The Federation of Commercial Audio Visual Libraries is an international, non-profit trade association, representing commercial film/audiovisual libraries, professional film researchers, producers and affiliated services in the industry.

Headquartered in London, Eng., focal was founded in 1985, and boasts a membership of well over 270 companies in 22 countries. Membership mainly consists of footage libraries and the professional researchers who access them, but also includes many still collections, a number of major facility houses and peripheral companies, such as clearance companies, law firms and Internet consultants.

This year will see the start of a u.s. chapter in New York, organized by freelance stock footage researcher Jessica Berman-Bogdan and Cathy Carapella, vp of Diamond Time, a music and rights clearance company. It is hoped the u.s. chapter will expand the membership base and enable the group to host conferences in the u.s. Currently, there is also a chapter in France with another being set up in Germany.

Part of focal’s mission is to foster better understanding between broadcasters and producers, and footage libraries and archivists, about what is involved in the creation, preservation and reuse of factual moving images.

Shrinking production budgets and the increasing demand for world rights, all media, in perpetuity has created one of the biggest problems for audiovisual libraries and researchers, who try to work with bare-bones budgets and still provide both quality images and services. focal tries to keep all its members up to date on the latest developments in the field.

focal is also involved in the protection of copyright at the international level and produces a regularly updated members guide, providing producers with a central reference source of information on collections held by focal members, the services offered, procedures for access, and the activities of all members.