 11 June • 15 – 16:30 GMT+1 | Eventbrite