Information Bulletin no. 56, July 2006

IASA Conference in Mexico City

If you have not yet registered for the coming IASA conference, now is the time to do so!

IASA's 2006 annual conference will be held in Mexico City, the first in this interesting and diverse city.

The IASA Conference will take place from 9 to 14 September 2006, and is being organised by Fonoteca Nacional and Radio Educación. The conference theme Between Memory and Oblivion - the Educational and Cultural Significance of Audiovisual Archives will focus on the enormous challenges audiovisual archives are faced with in their effort to save their archival collections for posterity.

The conference will take place in the Ministry of Public Affairs (Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores) Mexico, D.F. It is near the centre of the city and is a very well appointed facility. All the facilities are fully equipped with computer hook-ups, simultaneous translation, AV, and projection facilities. Hotels are within a 30-minute walk of the conference venue, or about five to 15 minutes by bus, depending on traffic.

Registration can be done via the following web site: https://www.radioeducacion.edu.mx/sisins/iasa/iasa.html

Want To Host an IASA Conference?

As part of the long-term planning, IASA's Executive Board is inviting submissions from those organizations or institutions that are interested in hosting an IASA conference after 2008. 

Hosting an IASA conference involves: 

  • Providing a conference venue

  • Making the local arrangements for hotels and banquets

  • Selecting the conference theme and providing input into the programme

  • Overseeing the conference finances

  • Welcoming guests to your institution and your country

  • And a dozen other things, including some that will be completely unexpected, but that will add to the fun

Along with the responsibility and hard work comes an opportunity to show off your institution, to introduce your colleagues to your part of the world, and a chance to focus on issues in the sound and audiovisual field that relate to your collection's particular needs.  It is also an occasion to perhaps mark a significant event or anniversary, and to raise awareness of your institution and its priorities in your own locale.  You will learn more than you ever thought possible about organizing an event, meet lots of interesting people and, in the end, have a great time.

To assist in organizing the conference, IASA has prepared conference guidelines, which are currently under review. If you wish, the Board will gladly circulate the conference guidelines on the understanding that they are being revised to simplify and clarify the organization, roles, and responsibilities surrounding an IASA conference.

As an organization with a truly international focus, IASA conferences have been held on different continents and in many countries, and hosted by all types of institutions and organizations.  IASA's Board is open to suggestions and would welcome enquiries from anyone who is interested in advancing the interests of the sound and audio visual community by hosting an IASA conference. 

Expressions of interest and requests for more information should be sent to:

IASA Secretary-General
Gunnel Jönsson
Radio Archive
Swedish Broadcasting Resources
SE-10510 Stockholm
Sweden
Phone: +46 8 784 15 35
Fax: +46 8 784 22 85
Mobile: +46 70 229 31 71
eMail: gunnel.jonsson@srf.se

New Faces on the IASA Block

Lynn Lucas, Barbados Government Information Service, Bay Street, St Michael, Barbados, email: librarybgis@barbados.gov.bb. The Barbados Government Information Service is the public relations department of the Barbados government. They hold a collection of audio and video formats.

Adriana Cuervo, Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 238 Harding Band Building, 1103 S. Sixth Street, Champaign, IL 61820, USA, is the Assistant Archivist for Music and Fine Arts.

The Finnish Literature Society, The Folklore Archives, P.O.Box 259, FI-00171 Helsinki. Contact person: Risto Blomster, eMail: risto.blomster@finlit.fi

Christos C. Dokolas, Acoustic Digirecording Studios, Democratias Ave, 15127 Melissia, Greece, email: acoustics@ath.forthnet.gr, who has been involved in Pro Audio and Acoustics since 1972 and has done digitising and restoration for individuals and production companies and is about to do extensive transfers of traditional music (78rpm records, old tapes and cassettes) for the archives of a folk music institution.

A Facelift for IASA TC-03

The IASA Technical Committee has revised the earlier versions of IASA TC-03 The Safeguarding of the Audio Heritage: Ethics, Principles and Preservation Strategy, issued in February 1997 and September 2001. This revision is a consequence of the most recent developments in digital audio archiving. The document has also taken account of IASA-TC 04, Guidelines on the Production and Preservation of Digital Audio Objects, published in 2004. Accordingly, the IASA TC-03 concentrates on the principles of production and preservation of digital audio objects, and the IASA TC-04 provides detailed explanations of the practical consequences.

