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).