Film Skills for the Future: Building Resilience in Audio-Visual Preservation

19.11.2025

The National Library of Wales is pleased to announce the launch of a new initiative, Film Skills for the Future, a project designed to strengthen the technical expertise of its Screen and Sound Archive team and advance the preservation of Wales’s audio-visual heritage.

Thanks to vital support from BFI National Lottery: Screen Heritage Organisational Skills Fund, this project will provide targeted training in film handling, inspection, digitisation, and post-production. The aim is to cultivate an agile, skilled, and adaptable workforce capable of meeting the growing challenges of audio-visual preservation.

Delivered through structured internal workshops and hands-on mentoring, Film Skills for the Future will promote effective knowledge transfer and practical skills development. This will ensure that the Screen and Sound Archive technical team is equipped to deliver a range of high-quality services to protect the nations audiovisual heritage.

A key output of the project will be the creation of publicly accessible documentation detailing best practice for the digitisation of historic film collections. This resource will be shared widely, supporting other heritage and archival organisations in adopting effective preservation strategies.

Scott Waby, Head of Collections Care at the National Library of Wales said:

“We’re very pleased to receive this support from the BFI and National Lottery to undertake this new and exciting initiative. Not only will enable it us to safeguard and develop essential specialist skills at the Library, but also allow us to share skills and knowledge with other organisations and the public, so that Wales’ audiovisual heritage is preserved for future generations.”

To broaden its impact, the project will also host three seminars for staff from heritage organisations across Wales, members of the public with an interest in film preservation and students specialising in archives, libraries, and related disciplines. 

These outreach activities will foster knowledge-sharing, extend specialist expertise across the sector, and promote wider public engagement with audio-visual heritage.

The first event will take place on 2 December, with a full day of activities that include introducing treasures in the film collection, showing how archive footage is cared for and digitised, and an opportunity to see first-hand the equipment and techniques used to preserve Wales’ moving image heritage. 

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This important initiative has been made possible thanks to the support of the BFI and the National Lottery, whose investment is ensuring the sustainable development of film preservation skills in Wales and beyond.

** Mae'r datganiad yma hefyd ar gael yn y Gymraeg**

--ENDS--
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NOTES FOR EDITORS
About the National Library of Wales

The National Library of Wales is a library for Wales and the world. Located in Aberystwyth, it is the home of the story of Wales.

Opened in 1907, the Library is the centre of research into the culture and heritage of Wales and the Celtic nations.

The purpose of the Library is to make our culture and heritage accessible for everyone to learn, research and enjoy.

We are a legal deposit library, which means we are entitled to a copy of every print publication in Britain and Ireland, but our collections also include the following:

• 8,000,000 books and periodicals (with around 4000 new items arriving each week through legal deposit and acquisition)
• 7,000,000 feet of film
• 250,000 hours of video
• 150,000 hours of sound
• 40,000 manuscripts
• 1,500,000 maps
• 1,000,000 photographs
• 70,000 works of art
• 1,900 cubic meters of archives
• Over 2.5PB of born digital archival holdings
• Over 6 million digitised objects

You will find further information together with a list of resources on the Library's website