It is available as a bound, hard copy publication, which was sent to IASA members free of charge. Additional copies are available at €10 per copy, inclusive of postage. Bulk orders for training purposes can be ordered at €5 per copy plus bulk shipping.

Order forms are available on our website: Order

The IASA TC-03 is also available in .PDF format on our website: www.iasa-web.org/tc03/ethics-principles-preservation-strategy

Reglas de Catalogación de IASA

The IASA Cataloguing Rules have been translated into Spanish as Reglas de Catalogación de IASA and can be ordered directly from ANABAD, anabad@anabad.org

The price of the Reglas de Catalogación de IASA is €18, plus €5 for postage to Europe. For postage to America and the rest of the world an additional €7 will be charged.

María del Pilar Gallego Cuadrado

Co-ordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives Associations

The 9th meeting of the CCAAA was held on 31 March 2006 at UNESCO in Paris.

Richard Green reports: Gunnel Jönsson, our Secretary-General and I attended and, as the new kids on the block, were greeted by the 14 other attendees representing our partners, UNESCO, SEAPAVAA, FIAF, FIAT, ICA, IFLA, and AMIA. There was a strong IASA representation at the meeting with Crispin Jewitt as co-ordinator, Ray Edmondson representing SEAPAVAA, and Dietrich Schüller wearing his IFAP hat. We enjoyed meeting everyone and appreciated the warm welcome, which included a visit to the new Cinematheque and dinner on the evening of the 30th.

Of interest to IASA members was the application of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) to join the CCAAA. The application was accepted and ARSC will be represented by incoming President Sam Brylawski at the next meeting.

The register for the Memory of the World (MoW) Program was discussed, as there is a lack of audiovisual representation on the register. Part of the problem stems from the difficulty of defining 'universal significance' as it applies to audiovisual items. This became clear to the programme when it was proposed to list the classic film The Wizard of Oz. The MOW structure, with input from CCAAA members, has been undergoing reforms that we hope will result in clearer criteria. With that in place, more nominations are hoped for. Ray Edmondson offered to produce a statement to go on members' websites to encourage nominations.

The World Day of Audiovisual Heritage, 27 October, was the outcome of an initiative by the Czech Republic. UNESCO has accepted the concept but, before full confirmation, has requested a feasibility study, which will be conducted by Ray Edmondson. The study will look at related efforts, such as the FIAT appeal for broadcast heritage, amended recently at an IFAP meeting, and a proposal from the ICA for an international archives day. From IASA's point of view it is hoped that the feasibility study will come up with more inclusive language for the declaration so that it includes the broad range of sound and audiovisual archives that make up our membership. Consultation with CCAAA members for the feasibility study will take place shortly, as the report is expected by the end of the (European) summer.

The next Joint Technical Symposium (JTS), an event that always has strong appeal to, and participation from, IASA members, is now scheduled for North America in the spring of 2007, with AMIA taking the organizing lead. Exact dates and location should be announced shortly. The International Management Symposium (IMS) is on hold for the time being while a clearer idea of the programme, audience, and goals for this event is determined. There is general agreement that the concept has merit but needs a defined focus. This will be followed up at the next meeting.

Other topics covered included the international media training undertaken by the Thompson Foundation, the task team on training established by CCAAA (Pio Pellizzari is IASA's rep), SEAPAVAA's repatriation statement, the International Committee of the Blue Shield (ICBS), the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), and the Information for All Programme (IFAP). IASA is fortunate to have Kurt Deggeller as a willing representative for many of this alphabet soup of committees. It is important that CCAAA and IASA be at these meetings.

A lot of ground was covered for a single day and a lot for newcomers to absorb. Activity reports for all the organizations were circulated. IASA's CCAAA partners are busy and active in their fields. Next year it will be IASA's turn to chair the meeting, scheduled for 30 March in Paris. We will no longer be the new kids.

Richard Green
IASA President

UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage Feasibility Study Launched

UNESCO has now launched a public consultation on the objectives, practicalities, costs and expected results of a 'World Day for Audiovisual Heritage' to be celebrated annually on 27 October to promote global awareness of the various issues at stake in preserving the audiovisual heritage. Sound recordings and moving images in any form are vulnerable, and easily discarded or deliberately destroyed. Too much of the world's 20th century audiovisual heritage is now lost, and much more is slipping beyond recovery because of neglect, natural decay and technological obsolescence. Unless public awareness of the importance of preservation is increased, this trend will continue.

