n. ~ 1. An individual responsible for appraising, acquiring, arranging, describing, preserving, and providing access to records of enduring value, according to the principles of provenance, original order, and collective control to protect the materials’ authenticity and context. – 2. An individual with responsibility for management and oversight of an archival repository or of records of enduring value.

Those responsible for our audiovisual heritage are moving image archivists.  They are responsible for preserving, restoring, and making accessible moving image media, including film, television, video, and digital formats. As a profession, moving image archivists also advocate for the acknowledgement of moving images as important educational, historical, and cultural resources.

Richard Pearce-Moses wrote, “Archivists keep records that have enduring value as reliable memories of the past, and they help people find and understand the information they need in those records.”