Information Bulletin no. 35, October 2000

Piet van Iddekinge 1934-2000

Piet van Iddekinge - until a few months ago archivist of the City of Arnhem, the Netherlands, and a long-standing member of IASA - died 29 April 2000. During his long career as assistant head and later head of the City Archives of Arnhem he greatly stimulated the use of audio and audio-visual archival recordings of Dutch history, both as a source for research and as a tool for education. As an historian of Arnhem he contributed amongst many other publications several thoroughly researched and well documented books and articles about the Battle of Arnhem, September 1944, and in particular the subsequent evacuation and destruction of the city by the German Wehrmacht. Together we were part of the team that in 1965 produced a compilation film about the Battle of Arnhem, based on stock material from the Imperial War Museum and other archives. This film was used extensively in Dutch universities and public schools and also appeared in an English version. Only a few months ago many of Piet's friends enjoyed a festive ceremony at the occasion of his retirement. His unexpected death ended a full life together with his wife Adrie, full also of plans for more historical research and publications.

With him one of my best friends has gone.

Rolf Schuursma

New members

Chinese Music Archives, Music Dept., Hui Yeung Shing Building, Chung Chi College, CUHK, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong SAR, China
Contact: Miss Renee Leung

Universities Historical Research Centre, Amara Hall, Yangon University Campus, Yangon 11041, Myanmar
The research centre is devoted to the history of Myanmar. It conducts historical research and collects historical documents and records. A number of historical publications have been produced.

Armin Vögeding
lists his main interest as the preservation of audio-media. He has worked professionally for AGFA and BASF for thirty years.

Joel Bresler
Sephardic music specialist, his collection contains over 1000 recordings of this genre.

Also a new subscriber: Hong Kong Film Archive

ARSC-IASA Conference in London: first Call for papers

The theme of the ARSC-IASA Conference in 2001 to be held in London will be:

Why collect? The purpose of audio visual archives

The conference will explore and reinforce the role of institutional and individual collectors in preserving the audio-visual heritage by addressing the following themes:

• Legislative provision: what must we keep? How can we keep pace with electronic publication and web-based distribution?

• Who should be responsible for what? In the digital age we can share collecting responsibilities and provide shared access. But how?

• Should institutions collect if they cannot provide access? How should resources be shared between acquisition, storage and processing?

• Should we collect for the needs of the present or those of the
  future?

• "It's my collection and I'm proud of it": the riches in our
  collections and what we intend to do with them.

• Private collectors and public archives: how should they coexist? How can we help each other? How do our functions and aims differ?

As the conference venue (The British Library's purpose-built conference centre) can provide a full range of playback and audio-visual facilities, speakers will be strongly encouraged to illustrate their presentations with examples.

The programme committee is keen to include 'poster' sessions. Since few outside Australia appear to know what these are, here is a definition.

A poster session is a way of giving the opportunity for members who have issues or achievements of limited interest, and which are not suitable for the formalities of a conference, to communicate their message in an informal manner. The hard facts of their presentation are 'published' on posters (or maybe on a computer screen) adjacent to where they will deliver their message or in the form of handouts. The format and organisation are informal. Whilst criteria for acceptance of poster presentations are looser than those for presentations at the plenary sessions a power of veto will exist with the poster session co-ordinator. The final poster session line-up may not be finalised until the conference is under way. Poster sessions will run in parallel with the plenary sessions and possibly during break times. They will take place in a different venue to the plenary sessions and a number of posters may be presented in the same room or space.

How does it work? The presenter may deliver a short informal talk or conduct a demonstration. Generally it is an informal arrangement where much of the time is taken up with questions and answers. Delegates can drift in and out of each session, according to their interest. They become an interactive audience. Presentations may only take 5 minutes or may be as long as 15-30 minutes, and may be presented several times during the session.

What works best at a poster session? Demonstrations, mini workshops, research presentations, representations by Association branches, topics that attract strong audience feedback or interaction and, of course, topics with niche interest.

To suggest a topic for a paper or poster presentation, please send a title and summary along with your name and address to one of the programme committee:

John Spence, IASA Vice-President: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Archives, G.P.O. 9994, Sydney, NSW 2001, Australia. Fax 011 61 2 9333 2525, email spence.john@a2.abc.net.au

Alan Ward: The British Library National Sound Archive, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB, United Kingdom. Fax + 44 20 7412 7441, email alan.ward@bl.uk

Dr Michael Biel, ARSC 2nd V.P.: P.O. Box 822, Morehead, Kentucky 40351, United States. Email m.biel@morehead-st.edu

The closing date for this first call for papers is January 15th 2001. A further call for papers will be announced in the next Information Bulletin. Speakers will be contacted shortly after that deadline and informed of the committee's decision.

