British Library Audiovisual Archiving training workshop

British Library

A British Library Audiovisual Archiving training workshop is busy taking place here at the SABC from 28 March to 1 April 2011.

The workshop focuses on audio and video archiving and will be funded by the British Library who will also do the training. For this workshop the British Library in cooperation with the SABC Media Libraries have invited:

1. The SABC Regions who do not always have hands-on access to training
2. One participant from the following 5 countries who are SABA members: Namibia, Swaziland, Lesotho, DRC and Angola. We are working closely with UNESCO in this regard.

The SABC hosts and provides the necessary equipment. Where the SABC do not have the required equipment, the British Library brought the equipment with them.The British Library is funding the workshop as well as the workshop delegates.

25 people are attending, with representatives from Namibia, Swaziland, Lesotho and the DRC.

The SABC Media Libraries hope that this will be the beginning of a long-term relationship with the British Library and that both SABA and the SABC will benefit greatly from this initiative with more member countries to get involved. – Ilse Assmann (Manager, SABC Media Libraries)

The invitation letter from Dr Janet Topp Fargion, Lead Curator, World and Traditional Music of the British Library had the following details:

The British Library has received support from the World Collections Programme to run a course on sound and audiovisual archiving in South Africa. The programme builds on similar training provided in Kenya since 2009.

Participants for the programme are being drawn from the SABC Regional branches and from broadcast archives in other southern African countries.

The training will cover issues of documentation and collection management, digitization of audio and video collections, and storage. It will take place in studios of the SABC to ensure as much hands-on experience as possible. For this reason too the number of participants is being kept to a minimum.

The trainers from the British Library will include Dr Janet Topp Fargion (Lead Curator, World and Traditional Music), Andrew Pearson (Maintenance Repair & Design Engineer, Sound and Vision) and Will Prentice (Head of Technical Services, Sound and Vision).

Springbok Radio Revisited

When I tell people that I work with Springbok Radio material at the SABC Radio Archives, I, in most cases (if age allows) see the curtains of remembrance open, and memories starting to roll in their eyes...  “I remember how we used to rush home from school to listen to the afternoon stories”, “I remember Taxi... and do you have Squad Cars...?”, “There used to be this quiz program... oh, and the Sari Award served as a jump start for a lot of artists...” and “Springbok Top 20, with, who again, oh yes, David Gresham...” are some of the dialogue playing in these memories.  And yes, I remember, in fact, it is so fresh in my memory as if it happened yesterday, because, well, it did!  Yesterday I listened to 13 programs of High Adventure, last week I listened to General Motors on Safari, and next week, let’s see, The Pip Freedman Show might happen all over again.

That is my job and my passion, to retrieve and catalog as many Springbok Radio Programs possible, in order to make it available to you, the loyal Springbok Radio listener. 

It all started with Frans Erasmus, from the Springbok Radio Preservation Society, whose passion for Springbok Radio never ceised.  He collected a lot of programs throughout his life, and is still working at it to get material from all collectors out there.  Yes, a lot of the programs still exist.  People recorded it, producers kept it, and now, through Frans, it is coming back to the SABC.  Factors like re-use of tapes and the non-existence of an official Archive in those years contributed to the fact that the SABC Radio Archives didn’t have a lot of the Springbok Radio material.  Copyright and broadcast rights of most of the material belong to the SABC though, which means exploitation by any means must go through the SABC.

My mission is to make Springbok Radio material available to the public.  I believe it belongs in the ears of those who remember, and of those who love good radio.  Therefor, with Frans’ help, I am retrieving as much material possible, as well as the copyright details thereof, so that you can buy and listen to the material again.

At the moment the focus is on “obvious” programs, of which the copyright clearly belongs to the SABC.  What I do is to catalog the material, and publishing the catalog to the SABC Media Libraries page.  Listener’s can then order material from our Radio Program Sales Department.  After this I will work on less obvious programs in order to clear the copyright and also make that available.

In the meantime programs can be listened to on the Springbok Radio Preservation Society’s stream.  I have a dream to make programs digitally available someday soon.  There are a lot of permissions needed for this, therefor it is a lengthy process, but I will keep at it till whenever!

So, folks, keep listening, and “if I don’t see you through the week, I’ll see you through the window.”

