Records of the Office of Media Production
Call Number
Date
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
The Office of Media Production was established to create digital communication strategies to advance recruitment, development and public relations. This collection of recordings include promotional material, commencement footage and documentary footage of speakers, visitors and events. Tapes range in date from 1983 to 2010.
Historical Note
The Office of Media Production was established to create digital communication strategies to advance recruitment, development and public relations. It consults on, conceives, and produces video content for departments and schools for a variety of purposes. The office began in an informal capacity when Elisa Guarino began producing video works for the Office of the Vice President of External Affairs in the early 1980s. It became an official University operation circa 1987 and remained under External Affairs until NYU President John Sexton later brought the department under the auspices of the Office of University Relations and Public Affairs, which is responsible for portraying NYU's message, agenda, and image to external and internal audiences.
Arrangement
Materials are arranged into two series:
Series I: Projects
Series II. 2025 Accretion
Scope and Contents
The audiovisual recordings in this collection contain promotional productions, University commencement ceremonies, lectures, panel discussions, and other events as well as B-roll footage of the NYU campus, study abroad sites and other New York City locations. The tapes comprise approximately 500 projects produced by the Office of Media Production.
Subjects
Organizations
Genres
Topics
Places
Conditions Governing Access
Repository permission is required for access. Please contact NYU Special Collections, special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.
Use Restrictions
Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) are maintained by New York University. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from repository. Please contact NYU Special Collections, special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; The Office of Media Production Videotapes; RG 7.3.4; box number; folder number or item identifier; New York University Archives.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The videotapes in this collection were transferred in multiple accessions to the University Archives by the Office of Media Production, formerly under the authority of the Senior Vice President for External Affairs and presently reporting to the Senior Vice President for University Relations and Public Affairs. In November 2025, Nathan Townes-Anderson transferred an accretion of 118 Betacam SP tapes. The accession numbers associated with these transfers are 13.037, 14.049, 15.029, 2019.006, 2020.016, 2023.015, and 2025.043.
Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures
Access to some audiovisual materials in this collection is available through digitized access copies. Researchers may view an item's original container, but the media themselves are not available for playback because of preservation concerns. Materials that have already been digitized are noted in the collection's finding aid and can be requested in our reading room.
Audiovisual materials that have not been preserved may not be available to researchers. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact the New York University Archives, special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596 with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Decisions regarding arrangement, description, and physical interventions for this collection prior to 2018 have not yet been recorded.
In 2019, audiovisual tapes from a new accession were added to the collection. Tapes were stored in appropriately-sized boxes and two hard drives were removed and recorded in Medialog, to be imaged at a later date, and then are to be returned to the Office of Media Production. Basic box-level descriptions were added to the end of the inventory.
In November 2025, an accretion of 118 Betacam SP tapes were rehoused in archival boxes, arranged into a separate series, described at the series-level, and inventoried at the item-level, re-purposing metadata from an inventory supplied by the donors.