London calling

London has been chosen as the venue for our next conference, which will be shared with ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections). Why do we think that London will appeal to you? The conference venue itself is impressive enough. All sessions and some of the social events will be taking place in the purpose-built conference facilities of The British Library with its 250-seat, cinema-style auditorium equipped with state-of-the-art AV facilities. You will have the chance to tour the new library and see the NSA's world-famous collections close-up. Tours of famous recording locations (Abbey Road) and archives (EMI and the BBC) will be arranged and there will be plenty of free time in the evenings or during breaks to browse in London's many specialist record shops (one of the best, Mole Jazz, is just a block away from the conference venue). There are many opportunities for spending lavishly on eating out, shopping (Harrods, for instance), theatres, clubs and concert halls, but there's also plenty of variety and excitement to be had for less: NSA staff will be only too pleased to act as guides or make recommendations.

So forget all those stories about fog, strangely-attired detectives, inscrutable cockney accents and warm beer (they can be arranged too, if you want) and mark off late September 2001 in your diary for a trip to one of the most thriving AV cities on the planet.

IASA travel and research grants

Members are invited to apply for travel grants for assistance to attend the London Conference in September 2001.

The purposes of the travel grants are to encourage active participation at the IASA annual conferences by those who have no alternative funding and to encourage continuing participation in the work of IASA.

Individuals submitting requests are required to be currently paid-up members of IASA and willing to participate in the work of IASA. Your application will be strengthened if you can demonstrate that such participation is current or planned.

IASA Committees and Sections may also consider bringing members from less developed countries to join the conference and share their experiences.

The IASA Board has recently agreed new guidelines for the awarding of travel grants. You are asked to consider these carefully before making your application.

1. While the aim of IASA shall be to encourage members to attend the annual conference by supporting their travel costs, such support must take account of the current financial health of the Association. Normally, 50% of travel costs (cheapest air or train fare between the applicant's home and the conference venue) will be met.

2. IASA will, in addition, approach the local conference organisers and request that the grantee's registration fee be waived. The decision in each case will be up to the conference organiser.

3. Accommodation and subsistence costs will not be supported.

4. Applications must be sent in writing (by letter, fax or e-mail) to the Secretary-General in response to the announcement of travel and research grants, which are published in the IASA Information Bulletin.
   Applications must contain the 100% amount of the travel costs in US$, confirmed e.g. by an official travel agency.

5. Applications by representatives of institutional members must be countersigned by the director or a senior officer of their organisation as evidence that their attendance has been authorised.

6. The method of payment shall be specified in the application including to whom moneys shall be paid and how they will be made.

7. The Secretary-General will check all applications received by the appointed deadline and will submit them to the Executive Board at its mid-year meeting for discussion and approval.

8. Applicants will be informed as soon as possible of the result after the Board's decision has been reached.

9. IASA will not pay grants in advance of travel. Costs will be reimbursed on presentation of copies of the travel documents by the grantee to the IASA Treasurer during the conference.

10. IASA travel grants are awarded only to members of the Association; grants will not be made in support of accompanying persons.

Applications for travel grants to attend the London conference must be received by the Secretary General of IASA by the end of February 2001 in order to be considered at the mid-year Board meeting to be held in March 2001. Please send your application to:

IASA Secretary General,

Albrecht Häfner,
Suedwestrundfunk, Sound Archives,
D-76522 Baden-Baden, Germany
Fax +49 7221 929 4199
e-mail: albrecht-haefner@swr-online.de

Research grants are also available to assist in carrying out specific projects and these are always open for application. Anyone planning a project which concerns the interests of IASA and which requires start-up funding or which requires financial support for work already underway is invited to apply to the Secretary General in writing (see address above). Applications will be considered as and when the Executive Board of IASA meets, so the next opportunity will be at its mid-year meeting in March 2001 and then at Annual Conference the following September.

Training and Information centre for audio-visual archiving

Information on professional training opportunities and documents concerning audio-visual archiving tends to be spread all over the world in the form of poorly distributed hard copies and on various web-sites.

Audio-visual documents are today found in all kinds of collections. Therefore the need for professionally trained personnel in audio-visual archives is growing.