The cast of "Taxi", Patricia Sanders, George Korelin & Tony Jay

Retha Buys

Senior Archivist: Eng & Afr requests / Springbok Radio

Tel: +27 11 714 2772

E-mail: buysr@sabc.co.za

Ask Archivists Day on June 9th 2011 on Twitter

#AskArchivists Day

Archivists are active on social networks, especially on Twitter. It is a great way to connect and to form intellectual bonds with archivists on a global scale. The SABC Radio Archives are also active on Twitter: @SABCRadioArc.

The Ask Away on #AskArchivists Day is another initiative on Twitter which is located by the hash-tag AskArchivists #AskArchivists. It is managed by Charlotte Jensen of the National Museum (National Museet) in Copenhagen (Denmark) & Anneke van Waarden-Koets of the Zealand Archive (Zeeuws Archief) in Middelburg (the Netherlands). Thank you for the inspiration, Archivists! We appreciate it!

On June 9th 2011 archives worldwide will connect and will answer any question addressed to them on Twitter. Already a number of Archives has put up their details on the open Google doc. The SABC Radio Archives have joined as well, and we try to follow Archives joining in with the #AskArchivists on Twitter.

I have copied the banner that they have made available on their blog AskArchivists, and have put it up on the post. The shortened link to it: http://bit.ly/gcsugx

Will you join us as well?

Karen du Toit

SABC Radio Archives

Interview with a Record Librarian at the SABC Record Library: Sound Effects and Mood Music

Elmarie Liebenberg
SABC Record Library

This is an interview as part of a series of blog posts to gain a better understanding of the SABC Record Library, as well as part of a series of blog posts about the SABC Media Libraries. It is a way of generating a better understanding of what we do in the different sections that we belong to.

The interview this week is with Elmarie Liebenberg, a Record Librarian in the SABC Record library.
The Record Library houses recorded music, previously unavailable, as well as all genres of recorded music, including Jazz, Gospel, Kwaito, Rap, Rave, Classical, World, Light, Mood, Sound Effects and others. The music is regularly accessed by staff and made available to internal clients.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself. (Where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Record Library)

I grew up in Prieska, after matric I became a Matie in Stellenbosch where I got a degree in Physical Education. Married a farmer and lived on a farm in Bonnievale for 20 years, then moved to a farm in the Waterberge area between Nylstroom and Vaalwater. Left the farm in 1992 and started at the SABC Record Library, (my first job), moved to the Sound Effects and Mood Music section, retired and now back on contract until….
 Please tell us about a normal day in your office. What music do you give priority to?

A normal day involves: attending to e-mails, filing of CDs, updating the library, assisting the users/compilers/sound engineers, capturing information onto the computer.

Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve in the record library.

We keep sound effects and mood/production music CDs in this section. Sound effects CDs (the sounds you hear in dramas, stories, programmes etc.) are very expensive, most of them imported and not available in shops. The SABC has a selection on transcriptions compiled by SABC sound engineers. No royalties to be paid when using sound effects. At present we have 38 FX (sound effects) libraries.
Mood or Production music is music specifically written for inclusion in audio and/or audio-visual productions. The music is already recorded for convenient synchronization and/or dubbing into productions. It’s range encompasses recorded versions of classical works, fanfares, bridges, stings etc., in fact almost any type of musical accompaniment or backing to almost any scene. At present we have 150 MM libraries in the FX/MM section.
Mood/Production music is less expensive than commercial music and readily available. It is licensed – in most cases – at published rates and pre-clearance is not necessary. You pay a set fee to clear the music and the recording.
By comparison, if you wish to dub a commercial record onto your production, you have to negotiate fees both with the music copyright owner and the record company before making the production.

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do.

I love music and enjoy assisting the users in compiling a production. I often have to try to think what they have in mind and then search for the right piece of music or sound!

Related posts:
Interview with a Record Librarian in the SABC Record Library: William Rapabi
Interview with a Record Librarian at the SABC Record Library: Justice Muthakhi
Interview with a Systems Administrator in the SABC Record Library: Marinda Wolmarans

Questions and post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

Interview with the Librarian at the SABC Newspaper Cutting Section

Themba Mtshali
SABC Newspaper Cutting Section

This is an interview as part of a series of blog posts to gain a better understanding of the SABC Media Libraries and what we do in the different sections that we belong to.

The interview this week is with Themba Mtshali, the Information Librarian who works in the Newspaper Cutting Section of the SABC Information Library.

This section has a collection of 3200 000 newspaper articles. The following newspapers are ordered for this section: Beeld, Sowetan, Business Day, Star, Citizen, Mail and Guardian, Rapport, Sunday Times, Sunday Independent, Sunday World and the City Press. Every day articles are scanned in on the Newbase System and then electronically get cut, pasted and indexed.

Themba, please tell us a little bit about yourself. (Where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Information Library)

Answer: My name is Themba Mtshali. I was born in Soweto. I studied and passed my matric in KZN during the 1976 unrest. In 1981 I joined Standard Bank and worked as a Clerk. After that I worked at a NGO Company in Braamfontein as project coordinator for 5 years. In 1995 I joined the SABC as Desk Help Officer for late Dr Ivy Matsepe Cassaburi’s office. In 1996 I joined the SABC Media Libraries at the Cutting Service Section.

Please tell us about a normal day in your office. What newspaper articles do you give priority to?

Answer: My normal day in office starts with fetching newspapers from the security office at ground floor in the morning. I look through the papers for SABC articles to be scanned first and start scanning other newspapers thereafter. We give priority to current affairs news mostly form politics, sport, health etc. I also give attention to information requests that come to our office and cut, paste and index sports articles.

Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve in the library.

Answer: Our collection consists of newspaper articles that are scanned as well as newspaper articles that were cut and pasted and filed into files before we got the digital system. The focus is mostly on politics of the past and present government; SABC collections from when the SABC was established to present date. The newspaper collection is very vast and varied in its scope.

Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what?

Answer: Not much, but when we do have problems with our system server, we have BIT to assist us.

If you have an anecdote about a specific piece of interesting information, please share it with us.

Answer: As I am a sports fan, particularly soccer fan, I would like to preserve the history of soccer in South Africa.

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do.

Answer: The job keeps me well informed about what’s happening around me.

Related posts:
Interview with the Librarian at the SABC Information Library: Newspaper Cutting Section
Interview with the Information Librarian at the SABC Information Library

Questions and post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

The Weekly Archivist interview: Music Archivist

Florence Moshatana
Music Archivist: SABC Radio Archives

The SABC Radio Archives has seven Archivists who specialize in specific areas/languages of expertise with regards the audio collections being kept in the Archives. A weekly interview is posted where the same questions are asked to each of the Archivists.

The Archivist answering the questions this week is Florence Moshatana. She is the Music Archivist. She has been with the SABC Radio Archives for 4 years.

Florence, please tell us a little bit about yourself. (Where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Radio Archives)

I was born in Pimville, and grow up in Botlokwa district, Ha Phasha village. I began my music studies in 1993 at Madimba Institution of African music with the aim of learning African music. After completing my diploma, the only institution that was available to learn indigenous music was Rhodes University and the University of Venda. I  went to UNIVEN in 1994 to study music. I managed to obtain Bachelor of Arts in Music (BAMUS); Honours degree in music (BAHMUS) and a post graduate diploma in Education (PDGE) (music methodology). In 2004 I joined SAPS Band (Mpumalanga police band) where I played Euphonium and Alto saxophone. They perform indoor and outdoor; police parades; street matches and Polmusca festivals.

Please tell us about a normal day in your studio. What material do you give priority to?

My normal day in the studio involves recording, editing, cataloguing, quality checking and labels.
The material that I give priority to is music interviews, presentation and discussion.

Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve.

My backlog includes music and music programs from different radio stations such as SAFM and RSG.

Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what?

I do encounter challenges in Dalet, and sometimes Wavelab. Marius, our sound engineer, is always available to help.

If you have an anecdote about a specific piece of interesting audio material, please share it with us.

Music interview and performance: RSG Programme (Oppiradio): Frits Klaaste in conversation with Ishmael Pops Mohammed about Khoisan music, the history (language), instruments and the style of music. It is very valuable in terms of heritage value!

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do.

I feel comfortable working in a music environment, being knowledgeable about serious and light music, challenges and problems experienced by musicians in the music industry and educators in the classroom. And also meeting researchers from other countries, such as the UK.

Related posts:
The Weekly Archivist interview: News and Actuality
The Weekly Archivist interview: Sport Archivist
The Weekly Archivist interview: Channel Africa collection

Questions and blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

Interview with a Record Librarian at the SABC Record Library: William Rapabi

William Rapabi
SABC Record Library

This is part of a series of blog posts to gain a better understanding of the SABC Record Library, as well as part of a series of blog posts about the SABC Media Libraries. It is a way of generating  a better understanding of what we do in the different sections that we belong to.
The interview this week is with William Rapabi, or Raps, the Record Librarian in charge of the check-out counter at the Record Library.

