Conference Conclusion

16th SEAPAVAA CONFERENCE
Creating, Funding, Protecting a Digital Archive
REX Hotel – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
14-21 April 2012

Conference Conclusion

The 16th SEAPAVAA Conference with the theme: “Creating, Funding, Protecting a Digital Archive,” ended with the following concluding statements:

1. Digitization is not equivalent to preservation. Preservation pertains to the totality of actions taken to ensure the continued accessibility of the AV Collection in the digital domain.
2. A well planned and executed preservation programme should already incorporate policies and strategies for managing risks , rights, and disaster mitigation, including contingencies for recovery in the event of disaster, among others. From the very beginning, permissions for rights should be worked out; and the risks, threats and the strategies to address them must already be identified;
3. Archives should be clear as to what it can preserve and what it wants to preserve in the digital format. Audio and video collection should move to AV digital archive to ensure long-term survival of the collection. As to films, expert opinion proposes to keep them in their original film format for preservation and digitize them for access.
4. There appears to be two models for starting a digital preservation programme:
   1. Start small with a modest number of materials and build on the experience to expand;
   2. Conceptualize the whole programme and how all the risks and challenges will be met;
5. Archives should endeavor to liaise with others who have similar interests or who may have developed the expertise required for the same kind of materials it is interested in for guidance and mentoring and/or for possible cooperative ventures;
6. There are different file formats to consider in creating digital archives: file format for preservation ; format for working copy and for access;
7. Digital collection would require an active maintenance programme to ensure that files are not corrupted and remain accessible. It involves establishing a data refresh regime suited to the life of the media and migration of data to new current hardware format. Adequate preservation metadata will be essential in all these.
8. Appraisal and selection of digitally born AV archives issues, approaches and strategies need further discussion and thinking through.
9. Archives should maintain awareness of evolving methods at standards to make the tasks of preservation easier.
10. The Archives may play a role in influencing the tasks of preservation by educating the filmmakers beforehand about the preservation issues in the digital age especially with regards to the choice of format in producing the film.
11. Public support is the key to funding and web-based public access platforms (Youtube, cloud computing, etc) are key to public support; advocacy and clear communication with various stakeholders must be undertaken to ensure success.
12. In terms of the way ahead, AV archives need to keep abreast of the evolving digital technology and continue to build their capacity to respond to these challenges.

Concluding statements recorded by Belina Capul