In many countries, those professional training programmes that already exist for archivists and librarians contain only very basic information on how to address the problems of audio-visual documents. Specialist training is usually considered appropriate only at post-graduate level.

Faced with this situation the NGOs of the Co-ordinating Council of Audio-visual Archives Associations (CCAAA) should take the initiative to establish a Web service, which would contain not only documentation on training opportunities organised by the NGOs themselves or by others, but also training modules for distance-learning.

Here is a recommended working plan:

1. compile an inventory of existing documents on AV-archiving suitable for training purposes;

2. develop a structure for a training program, containing virtual and "real" parts;

3. commission the creation of new documents and training possibilities

4. create a dedicated web site

5. UNESCO has indicated that it is willing to support such an initiative financially if a proposal is presented quickly. IASA members who are willing to work on the creation of the first 2 points of the above working plan should contact, at their earliest convenience, Kurt Deggeller, Director Memoriav, Giacomettistrasse 1, CH-3000 Bern 15, Phone: +41 31 350 97 60, Fax: +41 350 97 64, e-mail: kurt.deggeller@memoriav.ch

Nordic Metadata Group

Elsebeth Kirring (Statsbiblioteket, Aarhus) reports on the initial meeting of the Nordic Metadata Group held in August at her institution.

In October 1999 a Nordic specialist meeting on digital archives was held in Mo i Rana, Norway. There it was proposed that a Nordic metadata-group should be set up in order to decide on a Nordic standard for metadata for broadcast material. The members should be representatives from the Nordic broadcast archives and national archives. The first meeting of this Group took place at Statsbiblioteket, Aarhus on 22nd August 2000.

We started off with reports on the current state of play in the respective archives represented in the Group. This revealed that regarding metadata for AV-documents most of us were in a position of wait-and-see, but that we were all interested in a common Nordic standard that could be applied in our area. We agreed on the following:

• the Nordic broadcast archives and national sound and audio-visual archives will establish a Nordic metadata-group with the mandate to draw up a common Nordic minimum-standard for metadata - especially concerning broadcast material and other AV material;

• its work is to be co-ordinated with similar work inside EBU and other international fora (IASA is, of course, among "other international fora" with which we wish to co-ordinate);

• at its next meeting the group will specify the mandate for the work within the scope of the agreement. It is assumed that consideration will be given to the need for a common minimum metadata standard based on Dublin Core which contains the possibility of local additions when needed;

• The group consists of representatives from Norsk Rikskringkasting, Sveriges Radio, Danmarks Radio, Nasjonalbiblioteket (Norway), Arkivet för ljud och bild (Sweden) and Statsbiblioteket (Denmark). Finland and Iceland are invited too, but have not reported that they are interested in joining the group.

The group is expected to produce a draft recommendation for a common Nordic platform based on Dublin Core by December 1st, 2000.

Any views on this subject are welcome. Please mail to: ek@statsbiblioteket.dk

BUFVC wins advisory role

One of IASA's long-standing institutional members in the UK, the British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC) has just won a prestigious contract (subject to final negotiations) from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), which governs IT-related services for British higher education. The contract is to provide a Negotiation Agent and an Advisory Service for Moving Pictures and Sound resources, subject to final contract negotiations.

The BUFVC "will work within the Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER) to provide a central service for the acquisition and promotion of electronic moving pictures and sound resources. Within this they will provide a wide variety of advice in areas such as IPR issues, tools, technologies, standards, licensing and cataloguing and will seek to promote good practice in this area."

Further information about the role of these services can be found in the open tender document at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/pub00/c05_00.html

CD-ROM source for safeguarding

News received from IFLA. "The Core Programme on Preservation and Conservation (PAC) of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) has recently produced a CD-ROM entitled Safeguarding our Documentary Heritage. This bilingual, English and French, CD-ROM was made as a sequel to the guide published under the same title by the UNESCO Sub-Committee on Technology for the Memory of the World Programme. It presents recommended practices and lists the standards and reference literature related to preservation of documents of all kinds.

In order to disseminate this guide among a wider range of users, in the expectation that it might become an initial or permanent training tool, UNESCO contracted IFLA to create a thoroughly illustrated CD-ROM on the causes of deterioration of library collections and archival documents as well as on the preventive measures to be taken. With the benefit of hypertext links this CD-ROM should be able to extend the possibilities of research by providing links with other Internet sites dealing with similar information in the preservation field.

