UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage

On October 27, the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage is celebrated internationally to raise awareness of the need to preserve audiovisual assets in our collections for current and future generations.

The theme for this year is “Archives at Risk: Much More to Do”. Visit the official website to see how collecting institutions around the world are acknowledging this day.

Here at State Library, we have original film, video and audio items that reflect the culture and history of Queensland. The fragility of audiovisual formats makes it critical to preserve as much of the collection as possible via proper storage, treatment and transfer of content. There is an ongoing program of transferring analogue content to digital formats to provide access to the content and for preservation purposes. Significant collections or at-risk collections are identified and prioritised for digitisation as part of this program.

You can watch a range of our existing digitised movies on Flickr Commons.

Currently we are working on the Playback Oral History Project, where public libraries, community museums and historical organisations in Queensland were invited to submit a small selection of their oral histories to be digitised, made accessible and preserved. Participants from seven organisations identified historical local oral recordings for digitisation and reformatting by SLQ. These participants are in turn creating and presenting new material from the digitised content. You can visit the project webpage to hear extracts of audio recordings from the various participants. The seven collections of more than one hundred oral history recordings will be available through our catalogue in mid-November 2014. Watch for announcements via SLQ website, Twitter, Facebook and our blogs.

You can do your part for World Day for Audiovisual Heritage. Locate your audiovisual items that might have been forgotten and make a start by caring for your collections. Here are some links to guides to preserving your collection, to ensure that your heritage materials are accessible in the future.

• State Library of Queensland:  www.slq.qld.gov.au/resources/preserving-collections/preservation_guides
• National Archives of Australia – Preserving Magnetic Media:  www.naa.gov.au/records-management/agency/preserve/physical-preservation/magnetic-media.aspx
• National Film and Sound Archive – Care for Audiovisual Materials:  www.nfsa.gov.au/preservation/care/

Swee Cheng Wong - Audiovisual Conservator, State Library of Queensland