A 10-year vision for protecting sound and image heritage
Last September in Brussels, over 200 delegates from around the world attended the 1st international “Unlocking Sound and Image Heritage”, to jointly define a 10-year vision for audiovisual archives. To celebrate World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, the SOIMA community invites colleagues from the audiovisual archive field to provide feedback on our vision and how to reach it.
ICCROM’s SOIMA programme is aimed at building capacity for preservation of – and access to – sound and image collections held by museums, archives, libraries and a variety of other cultural institutions. The programme came as a response to UNESCO’s 2005 call to safeguard the world’s endangered audiovisual heritage.
In addition to training, SOIMA activities include the creation of instructional and reference materials, and promoting knowledge exchange through meetings and symposia. Thanks to six international courses, ICCROM has been successful in building a community of 100 professionals spread over 56 countries.
The programme has created a pool of international trainers who are now being engaged to lead SOIMA training activities in different languages.
The 10-years vision outlined by those who attended the September conference envisages a world where digital sounds and images will be fully integrated into peoples’ lives.
As a result, collecting institutions will have to manage large quantity of assets in a dynamic and multifaceted context. The professionals who will be managing such content will need to liaise with a variety of stakeholders from dfferent sectors ranging from education and research, creative industries (publishing, broadcasting and games), tourism, journalism and many others.
Parallel to the the SOIMA programme, ICCROM is working to preserve and digitize its own unique audiovisual collection. Embedded within this content is the story of ICCROM’s evolution and that of field of the conservation of cultural heritage.