Besides the participation of experts from the UNESCO Memory of the World programme who edited the Guide, the CD-ROM is the result of fruitful collaboration between many library and archives professionals together with their respective institutions. This project, directed by IFLA PAC (Preservation and Conservation) Core Programme, hosted by the National Library of France, was carried out successfully thanks to scientific assistance from the Mission on Research and Technology of the French Ministry of Culture.

Part of the content of the CD-ROM will also be made available on the web sites of UNESCO http://www.unesco.org/webworld/mdm/index.html, and of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/conservation/fr/

Free copies of the CD-ROM are available from the IFLA PAC centre at the Bibliothèque nationale de France by applying to Marie-Thérèse VARLAMOFF, Director of the project IFLA-PAC
E-mail: marie-therese.varlamoff@bnf.fr

Highly recommended [Editor]

EC schema for metadata watchers

Metadata Watch http://www.schemas-forum.org

The SCHEMAS project is a two-year accompanying measure to the European Commission's 5th Framework programme, its aim being to provide information about the status and use of new and emerging metadata standards, including training.

The purpose of the SCHEMAS Metadata Watch (MD Watch) is to provide a quarterly overview of world-wide progress in the metadata field, which includes work on metadata sets, schemas, frameworks, registries, and the tools needed to create and use all of these things. The added value that the MD Watch provides consists of giving readers (a) the ability to get the information they need from one easy-to-use source, (b) expert opinion and (c) a multi-tiered format that allows readers to get information at three levels of granularity. It is in the middle level that you will find the Audio-visual sector.

Also worth your attention is a recent article on SCHEMAS in the on-line serial Ariadne. 'Application Profiles: mixing and matching metadata schemas' by Rachel Heery and Manjula Patel. Issue 25 of Ariadne magazine is now available at: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue25/

In view of the current interest in metadata within IASA there will be regular features in this Bulletin and more articles will be commissioned for the Journal.

UNESCO archives portal

Axel Plathe, UNESCO Information Society Division, has notified the IASA Board that "it has placed the logo of IASA on the homepage of the new UNESCO Archives Portal http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_archives thus underlining the close relations between our two organizations in the area of international archival co-operation." IASA has provided a reciprocal link.

The UNESCO Archives Portal gives access to web sites of archival institutions around the world. It is also a gateway to resources related to records and archives management and to international co-operation in this area. With the Archives Portal, UNESCO provides a single interactive access point to information for archivists and users of archives worldwide.

Visitors to the UNESCO Archives Portal can browse through pre-established categories or search for specific words. They can add a new link or modify an already existing link. An electronic Newsletter will provide information on new entries. The "In Focus" section presents web sites of archives that are considered "particularly interesting". Visitors can also rank web sites of archives and related institutions through an on-line rating system.

The links on the UNESCO Archives Portal are listed according to the following categories:

• Archives (National Archives, Regional and State Archives, Special Archives)

• Associations (Professional Associations, Professional Institutions)

• Conferences and Meetings (International and regional events)

• Education and Training (Institutions and training courses relating to archives)

• International Co-operation (Organizations and co-operation programmes)

• Internet Resources (Archives Portals, On-line Directories, Publications, Mailing Lists)

• Preservation and Conservation (Organizations, Programmes, Techniques)

NSA Catalogue on the Web

Further to Chris Clark's presentation at the Singapore Conference, The British Library National Sound Archive (NSA) is pleased to announce that its catalogue, also known as CADENSA, will be available on the Web from the last week of October. It is being made available initially for testing and evaluation and IASA members are encouraged to take a look, do the test and submit a completed questionnaire by mid December. All comments will be considered and further changes made, if necessary, prior to the public launch of the catalogue in its new form early in 2001. We expect the url to be http://www.cadensa.bl.uk with an alias http://cadensa.bl.uk . There is, however, a move to change the name of the catalogue for web access. If you are unable to get in using the above urls, Try http://nsacat.bl.uk, or e-mail your Editor chris.clark@bl.uk for assistance.

AMIA's new web-site

The AMIA Publications Committee has announced the launch of the new AMIA web-site at http://www.amianet.org

The AMIA site provides information on all aspects of AMIA, as well as numerous resources, publications and fact sheets on moving image archiving and preservation. The site features a new look and a great deal of new content. Features and material available for the first time on the updated site include:

• Information on the 2000 AMIA Conference in Los Angeles, including the
  Preliminary Conference Program and local accommodations.

