Longview, TX (City of Longview) — The Longview Public Library is hosting the Texas Film Round-Up, which provides residents free digitization services for their Texas-related films and videos. A joint collaboration between the Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) and the Texas Film Commission (TFC), the Film Round-Up accepts home movies, educational films, advertisements, local television, and other films in the hopes of preserving Texas’ media heritage. Materials will be converted to a digital format such as a DVD or .avi file, and then returned to the customer at a later date. Residents may bring materials to the Longview Public Library’s Genealogy and Local History department between February 17 – March 3, 2013.

To qualify for free digitization, participants must be willing to donate a digital copy of their materials to the Texas Archive of the Moving Image, a digital collection of Texas streaming video at www.texasarchive.org. Original films and videos will be returned to contributors after digitization— along with two DVD copies (or digital files) and information about safe media storage. Participants are asked to complete Loan and Use Agreements at the Longview Public Library prior to digitization.

Winner of the 2010 American Association of State and Local History’s Leadership in History Award of Merit and WOW Award, the Texas Film Round-Up has provided the free digitization of more than 7,000 films in the last three years. A selection of those films is available for free viewing at www.texasarchive.org.

For more information about the Longview Public Library, please visit www.LongviewLibrary.com, call 903-237-1350, or visit the Longview Public Library at 222 W. Cotton St.

TAMI is an independent non-profit organization founded in 2002 to discover, preserve and provide access to, and educate the community about Texas’ film heritage. More information on the TAMI can be found at www.texasfilmroundup.org or by contacting (512) 485-3073 or round-up@texasarchive.org.