NEWS ROUND-UP

NEW ZEALAND

 


UNESCO to hold 2nd Memory of the World international conference
in Colima, Mexico

 

        The Second International Conference of the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme will be held from September 27-29, 2000 in Colima, Mexico. The Conference will bring together specialists in preservation and access techniques and policies to discuss new trends in preserving and disseminating archives and library heritage materials. Librarians, archivists, historians, publishers, multimedia experts and scientists from all over the world are invited to participate.

The objectives of the Programme are to ensure the preservation of documentary heritage which has world significance and making this accessible for wide distribution thereby raising awareness in member States of their heritage which are significant in terms of common world memory.

        The Programme seeks to develop products based on this documentary heritage and make them available for wide distribution, while ensuring that originals are maintained in the best possible conditions of conservation and security.

        One of the highlights of the Conference will be a session devoted to project proposals to be matched with potential funding sources. Ideas which will enhance the visibility and implementation of the Memory of the World Programme in developing countries with particular attention to the Caribbean and Latin American countries will also be taken up.

        For more information and details about the Conference, please contact the UNESCO Information and Informatics Division at 1, rue Miollis 75015 Paris, France with Tel. 33.1.45.68.44.96, Fax

33.1.45.68.55.83, email: mow.conference2000@unesco.org

 

SEAPAVAA members at the JTS

 

        Through the assistance of UNESCO, SEAPAVAA was represented at the 5th Joint Technical Symposium (JTS) by Belina SB. Capul, SEAPAVAA Secretary General, and Mary Del Pilar, Technical Committee Chair, both from the Philippine Information Agency, and Dr. Ngo Hieu Chi from the Vietnam Film Institute and member of the Technical Committee. Ian Gilmour from ScreenSound Australia, another SEAPAVAA member, presented a paper on Pigment Binder Degradation and Life Expectancy of Magnetic Tapes.

        The 5th JTS was held in Paris, France from January 19 to 22, 2000 at the Auditorium of the Institut du Monde Arabe. The JTS Paris 2000 gathered, at the initiative of UNESCO, the international organizations involved in the preservation and restoration of original image and sound materials such as FIAF (Federation Internationale des Archives de Film), FIAT/IFTVA (International Federation of Television Archives), IASA (International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives), and other audiovisual archiving institutions.

        The subject of Paris 2000 5th JTS was "Image and Sound Archiving and Access: the Challenges of the 3rd Millennium." The 5th Symposium aims to be a

 

platform for specialists in audiovisual, cinema, and sound archiving to share scientific and technical researches as well as practical experiences. These inputs will in turn provide guidelines for action to curators, technicians, and researchers. During the three-day symposium, experts in audiovisual archiving presented papers on risk assessment in the preservation of image and sound materials, transfer and restoration of original image and sound, and data management systems and migration strategies.

        The JTS provided an opportunity for the SEAPAVAA members to form linkages with the other participants and be informed on the technical issues and concerns being addressed on an international level which could prove to be very beneficial in determining future directions and activities for the association.

         Also organized during the symposium was a tour of audiovisual archives and institutions such as BnF (Bibliotheque Nationale du France), Inatheque, IRCAM, Archives du film de Bois d'Arcy and ECPA (Etablissement Cinematographique et Photographique des Armees).

         The JTS is a scientific and technical event that was organized for the first time in Stockholm in 1983, then in Berlin (1987), Ottawa (1990), and London (1995).

 

IN MEMORIAM

 

        RAV RAKLUR, 87, minor official in the Papua New Guinea government, lived and worked in Port Moresby. In the late 1970s when the Mantong Conspiracy managed to briefly capture parts of Port Moresby, Raklur loaded a huge volume of archival material into a truck and braving both rebels and the torrential monsoon rains, drove the truck hundreds of miles to safety in the highlands of inland New Guinea. Armed with only a pistol, Raklur managed to secure the documentary heritage of the country. Government troops soon pushed the Mantong Conspiracy out of Port Moresby and back into the hills.

 

Soon after, Raklur drove the records back to the capital. For five years or so after that, Raklur served as the de facto national archivist and set up the first real records management and archives program in the country.

        Rav Raklur passed away in early February this year in Wewak, Papua New Guinea.

        He had been preceded in death by his wife, Lona, some years before. He is survived by three sons and many grandchildren and great granchildren.

 

        (Contributed by Gerald Pinkler Adrian Wood)

 

Page 12 – AV Archives Bulletin

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January-June 2000