Therefore, in response to a proposal by the Czech Republic in October 2005, UNESCO's General Conference approved the proclamation of 27 October as the annual World Day for Audiovisual Heritage. The World Day for Audiovisual Heritage can be a means of building global awareness of the various issues at stake in preserving the audiovisual heritage. In accordance with normal practice, a feasibility study has been commenced to test the objectives, practicalities, costs and expected results of such an annual commemoration.

The date is significant. On 27 October 1980, the General Conference adopted the 'Recommendation for the safeguarding and preservation of moving images', the first international instrument to declare the cultural and historical importance of film and television recordings, and called for decisive steps to ensure their preservation.

In today's digital age, that call is going out to an even broader spectrum. More recent initiatives, such as the 'World Appeal for the Preservation of Broadcast Heritage' (initiated by the International Federation of Television Archives) which has garnered over 10 000 signatures so far - will also be embraced in the feasibility study.

Public consultation is a crucial part of the feasibility study, and it is open to everyone. UNESCO has therefore established an online platform with background documents, a public forum and a questionnaire. http://www.unesco.org/cgi-bin/webworld/portalsforum/gforum.cgi?forum=5

The questionnaire can be completed online, or downloaded and sent to:

Archive Associates Pty Ltd
100 Learmonth Drive
Kambah ACT 2902
Australia
Fax: +61 2 6231 6699
eMail: ray@archival.com.au

A Wiki and Preservation Issues

Richard Wright of the BBC writes that as he was working with information from the PrestoSpace project, he prepared a document in February 2006 intended as a general guide to preservation. To make this accessible and useful, he has now converted it into a Wiki. http://www.bbcarchive.org.uk/pmwiki

Richard has tried to put together useful information on how to cope with preservation issues. He suggests a set of steps to take: mapping the archive holdings, formulating a strategy (for the archive and for the preservation work), then drawing up a preservation plan. He gives examples, which he has reduced to quite simple tables.

The Wiki may be edit, although it is password protected. Anyone who is interested, may request the password from Richard.

Finally, a section on the commercial side (service providers) will be useful. Any suggestions on how to do it in an open and even handed way would be very welcome.

Richard would welcome more examples and more commentary on the work he has done. Please contact him at:

Richard Wright
Technology Manager, Projects
Tel: +44 (0)20 857 61341
eMail: richard.wright@bbc.co.uk

(For those who are not familiar with the term 'Wiki', it is a piece of server software that allows users to create and edit Web page content freely, using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and cross links between internal pages on the fly. http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki)

Second TAPE Workshop with IASA Experts

A second TAPE workshop on 'Management of Audiovisual Collections' was held from 19 to 25 April 2006 in Amsterdam, organized and hosted by ECPA, the European Commission on Preservation and Access. 20 attendees from 13 European countries were given the opportunity to broaden their knowledge of audio, video and film archiving.

TAPE stands for 'Training for Audiovisual Preservation in Europe' and is funded as a 3-year project  under the Culture 2000 programme by the EU. TAPE aims at raising awareness and training by expert meetings, research, publications and workshops. Target groups are in particular audiovisual collections held outside the major national institutions with specific responsibilities for audiovisual heritage (see www.tape-online.net).

Already in 2005 the first TAPE workshop had been supported actively by IASA experts Dietrich Schüller and Albrecht Häfner as trainers for sound and video archiving. At the recent second workshop, the team of two was strengthened by the addition of video specialist Franz Pavuza from the Phonogrammarchiv Vienna. Complementing one another for two days, they covered the whole range of audiovisual carrier subjects, such as: recording principles; composition and life expectancy;  handling and storage; playback equipment; formats and obsolescence; long term preservation; data reduction; signal extraction; digital storage systems. The rest of the workshop was dedicated to film and excursions.

A third TAPE workshop, similar to the first two, is planned for 2007 in Amsterdam.

Albrecht Häfner
SWR

BAAC Third Seminar

The new web site of Baltic Audiovisual Archival Council (BAAC) has been launched and information about the third seminar of BAAC in Riga, 21 24 September 2006 is now available.

BAAC is  an independent association but linked to The Nordic Branch of IASA. http://www.baacouncil.org/

Gunnel Jönsson
IASA Secretary-General

Heard Seen

Memoriav is organising an international symposium, Heard Seen, which will be held on 27 and 28 October 2006 in conjunction with the Faculty of Communication Sciences of the Università della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano (Switzerland).

The focus will be the use of audiovisual sources in academic research. Papers will be presented by academics from Germany, the UK, France and Switzerland. These papers will be presented in German, English, French, Italian, with no simultaneous translation.

Anyone who would like to receive the final programme should contact infos.@memoriav.ch

Kurt Deggeller
IASA Immediate Past President

Preserving the Past ... 30 years of maa

maa (Media Archives Austria) plans a one-day event to commemorate its 30th anniversary to be held in Vienna on 16 November 2006. The venue will be OeKB  Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG, Am Hof 4, Strauchgasse 1-3, 1011 Wien.

maa, the Federation of Austrian AV Archives, and the Austrian branch of IASA, promote the preservation and use of audiovisual documents, raising public awareness of this cultural heritage through large scale international networking. maa members include leading institutions from the world of sound and audiovisual archives, such as the ORF, Austrian National Library, Austrian Mediathek, Film Archive Austria, Phonogrammarchiv and many other scientific societies, university associations and institutes (see also http://www.medienarchive.at/verein_mitglieder_aa.shtml)

Beginning with a press conference, the one day event is devoted to lectures on the following topics:

  • long-term digital preservation

  • political situation: lobbying networking

  • AV archives in the Internet age

  • training

A detailed programme will follow in September 2006.

Christian Liebl
Phonogrammarchiv

SEAPAVAA 10 Years Old

The SEAPAVAA (South East Asia/ Pacific Audiovisual Archive Association) 10th anniversary conference will be held from 12 to 17 November 2006 in Canberra, Australia. The conference will be hosted jointly by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia and the New Zealand Film Archive.

The theme for the conference will be: The Visible Archive: Access, Advocacy and Accountability.

This is a special year for SEAPAVAA. It will be reviewing the achievements of its first decade and setting a vision for its second. The theme deals with the fundamentals of creating and running successful archives, regardless of the circumstances. SEAPAVAA's action agenda will focus on the South East Asia/Pacific region.

Registration details will be announced later.

MEMORIES : A New European Project for Audio Archives

MEMORIES is a new project within the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Union, following the proposal presented by the seven partners of the MEMORIES Consortium for a three-year research project beginning on 1 June 2006.

The main objective of MEMORIES is to develop an audio semantic indexing system allowing information retrieval for access to archive content.

The partners are mainly R&D companies:

  • Memnon Audio Archiving Services SA, Brussels, Belgium (co-ordinator)

  • Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

  • Mist Technologies, Paris, France

  • Pubgene AS, Oslo, Norway

and holders of Sound archives:

  • Radio Suisse Romande, Lausanne, Switzerland

  • Norwegian Institute of Recorded Sound, Stavanger, Norway

  • United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Paris, France

It is noteworthy that the idea of the MEMORIES project was born during IASA meetings held in Riga and Barcelona.

The main objectives of the project may be summarized as follows:

Acquiring media content, structuring and attaching metadata and controls, archiving and exploiting in various modes (i.e. organising easy access and powerful searches for the users) are complex processes for which many approaches have been developed. The present project intends to contribute to the elaboration of solutions to that challenge, having three specific objectives in mind:

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    • Maximum computer assistance to the archivists to attach ontology and semantics to the contents. The future operators will be assisted by an innovative facility of Source separation, combined with classic 'Speech to Text' transcription functions.

    • Maximum computer assistance to the users (customers, scientists ...) for searching and finding their targets in large databases. The future operators will be assisted by an innovative facility of Advance search based on semantic associations. Its development will apply, in the context of the media, strategies developed for biology and genetics, using the textual annotation associated with and within the media.

    • Open system approach. The project will design an implementation model, named AXIS, based on the reference model presented in the ISO standard Open Archival Information Systems:

    • Open to the acquisition and exploitation of old archives and new productions

    • Predictable persistence (assurance of integrity and long term availability)

    • Interoperability (capacity to exchange subsets of the databases)

    • Scalability (capacity to operate from small to large systems)

    • Adaptability (capacity to be adapted to the specific needs of a context

    The project will demonstrate the three innovations on a prototype system.

