Two Years Later - The Future of Small-Scale Audiovisual Archives in Asia (original) (raw)
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IASA Journal, 2021
At the 2017 IASA Conference in Berlin, panellists analysed innovation and human failure in small-scale AV archives and asked the question "What do we need to learn from each other?" The many contributions to the discussion helped in overcoming difficulties that were presented. In 2019, the same panellists met again to discuss the outcomes of the learning process and to focus on the future of small-scale audiovisual archives in Asia. What makes small-scale audiovisual archives so special and different from large broadcast and national archives? What types of support networks will the future bring, and how can technical staff, archive users, administrators, and the larger community work towards an effective implementation of standards that will help to make knowledge available to all? The discussion took us to institutions in China, Laos, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, and laid the groundwork to establish continuity in dedicating professional efforts to support audiovisual archive organizations in emerging and developing countries. The panel members intend to engage in further discussion and to draw attention to the weak connections between archival goals and the general understanding of continuity in some Asian institutions. This is also a creative report of the panel organizer's work as IASA Ambassador in this region.
Innovation and Human Failure in Small-Scale Audiovisual Archives
International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) Journal, 2018
Based on several previous studies presented at IASA annual conferences (2001, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017) this paper intends to summarize long-term outcomes with a focus on the innovation needed in the digital era and the possible human failure in small-scale archives such as those the authors work with in Asia. In this paper, all authors[1] follow their specific question with the purpose of contributing to an analytic view on how technology collides with or creates a sense of community. Our emphasis is on sharing positive experiences and encouraging others by honestly discussing possible failures due to various conditions. Embedding these possible failures into a wider context is part of a mutual learning process. At the same time, each author will address a different clientele of stakeholders such as educational institutions, governmental decision makers, academia, occasional users, and the AV archivists themselves. [1] The authors know each other and have networked throug...
2008
This research investigated the management of audiovisual materials (AV) in the East and Southern Africa Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (ESARBICA). The study employed questionnaires, interviews and observation to gather data from a population of fourteen national archives. The response rate from the questionnaires was 64.28%. The observations and interviews were carried out from a sample of three national archives and four national media organisations, as explained in Chapter Three. The study confirmed previous studies that attributed continued dissipation of AV materials to various factors such as climatic and environmental conditions, shortage or lack of skilled AV archivists and lack of a standard legal framework in the ESARBICA region. Most national archives did not cover audiovisual archives in their legislation. The study discovered that most of the national archives did not apply the following policies to AV materials: appraisal, acquisition, access, ...
Collection and Curation, 2020
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify challenges related to the management and preservation of audio-visual (AV) records and/or archives in archival institutions in Sub Saharan Africa and suggests strategies for resolving them. Design/methodology/approach This study is qualitative in nature and used content analysis from desk top review of literature to identify the challenges and suggested solutions. Findings Among others, the study revealed that budgetary constraints, poor environmental controls, ill-equipped staff and technological obsolescence are the major challenges hampering the efforts of archival institutions in Sub Saharan Africa to manage and preserve AV archives. Research limitations/implications The contextual differences due to existing political set ups in archival agencies in Sub Saharan Africa may or may not be receptive to some of the strategies suggested for the improvement of managing and preserving audio visual archives. Practical implications The pap...
2011
This paper reports the results of an empirical study on the management of audio-visual materials in the member states of the East and Southern Africa Regional Branch of theInternational Council on Archives (ESARBICA). The paper examines the extent to which national archives in ESARBICA apply archival policies and strategies to the management of audio-visual (AV) materials. The main objectives of the study were to: i) identify policies which archival institutions in ESARBICA used to manage AV materials; and ii) identify strategies which archival institutions in ESARBICA apply to the management of AV materials. The study employed a survey design. Nine countries (South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Swaziland) in the region were covered. Data was gathered mainly through literature review supplemented by interviews and observation checklists. The findings revealed that while some national archives adhered to established standards and practices, ...
Future-proof? How Audiovisual Archives Adopt Digital Technologies
Taking up media philosopher Frank Hartmann's notion that 'right now, digital culture does not mean to synthesize new cultures through new technologies, but merely to translate the traditional repositories of knowledge into digital technology" 1 , this paper scrutinizes the implications of the digitization of film and television stocks within a framework of cultural change. Beginning with the role of the archive in modern culture, the first part of this paper highlights its conceptual alteration against the background of technical change. In Section Two the potential impact of digital technology on professional film and television archives will be described. This chapter thereby aims to outline different characteristics of digital technologies and how they are implemented as innovations in the system of audiovisual (re-)production. Section Three then distinguishes different development strategies due to the varying provenience of archives such as the German Bundesarchiv Filmarchiv as a public institution and the British ITN Source as a private corporation. Finally, Section Four aims at explaining the continuities and discontinuities as a reciprocal permeation of technologies and institutions. Drawing on the examples of ITN Source and the Chronos-Media archive it is argued that there are precise distinctions to be made as realisation is highly dependent on the specific structures of the environment it takes place in.
Sunrise or sunset? The future of audiovisual archives
We have analogue attitudes in a digital age…people consume content in a very fluid way. What were once separate media are now increasingly interconnected and exchangeable. We no longer have a TV market, a newspaper market, a publishing market. We have, indisputably, an all-media market.
2020
Libraries and Archives have long recognized the important role played by audiovisual records in the development of an informed global citizen and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is no exception. Lying on the banks of the Red Sea, KAUST has a state of the art library housing professional library and archives teams committed to the processing of digital audiovisual records created within and outside the University. This commitment, however, sometimes obscures the fundamental divergences unique to the two disciplines on the acquisition, cataloguing, access and long-term preservation of audiovisual records. This dichotomy is not isolated to KAUST but replicates itself in many settings that have employed Librarians and Archivists to manage their audiovisual collections. Using the KAUST audiovisual collections as a case study the authors of this paper will take the reader through the journey of managing KAUST's digital audiovisual collection. Several theoretical and methodological areas of convergence and divergence will be highlighted as well as suggestions on the way forward for the IFLA 1 and ICA 2 working committees on the management of audiovisual records.
2015
Libraries and Archives have long recognized the important role played by audiovisual records in the development of an informed global citizen and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is no exception. Lying on the banks of the Red Sea, KAUST has a state of the art library housing professional library and archives teams committed to the processing of digital audiovisual records created within and outside the University. This commitment, however, sometimes obscures the fundamental divergences unique to the two disciplines on the acquisition, cataloguing, access and long-term preservation of audiovisual records. This dichotomy is not isolated to KAUST but replicates itself in many settings that have employed Librarians and Archivists to manage their audiovisual collections. Using the KAUST audiovisual collections as a case study the authors of this paper will take the reader through the journey of managing KAUST’s digital audiovisual collection. Several theoret...