• Proceedings from the 1998 annual conference in Miami (over 30 sessions
  and presentations).

• A comprehensive new fact sheet on "Storage Standards and Guidelines for
  Film and Videotape"
  * AMIA's comments and recommendations on the "Revision of Archival Moving
  Image Materials: A Cataloging Manual (AMIM)."

Sites and sounds

The October issue of Scientific American <http://www.sciam.com/> contains a special report on the wireless web, including the drawbacks of WAP technology and the promises of 3-G[generation] wireless cell phone systems which are intended to handle audio-visual downloads. 3-G is shortly to become available in Japan, but somewhat later in Europe and America.

Rather old news by now, but still worth a look: you have probably heard about the RIAA v Napster case in the U.S. concerning illegal electronic distribution. If so, you might be interested in an article by Grateful Dead lyricist and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation John Perry Barlow entitled Napster.com and the Death of the Music Industry
http://www.technocrat.net/958163435/index_html . And there's more on Napster and MP3 controversies in a report by Laura Gasaway in Information Outlook (vol.4 no.8) pp. 44-45.

Most intriguing is the recent announcement that the United States House of Representatives has passed a bill to set up a national sound archive at the Library of Congress. As announced on the Recording Academy's web site http://www.grammy.com/news/ one might be forgiven for thinking that the Library of Congress never held any sound recordings, though most of us are aware that it probably has the largest historical collection in the world. But there appears to be a new slant to this new initiative and doubtless it will boost the fortunes and profile of audio-visual archiving in the United States, and maybe also world wide. Here's part of the Recording Academy's announcement:

"Acknowledging the importance of preserving the nation's rich cultural history, the House of Representatives passed the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000. The landmark legislation, passed on July 25, will establish the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress to protect recordings that are deemed historically significant or culturally relevant [Editor's emphasis]. The Recording Academy shepherded the legislation (H.R. 4846), which is affectionately known to members of Congress as the "GRAMMY Bill." Authored by Congressmen William Thomas ... and Steny Hoyer ..., the Act will also preserve other historically important recordings such as political speeches. An annual appropriations budget of $250,000 has been established for the program, which will be supplemented by private sector funding and gifts from the public. A companion bill will be offered in the Senate which is expected to obtain approval this fall."

Meanwhile, you could add to your own collection by bidding at IASA Associate Member Kurt Nauck's 28th Vintage Record Auction. There are 7500 lots are to be sold, including: over fifty Berliners (including a rare "dog in the grooves" Canadian issue and an 8-inch secondary master dated August 1898); over 300 foreign and ethnic recordings, including African, Arabic, American Indian, Armenian, Bohemian, Brazilian, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hungarian, Hindi, Malaysian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Scandinavian, Serbian, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and West Indian (many of which are unplayed dealer stock recordings from the 1920s); hundreds of 16-inch radio transcriptions (including original Lone Ranger lacquers and the only known set of the heretofore unknown "Tennessee Party Time" programs starring Lonzo & Oscar with Chet Atkins); rare and unusual jazz, blues, country, personality and rock & roll recordings (including Frank Stokes, Elder Richard Bryant and the Dinwiddie Colored Quartette on Victor; Sarah Bernhardt on G&T, the Prisonaires on Sun and Hightower's Night Hawks on Black Patti), over 1,000 cylinders (including 50 brown wax recordings,15 Concerts, 20 Lamberts, many operatics, 8 Columbia 20th Centuries, rare boxes you may have never seen or heard of, Sir Ernest Shackleton on Edison 4 minute wax and "Let Us Not Forget" by T.A. Edison), etc.

To get your free copy of the auction catalogue, write or e-mail:
Nauck's Vintage Records, 6323 Inway Dr., Spring, TX 77389 USA
(tel) + 1 281-370-7899 / (fax) + 1 281-251-7023 / e-mail <nauck@78rpm.com>
Website: http://www.78rpm.com

REMINDER

Please remember to keep the Editor informed of any changes to the details which appear in the current IASA Directory.

Calendar of events

This Information Bulletin was compiled by:

The Editor - Ilse Assmann,
SABC, PO Box 931, 2006, Auckland Park, Johannesburg, South Africa,
Tel: 27 (0)11 714 4041, Fax: 27 (0)11 714 4419, Email: assmanni@sabc.co.za.

Language editor: Dorothy van Tonder, SABC
PLEASE SEND COPY FOR INFORMATION BULLETIN NO 58 BY 15 MAY 2007
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