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The "Third international seminar of sound and audiovisual archives" was organised by Radio Educacion in Mexico City, at the "Escuela de conservacion, restauracion y museografia Manuel del Castillo Negrete" with the participation of FIAT/ IFTA, FIAF and IASA and the support of Unesco. The FIAT/IFTA delegation included President Hoog and two EC members, Branko Bubenik and Roberto Rossetto.
The main objective of the seminar was to discuss national and international experiences regarding the socio-cultural value of audio visual archives at a time when archive technologies are turning digital.
At the opening session, Emmanuel HOOG presented the video message registered for FIAT/IFTA by the Director General of Unesco, Koïchiro MATSUURA. In his speech about "Audiovisual heritage and the digital society", Emmanuel Hoog addressed the importance of archives for the protection of the cultural identity of the nations, as the archives are not only the custodians of our memory, they are becoming also the guardians of the world cultural diversity.
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Daniel TERUGGI's presentation about the PrestoSpace project took place in the sesssion dedicated to "Research and experimentation : access and use of the audiovisual heritage". He stressed some of the threats and issues faced by archive preservation : lack of cataloguing, copyright issues, lack of standards, choice of formats and digitisation procedures ; lack of human and financial resources. Roberto ROSSETTO presented the evolution of RAI archives and the impact on users of the digitisation of the current RAI channels output and the legacy archive.
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It is worthwile mentioning the contribution of Kevin BRADLEY, from the Australian National Library : "Guidelines for the migration of sound archives to digital formats". These guidelines are detailed in the book, edited by Kevin Bradley and the IASA Technical Committee, published in 2004 : "Guidelines on the production and preservation of digital audio objects".
At the closing session, Lidia CAMACHO, head of Radio Educacion, draw the conclusions of the seminar : steps should be taken urgently to launch the preservation and digitisation of analogical formats, and to increase the awareness of governments who are responsible for the long term preservation of our cultural heritage ; these steps should include legal measures enabling easy access to the contents ; it is also desirable to promote international cooperation, not only between the existing NGOs, but also between countries, so as to provide technical advice or to exchange audiovisual contents ; at last she recommended the development of adecuate initial training of archivists in universities.
Each plenary session was designed like a radio programme. It was registered in audio and video formats, and broadcasted live on one of Radio Educacion channels and on its Internet site. The programme schedule is posted at : http://www.radioeducacion.edu.mx/Seminario.html. Some papers are also available at http://www.radioeducacion.edu.mx/ultimas.html. A complete report will be published at a later stage.
The audience included archivists from Mexico, Latin America - Brazil, Argentina, Panama, Nicaragua, Cuba, Peru, Paraguay -, and the Caribbean, as well as international experts from FIAT and IASA.
The Seminar was a big success. It was one more step in the long way followed by Mexico towards the preservation of its Sound heritage. Actually, one of the main output of the previous seminars is the creation of the "Fonoteca nacional" (National Sound Library). It was also the opportunity to meet with "new" archivists, especially from Panama and Cuba. We hope to see them again in a forthcoming FIAT event. Emmanuel Hoog has commited FIAT to take an active part in the next 2007 edition.
Seven workshops were programmed in the afternoon. Each workshop had a duration of twenty hours over five days. Each workshop was attended by 15-20 people. Hard work for lecturers and participants ! At the end of the workshop, attendants were invited to evaluate the work of lecturers and the content of the workshop. They were given a certificate of participation.
The workshops addressed all main issues of sound and audio visual archiving in practice :
A visit to "Televisa Protele", and their great modern TV archive, was organised for workshops participants. I have been most impressed by the migration system of the 2 inch tapes, using 12 video recorders, and by the perfect organisation of sales of the transfered programmes for the Mexican market.
During our free time, we have had the opportunity to visit the famous Teotihuacan pyramids, the floating gardens of Xochimilco, and the Anthropological Museum. Every day, a dinner in a famous typical restaurant, was offered, with delicious food and beautiful Mexican music.
My overall impresion is that it was the best organised seminar I have ever attended ! Bravo for the Mexican organisers of this great event : Radio Educacion, Conaculta, Lidia, Perla !
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All pictures are courtesy of Dr Branko Bubenik
Last update : 26/01/06
© 2006 - FIAT/IFTA