Luke McKernan
Dr. Luke McKernan, Curator, Moving Image at the British Library, on the opportunities for publishing research on early cinema history online:
"In 2007 I started a blog on early and silent cinema. In a year of writing I have produced over 100,000 words on The Bioscope, as it is called, the equivalent of a good-sized book. Energy that would have gone into producing a book on early film, or a number of conventional academic papers, has instead been diverted to writing short, daily posts on any aspect of early or silent cinema that interests me, but with an emphasis on highlighting research resources that are available online. Anything and everything can be included in a blog. The great virtue (as well as vice) of the form is that it encourages the blogger to write on unformed as well as formed subjects, sometimes engaging in random speculation, but also putting down observations or discoveries where they are fresh. For the academic, it is an opportunity to write on subjects beyond those of the essay or a monograph, and in an abbreviated, journalistic form. It is an excellent lesson in writing communicatively and concisely. Writing a blog is not the same as writing a book – it opens up new approaches, and encourages the explorations of new subjects or old subjects in new ways – but it is a powerful and refreshing means of communication.
"Blogging is one method among several that I have used to publish research information on cinema (particularly, but not exclusively, early cinema) online. I have put up papers, talks, filmographies, databases and more. One reference book, the BFI-published Who's Who of Victorian Cinema, I converted into a website, eight years after publication, and have kept it up-to-date ever since. My thesis subject, early documentary producer Charles Urban, became another website. The web is not only an unmatched research tool, but an outstanding means to publish research, to engage with not only one's established research community but to reach out to other disciplines and new audiences. The tools that now exist, such as blogs, enable us to ask new questions of cinema history and to construct revitalised means of conveying understanding. If you know something, there is no excuse for not publishing it, sharing it, and collectively contributing to a greater body of knowledge."
Luke McKernan is Curator, Moving Image at the British Library. He has written on early cinema, newsreels, film propaganda and Shakespearean cinema. His current areas of research include early colour cinematography and children’s cinema-going before the First World War.
Read Luke McKernan's Researcher's Tale presentation - hosted at the BFI National Library, 23 June 2008 - in full.
Dr McKernan’s publications include:
Moving Image Knowledge and Access: The BUFVC Handbook (BUFVC, 2007) [co-editor with Cathy Grant]
- Yesterday’s News: The British Cinema Newsreel Reader (BUFVC, 2002) [ed.]
- Who’s Who of Victorian Cinema: A Worldwide Survey (BFI, 1996) [co-editor with Stephen Herbert]
- Walking Shadows: Shakespeare in the National Film and Television Archive (BFI, 1994) [co-editor with Olwen Terris]
- Topical Budget: The Great British News Film (BFI, 1992)
His websites include:
