The BUFVC Moving Image Gateway includes over 1,300 websites relating to video, multimedia and sound materials. These have been subdivided into over 40 subject areas. To suggest new entries or amendments, please contact us by email or telephone or visit the Gateway at http://bufvc.ac.uk/gateway/

Encyclopedia of Life
Website with the ambitious aim of gathering together information on all 1.9 million species currently known to science. The site is constructed on the basis one page per species, with biological classification, in expandable taxonomic ranks, displaying alongside images, video, text and bibliographic references. There are a number of resources aimed at helping users navigate such a large amount of information, including podcasts, informational videos, Google Earth tours and explanatory articles, on topics from biodiversity to species classification. The site is aimed at as broad an audience as possible: students of all ages, teachers, researchers, scientists, as well as the general enthusiast, are all catered for.

Filmoteca Española
The Filmoteca Espanola’s new online platform streams various short films, documentaries and feature films from its archives, including Luis Bunuel’s Un Chien Andalou and a number of films relating to World War I. The newsreel NO-DO (Noticiarios y Documentales), which ran from 1943 – 1981, has recently been made available to view in its entirety on the site, providing a fascinating and invaluable record of life in Spain under General Franco, albeit one viewed through the prism of a series which was closely linked with – and inevitably tainted by – the dictator’s regime. Many of the newsreels are pure propaganda, showing Franco opening public works, giving speeches and the like but much of the material also focuses on everyday Spanish life, covering sports, entertainment, fashion, scientific and technological advances as well as an ‘Instantaneas Mundiales’ slot which provides a brief round-up of international news.

NOT N 374 A

• NOT N 374 A

This example from June 1950 has items on American actor Edward G. Robinson’s visit to Toledo and a speech by General De Gaulle on the communist threat. Digitised programme sheets are linked to the videos and viewable in pdf format. Although some of the original audio commentaries have been lost, the standard of digitisation of the newsreels themselves is uniformly excellent, making this an essential resource for students of modern Spanish history and newsreel historians alike.

Jodcast
Created by a group of astronomers at The University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank, this monthly, hour-long podcast is presented in a magazine format, featuring interviews, news, what to look out for in the night sky and contributions from astronomers on the latest research in their field. The podcast is free to subscribe to and can be downloaded. Nicely presented with a detailed textual summary of each episode, useful links and a forum.

Medway on Screen
An initiative of Screen Archive South East, this resource is the result of a community project to share, celebrate and reflect on the history of Medway and West Kent in the 20th century. The site features a selection of the archive films which were used as a catalyst to help produce the reminiscences, stories and memories from the participants whose oral histories form the bedrock of the project. A selection of short films documents the history of the project itself, from its beginnings to completion, covering some notable milestones along the way, such as the project’s collaboration with Black History Month, in which participants talk about the history of immigration to the Medway Towns based on their own experiences. A two-disc DVD was produced at the end of the project featuring hightlights from the oral histories and film selections from the archives.

Under the Microscope
This collection of videos curated by Cambridge University shows different aspects of the natural and man-made world, filmed in extreme close-up using microscope cameras. From the development of a mouse embryo, to a look at how the eyes of beetles and flies can inspire technology the clarity of the images together with commentaries by Cambridge academics combine elegantly to offer brief but illuminating introductions to aspects of biology and nanotechnology.