    It will generate two General Software Libraries, one for 'source separation', one for 'advanced searches'. The specifications of the open interchange format [based exclusively on standards and norms] will be made freely available under an Open Licence.

    For more information, please contact :

    • Michel Merten, Memnon Audio Archiving Services, rue du Belvédère 27, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
      e-mail: michel.merten@memnon.be, Tel. +32 2 643 47 77, Fax +32 2 649 87 01 (Project Coordinator).

    • Jean-François Cosandier, Radio Suisse Romande, avenue du Temple 40, 1010 Lausanne, Switzerland,
      e-mail: Jean-Francois.Cosandier@rsr.ch, Tel. +41 21 318 65 96, Fax + 41 21 318 19 36 (Dissemination leader).

    Hot off the Press

    Rainer E Lotz, former chairman of the IASA Discography Committee, has published another book-cum-CD: Die Deutsche Hot-Discographie, a handbook covering Cakewalk, Ragtime, Hot-Dance and Jazz.

    This new jazz discography is a weighty hard cover of some 460 pages, listing recordings by artist (chapter one) and by labels (chapter two), in landscape page lay-out format. The attached printable and searchable CD contains the same files, plus additional files sorted chronologically, by title, and vocalist. All the titles show the sequence of soloists, or the composer for cakewalks and rags. The book lists all sound documents of the 78rpm era, including mechanical music such as Symphonion type metal discs or piano rolls, and cylinders.

    The book is available at €60, plus postage (€7.00 surface mail, worldwide / €25.00 Airmail).

    For further details visit: http://www.lotz-verlag.de/books.htm

    PrestoSpace User Group

    The next PrestoSpace User Group meeting in Amsterdam has something for everyone. The meeting will take place over two days, 13 and 14 September 2006, in Amsterdam.

    The first day is a workshop for the small archive (non-specialists) called 'An Introduction to Audiovisual Preservation' and includes the chance for individual consultation on your particular situation. Attendance will be limited to 30 archives in order to keep a seminar atmosphere.

    The second day is designed more for big archives ('PS Technology for Audiovisual Preservation') and will be a showcase of all the PrestoSpace technology developed during the last year and a half.

    Those attending the first day are invited to stay for day two to see the technology as well.

    Registration deadline is 1 September 2006.

    More information is available at:
    http://www.prestospace.org/PrestoSpace_2006-09_Training.pdf

    or contact Beth Delaney at her email address: bdelaney@beeldengeluid.nl

    www.suizidal.de

    www.suizidal.de

    Bernd Wichert writes: 'When still at school at the age of 16 in the early 1960s we had extensive studies in the history of Fascism and especially National Socialism. To show us what it sounded like when people were bombarded with Nazi oratory and rhetoric full of hatred and disrespect of human rights our teacher used the only available sound recordings that were allowed in Germany: two boxed-sets of LPs with clips of speeches compiled chronologically. (BTW: according to former Occupation Law of 1945 and later by German Federal Law it was and still is prohibited to possess Nazi recordings, to buy, distribute or make them available to others unless for educational or scientific research.)'

    Bernd got so interested in the subject, and in the sound recordings, that he bought every pocket book on the Nazi period he could afford with his pocket money. Books on National Socialism had become popular and the book publishers jumped on the bandwagon as it was the time of the famous Auschwitz Trial (1963-65) in Frankfurt, the Majdanek Concentration Camp Trial in Düsseldorf, and a large number of trials vs individuals. Facts that shook the world came to light - and with them his interest in the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunals (1945-1949) was aroused. Later, as a student of History at Aachen University, he was able to acquire sound recordings of the IMT 1945/46, because he was writing a thesis about it in one of the advanced seminars.

    In the meantime his collection of sound clips had grown, taken from various documentary radio broadcasts that had their sounds from the DRA - the German Radio Archives that supported and still supports the various radio stations with sound recordings. In the last 30 years, with more research, he was able to get in touch with collectors and institutions from many parts of the world. Everybody had something of interest to exchange so that tens of thousands of items are now in his collection.

    Over the years, and thanks to the Internet, his main interest has changed to the search for, and research into, the very early sound recordings.

    It has become nearly impossible in Germany to get hold of 'originals'; 'Spoken Word' collectors in Germany hardly exist; most collect music classical, contemporary, or jazz shellacs.

    For years now IASA private collectors have complained about the lack of interest from institutions or archives in communicating with them, although they show interest in the individual collections and their research. They often hide behind the new Copyright Act. So Bernd regard his site as a platform for getting in touch with interested people, to inform about subject-related sites and news he receives. Thus he has expanded his site: it's not only about early speech recordings but also about any sound recording prior to 1945.

    He is currently working on digitisation of his sound recordings that deal with War Crimes. Long neglected items have surfaced again, which are probably not available elsewhere, especially when keeping in mind that broadcasting stations used to wipe the tapes for further use.

    Holdings: His catalogue shows approx. 80 000+ entries. Among them are: Cylinders (1888-1920s), radio broadcasts, speeches, addresses, rallies, propaganda broadcasts, V-discs, Edison Diamond Discs, off-air recordings, US Presidential recordings, parliamentary sessions in Germany since the foundation of our State in 1949, recitations, poetry, early German radio plays, etc. Of course, there are 'branches' such as Old-Time US radio series (which have also risen to an uncountable number ), propaganda films....

    Bernd says he is now doing what his History teacher did way back when... he uses sound recordings in his history classes whenever possible. The only difference is that he is able to present complete speech recordings and not extracts.

    Bernd's website can be visited at www.suizidal.de or contact him at:

    Gruenepleistr. 4
    52159 Roetgen nr Aachen
    Germany
    email: b_wichert@gmx.de

    Bernd Wichert

    Memoriav Bulletin Dedicated to Sound Jazz

    The Memoriav Bulletin No 13 has just been published. It is dedicated to sound. Among the highlights are an article on the archives of the Montreux Jazz Festival, which celebrates its 40th anniversary,  and an interview with the Swiss Jazz legend, Hazy Osterwald. Not to forget an interview with IASA vice-president and director of the national sound archive Pio Pellizzari. Texts are in German, French and Italian, but no English translations are available.

    The Bulletin can be ordered free of charge by emailing infos.@memoriav.ch

    Kurt Deggeller
    IASA Immediate Past President

    A One-day Course of What You Need to Know

    TAPE workshop, London, UK, 10 November 2006: preliminary announcement

    Seventy percent of all audiovisual material is under immediate threat of deterioration, damage or obsolescence - and seventy percent of collection managers don't know it. Surveys have found serious shortages of trained staff and equipment, and an even more serious shortage of concerted preservation actions. The immediate needs are: awareness - and help.

    This one-day course will provide basic information on the problems of audiovisual material, what to do about them - and where to get help and more information. The targets are culture, heritage and academic collections, to focus on a group of people and collections with broadly similar issues and solutions.

    Sponsored by:
    King's Digital Consultancy Service, King's College London: www.kdcs.kcl.ac.uk
    British Universities Film and Video Council: www.bufvc.ac.uk
    Training for Audiovisual Preservation in Europe: www.tape-online.net
    PrestoSpace: www.prestospace.org

    Fee: £60 includes lunch for non-profit making organisations (VAT will not be charged) or £180 (plus VAT) for the corporate sector (who will be allocated any remaining places not taken).

    Early registration is advised, as numbers will be limited to approximately 25 persons.

    For registration and further information
    http://www.kdcs.kcl.ac.uk/AVpres.htm

    Programme for the day:
    Basics: (1.5 hrs)
    Welcome and Introduction - KDCS
    Basic facts about audiovisual materials - BBC
    Lessons to be learnt from major film and video digitisation projects - BUFVC
    Digital Audiovisual Preservation: AHDS - Arts and Humanities Data Service

    Case Studies: (1.5 hrs)
    The ITN News Archive - a JISC project
    The British Library Sound Archive - a JISC project
    Preservation and access at the BFI - British Film Institute
    Preservation and Commercialisation - Imperial War Museum
    Preservation in a Research Institute - Welcome Institute

    Advanced topics: (2 hrs)
    Preservation Cost models - Southampton University (PrestoSpace)
    Audiovisual Websites and Portals - System Simulation Ltd (PrestoSpace)
    Metadata - BBC

    Sources of Help: PrestoSpace, TAPE, JISC, KDCS, AHDS, EC - BBC
    The JISC strategy for the future of audiovisual collections - JISC

    Open Question and Answer session.

    Attendees may book 15 minute individual consultancy sessions with the speakers from BBC, AHDS, KDCS and Prestospace after the end of the course until 6.00pm.

    European Commission on Preservation and Access (ECPA)
    P.O. Box 19121, NL-1000 GC
    Amsterdam,
    visiting address: c/o KNAW, Trippenhuis,
    Kloveniersburgwal 29,
    NL-1011 JV Amsterdam,
    The Netherlands
    Tel. +31 - 20 - 551 08 39
    Fax +31 - 20 - 620 49 41
    URL: http://www.knaw.nl/ecpa/

    ARSC Annual Conference

    The Association for Recorded Sound Collections held its 40th annual conference in Seattle Washington May 17-20, 2006. Seattle is one of the United States' most accommodating cities blessed with great scenery, good restaurants, a lively downtown, and an active cultural scene. More than 200 people, a record number for ARSC, attended the conference.

    The conference started with a well attended workshop, "A tutorial on the preservation of audio in the digital domain." IASA's TC-04 had a prominent role in the discussions and Kurt Nauck, ARSC's conference manager and IASA's sales agent in North America, was there to sell and take orders for the book. Those who have been to ARSC conferences know that the program is a mix of presentations of interest to both private and institutional collectors.

    Some focused on individual artists, some on technology and web sites, and others on copyright. Since my own particular focus is on web projects I was interested to hear David Patmore's talk on the CHARM project, as well as talks on the Encyclopaedic Discography of Victor Records and the University of California at Santa Barbara's cylinder site. For those dealing with the copyright dilemma, Peter McDonald outlined an initiative that he is taking at Syracuse University. Using his connections in the music industry he is trying to get discussion going on a cooperative, rather than a regulatory, approach with the record companies to digitize out-of print but still under copyright holdings.

    All the presentations were recorded and can be purchased through ARSC. More information and the conference program can be found at the ARSC web site.

    An invitation was extended to ARSC members to attend IASA's annual conference in Mexico City.

    Richard Green
    IASA President

    2000 Registered Users

    UNESCO's Audiovisual E-Platform: 2000th user registered.

    16-05-2006 (Paris) The 2000th community member registered in UNESCO's Audiovisual E-platform on 9 May. With this registration, the E-platform celebrates the consolidation of an important on-line community for the promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity through the audiovisual media.

    To gain access to the platform you can register at:
    http://creativecontent.unesco.org/welcome

    Calendar of Events

    2006

       
    29 Jan - 1 Feb SMPTE Advanced Motion Imaging / VSF VidTrans Joint Conference Hollywood, USA
    22-25 Mar 5th symposium on the preservation, study and use of ‘orphan films’ Columbia S.C., USA
    19 - 25 April TAPE Workshop Amsterdam, The Netherlands
    24-29 Apr 62nd FIAF Congress Sao Paulo, Brazil
    17 – 20 May 40th ARSC Annual Conference Seattle, USA
    20-23 May 120th AES Convention Paris, France
    5-8 June 3rd International Conference of Museology
    Audiovisuals as cultural heritage ... ‘
    Mytilene, Greece
    9-10 June IASA Nordic Branch triennial meeting Stockholm, Sweden
    30 Jun - 2 July 28th International AES Conference
    ‘Future of Audio Technology-Surround & Beyond’
    Piteå, Sweden
    20-24 August 72nd IFLA General Conference and Council Seoul, Republic of Korea
    28 August – 1 September SIBMAS
    http://www.sibmas.org/English/congress2006.html
    Vienna
    September SEAPAVAA 10th annual conference Canberra, Australia
    9-14 September IASA Annual Conference ’Between Memory & Oblivion Mexico City, Mexico
    6-9 Oct 121st AES Convention San Francisco, USA
    11- 14 October AMIA Annual Conference Anchorage, USA
    18-21 Oct SMPTE Technical Conference and Exhibition Los Angeles, USA
    26-30 Oct FIAT annual conference Madrid, Spain

    2007

       
    April 63rd FIAF Congress Tokyo, Japan
    August 73rd IFLA General Conference and Council Durban, South Africa
    September IASA Annual Conference Riga, Latvia
    2008    
    August XVI International Congress on Archives Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
    August 74th IFLA General Conference and Council Québec, Canada

    September

    IASA Annual Conference

    Sydney, Australia

    Source: www.ccaaa.org/

    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 57 BY 15 SEPTEMEBER 2006
    Printed and produced in South Africa by Heypenni Gold