Introduction
While archival audiovisual material is frequently utilized to further media literacy education, archives themselves are often absent from the greater discourse. Archivists, especially audiovisual archivists, are tasked with preserving; digitizing; describing; and making accessible these archival motion picture films, videos, and sound recordings and thus represent important stakeholders in media literacy education. While audiovisual archivists often house material considered to be aesthetic wonders, archivists also recognize that not all audiovisual media are created equally. Archivists must reckon with collection items that contain offensive language, images, or broadly contain harmful messaging. Understanding these materials through an archival lens not only necessitates placing them within historical context, but also recognizing the state in which these materials have persisted to exist. Why is audiovisual media preserved, what methods are used, and what factors determine these reasons? Audiovisual archivists could provide lengthy answers to these questions if given the opportunity, and yet they are rarely posed as a matter of media literacy
