NEWS ROUND-UP

 

SEAPAVAA conducts Training Seminar on the Preservation and Restoration of Video and Audio Tape Materials

 

     The first phase of the Training Seminar on the Preservation and Restoration of Video and Audio Tape Materials was held consecutively in Jakarta, Indonesia and Manila, Philippines from February 7-14, 2000. This seminar was conducted by SEAPAVAA in cooperation with UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and the host institutions: Sinematek Indonesia and the PIA.

       This project is part of a regional training program being undertaken by SEAPAVAA to address the problems and concerns in video and audio tape collections in the Asia-Pacific region. The training programme aims to provide participants with an understanding of the technological and physical problems facing the magnetic collections and recommend directions for development; and to recommend practical workable solutions to video and audio tape preservation and restoration problems as well as methods and techniques to deal with current issues.

        The resource persons for the first phase of the training seminar were two experts in video and audio tape materials namely: Dietrich Schueller and Ken Rowland. Dietrich Schueller is the head of the Austrian Phonogrammarchiv in Vienna and currently is chairman of the IASA Technical Committee, member of the SEAPAVAA Technical Committee and the Audio Engineering Society. Ken Rowland, on the other hand, heads the Film Printing and Processing Laboratory at the National Film and Sound Archive/ ScreenSound Australia and has a long career as a technician and manager in various aspects of film and video technology.

        In Jakarta, there were 23 participants from the National Library, National Archive, both government

 

 

The training seminars were held in Manila (top) and Jakarta (below)

 

 

 

and private television and radio stations, and the enthomusicology society. Sinematek Indonesia hosted the project with support from the Directorate Jenderal for Cultural Affairs of the Ministry of Education and the National Archive.

        In the Philippines, the seminar was participated in by 61 representatives from audiovisual archiving institutions, both government and private, as well as universities, museums, music libraries and broadcasting networks in the country. The project was implemented by the Philippine Information Agency as host institution in cooperation with the Society of Film Archivists (SOFIA) and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

        Among the topics that were covered in the training seminar were: preservation issues such as cleaning and treating physical and mechanical deterioration, storage

 

 

and handling; ethics, guidelines and current preservation practices; and the digital future and format obsolescence.

        During the course of their stay in both countries, the resource persons conducted visits to video and audio archiving institutions in order to provide on-site consultations of problems and concerns on their collections. The participants were encouraged to bring sample video and audio tape materials with significant or indicative problems from their collection for possible consultation with resource persons so that specific preservation strategies or treatments can be discussed and developed.

        The training seminars in both countries were highly successful and effective due to the generous support of the participating institutions, the enthusiasm of the participants and the expertise of the resource persons. The outcome further affirmed SEAPAVAA's belief that this

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January-June 2000