The SABC Record Library houses recorded music, previously unavailable, as well as all genres of recorded music, including Jazz, Gospel, Kwaito, Rap, Rave, Classical, World, Light, Mood, Sound Effects and others. The music is regularly accessed by staff and made available to internal clients.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself. (Where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Record Library)

My name is William M. Rapabi, and I was born in Soweto (Molapo location) where I started primary schooling. In 1976 I went to Witsieshoek now called Qwaqwa to do high school studies. Having completed high school, I then attended college in Johannesburg doing a mixture of courses that included switchboard, office administration, typing …… aag I have forgotten the others, and please don’t ask me what the diploma was called. While still in college the SABC came looking for workers and I got my employment.

Please tell us about a normal day in your office. What music do you give priority to?

My job mainly entails signing in and out of music(CD’s) to compilers, dj’s, producers, to mention but a few doing different programmes on radio or television.  Naturally their choice of music would differ according to content required. Reminders are always send to users to check in what they loaned from the library because if after 6 weeks CD’s are still outstanding, deductions from their salaries is done to replace those CD’s.  The packing slips and audit trails are filed daily to keep record of what went out and came back.

Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve in the record library.

The collection and scope of material we have has already been elaborated on by Justice Muthakhi. I would specifically want to talk about the indigenous music that only the SABC has on transcriptions that really needs preserving. It is gold to this company.

Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what?

Talking about technical difficulties Here I don’t wish to do deductions on the same day that salaries are done because then I have time frames and unfortunately we both tap into main-frame and the system becomes very slow.

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do.

Why I enjoy doing the work: I love working with music and enjoy listening to music. Whatever circumstances I’m in, music will always pull me through. Thank you.

Related posts:
Interview with a Record Librarian at the SABC Record Library
Interview with a Systems Administrator at the SABC Record Library

Questions and post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

Interview with the Librarian at the SABC Information Library: Newspaper Cutting Section

Thelma Hlapolosa
SABC Information Library

This is an interview as part of a series of blog posts to gain a better understanding of the SABC Media Libraries and what we do in the different sections that we belong to.

The interview this time is with Thelma Hlapolosa, the Information Librarian who works in the Newspaper Cutting Section of the SABC Information Library.

This section has a collection of 3200 000 newspaper articles. The following newspapers are ordered for this section: Beeld, Sowetan, Business Day, Star, Citizen, Mail and Guardian, Rapport, Sunday Times, Sunday Independent, Sunday World and the City Press. Every day articles are scanned in on the Newbase System and then electronically get cut, pasted and indexed.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself. (Where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Information Library)

Answer: My name is Nonhlanhla Thelma Hlapolosa, a mother of three. I grew up in Soweto (Mzimhlophe to be specific). I am currently studying Human Resource Management through UNISA. I did not have any experience when I started here in the SABC. I was fresh from school with my Matric and employed as a temp.  (That was 1994). I was employed as a library assistant. Then my contract was extended from six months to a year from a year to permanent post in May 1995.

Please tell us about a normal day in your office. What newspaper articles do you give priority to?

Answer: My normal day starts on my way to work with news post on the road of headlines from different newspapers. By the time I am in the office I already know what the requests are going to be, from scandals of celebrities to politics and sports and current affairs. Newspapers are scanned by Themba Mtshali. Then we select what we view as important topics. Information requests from clients come by email, telephone or otherwise (internally/externally). Data cleansing is done while indexing. We search information on Sabinet, Newbase, Media24 and other search engines; export articles to the intranet; monitor the Newbase server; update topic list on the system and administrate and correct minor mistakes done during indexing and scanning processes.

Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve in the library.

Answer: The cutting section has a backlog of manual files of about a million articles (not currently scanned or indexed on Newbase). The Newbase system has a backlog from 2006 to date. Last year we managed to put all TRC collection on the system. However, the Mandela collection and the ANC, SABC and Elections collections still need to be scanned and indexed.

Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what?

Answer: Some days we do experience technical difficulties, the server would just act up and we need to reboot our system, wait for BIT to assist us but we manage. It needs to be said that we have a good system (Newbase).

If you have an anecdote about a specific piece of interesting information, please share it with us.

Answer: I can say all the collections, especially articles from the files. However I came across the ANC and NNP files and there is a lot that needs to be preserved. If it were up to me I would say every file in cutting service should be scanned and indexed immediately.

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do.

Answer: The satisfaction on the faces of all our clients and learning the history of the country on a daily basis is fascinating!



Related post:
Interview with the Information Librarian at the SABC Information Library

Questions and blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives