BUFVC

The British Universities Film & Video Council (BUFVC) is a London-based organisation providing services for academic institutions in the UK.

Founded in 1948 as the "British Film Council", the BUFVC promotes the production, study and use of moving image and sound in study and research. It receives funding through the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) to provide a range of services including searchable databases, a research library and off-air recording services. The BUFVC raises additional funding through subscriptions, grants and sponsorships as well as running courses, workshops and conferences, including the annual Learning On Screen Conference and Awards.

The BUFVC's "Information Service" holds the following principal databases;

HERMES audio-visual material for use in further and higher education

The Researcher’s Guide to Screen Heritage directory of sources of material relating to the history of moving image and sound

Moving Image Gateway websites relating to moving image and sound in further and higher education

TRILT (Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching) UK television broadcast information from 1995 onwards, with records for over 300 TV channels

BUND (British Universities Newsreel Database) over 180,000 articles relating to newsreels and cinemagazines in the UK, as well as biographies of staff involved in their production

Smaller databases, often based on the main TRILT structure, have been created as separate projects.

Additional projects include a scoping project for the digitisation project "Newsfilm Online", produced with ITN-Reuters.

The "Information Service" also holds a number of 'Special Collections' including British Movietone newsreel documents, British Pathe newsreel documents, Channel 4 press releases and Reuters Television newsreel documentation.

As well as the "Information Services", the BUFVC records over 44,000 hours of UK broadcasts every year, which can be supplied to subscribers with an Educational Recording Agency (ERA) licence.

The BUFVC also produce a range of publications including books and magazines, CD-Roms and video tapes.