The national film library's Vaults at Aston Clinton

In these vaults the interesting films of yesterday and to day are kept for posterity. They are tested every six to twelve months.	Raymond White,the architect,and Ernest Lindgren,the curator,outside the vaults whose blast chimney's minimise from fire.

Not far away from the magnificent offices of the film companies in Wardour Street, is aroom where a group of film experts meet once a month to decide which of the month's films are worth saving for posterity. This group is the Selection Committee of the National Film Library, organised by the British Film Institute. Neither commercial success nor failure of a film is the immediate concern of the Committee.
Their selection is determined by the film's technical virtues and historic values. Sometimes, too, films are kept as examples of how not to do it.

Among the Library's 25.000 Reels.

Every week each vault tested by the curator with a thermograph and a hydrograph to see that temperature and humudity are correct.

The Library was started in 1936 and already it bas preserved over three thousand films, ranging from Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 to the recent "Song of Ber'nadette." Under the guidance of its energetic curator, Emest Lindgren, Library is certainly doing work of national importance. Though the film industry is barely Fifty years old, the National Library is having a busy time catching up. This is how the Library works .After a film has been selected for preservation it may be anything from a full-length feature to a newsreel the Library Committee apply to the film company or collector concerned .
The film companies supply free of charge a good used print of the film; the collector sells his or her film to the Library .The print is then taken down to the storage vaults at As1on Clinton in Bucking-hamshire. It is minutely examined and cleaned, and the footage recorded. Quarter inch punchings are taken from the film and a close test is made.
The punching is placed inside a rest tube and heated. The effect of the heating is to accelerate the ageing of the film. The testing continues for two hours. If a bad report is given on a film, a duplicate negative is taken immediately. Every possible detail about the condition of the film is noted on a card. Information about the director, producer, star and story is also recorded and kept.
There is an intricate cross-reference system, which makes the tracing of al1 films completely fool-proof. .
The film is then stored away in the vaults. A film may catch fire and explode. Each vault, therefore, is fitted with a blast vent in the ceiling, which in the event of fire, carries the blast up through the roof and minimises the danger to the other films.

Testing to see if the film is good condition	The committee sits in judgement on a film
A small punching is made of the film and subjected to intense heat. An adverse report means that a duplicate negative must be made.	The film is Priestly's The "Came To A City"The committee decide that it shall be kept in National Film Library.

The Library spends 7.000 annually. It is financed from the funds of the Film Institute which, in turn, is supported by the Sunday Cinematograph Fund. administered by the Privy Council. In America there are three organisations to our National Film Library, alone, the film library of the Museum of Moderns Art in New York, spends annually almost1 times as much as the British library.
A number of 35 mm. and 16 mm. prints have been made by the Library of films in their collection which are regarded as of special importance from the point of view of the film as an art, these are circulated through the Library's Lending Section ."The Great Train Robbery" (1903), "The Funera of Queen Victoria" (1901), "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1919) and "The Spanish Earth"1937 come within this category .The National Film Library has great possibilities. It can benefit education, help in the training of our film technicians and, of course, IS all the time providing an invaluable record for posterity.

Over beer and sandwiches they give their opinions on whether the film shall be kept in the national library

To be selected for preservation a flim must have siginificance ,either sicial,historical,or techincal. Ivor Montagu gives three reasons for keeping Priestley's film. Firts,it is a landmark as a deliberate attempt put over Socialist propaganda. Second ,it may be a warning as a flop. Third,it is new to have political philosophy in a Britisch film.