The access(ibility) of films in artist-run centres

This thesis considers how artist-run centres are creating access to their film collections by using the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC) as its case study. It looks at current literature on accessibility, including controlled vocabularies, keywords, folksonomies, and social tagging, and how two other institutions- Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (INA), located in Paris, France and IsumaTV, located in Igloolik, Nunavut, Canada- are currently creating access to their film collections to discover how different forms of accessibility are being used in real time. It looks at how the CFMDC is currently creating access to its film collection and finally, recommends the ways accessibility at an artist-run centre could be improved to help the artist-run centre reach a wider audience, help the researcher in the search and retrieval process, and to keep the film object itself accessible.