Abstract:

Valuing and sharing the audio-visual heritage of the history of Italian and European physics: these are the two main goals of "Mediateca INFN: the history of physics through videos", the new cultural project of INFN, dedicated to the general public, but in particular aimed at students of Italian schools and university researchers. It is, in fact, a digital archive open to everyone and easy to consult, to do research, gather information, explore, and re-trace the history, events, and anecdotes of physics through the story of its protagonists. Today, it includes almost 200 videos totaling more than 70 hours of interviews, documentaries, TV news, conferences and seminars. It is a unique and extraordinary heritage, which has, in large part, been digitalised to preserve it beyond the deterioration of the analogue supports and which comes from the archives of INFN but also from the archives of other important science institutions, such as CERN in Geneva and Fermilab in Chicago. In particular, the project was created by INFN in collaboration with the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, which provided video lessons created by great scientists who have made the history of Italian physics. In addition, some historical videos come from the archives of Rai, which is the Italian public broadcasting company.
All the videos are catalogued through categories, key words, and tags, and are easy to be consulted. If needed, a request to receive INFN archive videos in high resolution can be submitted.

Acknowledgement:
The project was launched in November 2022, but it is a work in progress project, which will continue to be enriched and to grow over time. From its launch until now the website hosting La Mediateca got 14.942 pageviews.

Keywords:

Physics, history, technology, digital archive, education.