International Archives Day #IAD15

One of the oldest reel tapes in the SABC Radio Archives - from 1926

1926 Speeches by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick & Gen JBM Hertzog
from SABC Radio Archives

This year International Archives Day focus on democracy and rights, but also sharing photos from Archive collections worldwide.

Spanish archives are celebrating with the hashtag #NoSinArchivos (#NotWithoutArchives)

The SABC Radio Archives shares the following from the audio archives - with the focus on democracy.

Shared for International Archives Day #IAD15 #democracy - the voice of Nelson Mandela at his release on 11-... https://t.co/kaPRjIEZ2y

— SABC Radio Archive (@SABCRadioArc) June 9, 2015

The top five reasons why archives are awesome are a great way to celebrate this day!

1. Archives are history!

2. Archives are evidence!

3. Archives are vital for democratic accountability!

4. Archives are about us, our stories, or lives!

5. Archives document the environment!
                                 Read here for the in-depth discussion: Archives Outside




Related posts:

- International Archives Day on 9 June 2015 - Celebrate democracy and rights #IAD15

- World War 1 content from SABC archives shared on Twitter via #WW1archives

International Archives Day on 9 June 2015 - Celebrate democracy and rights #IAD15

Reblogged from followanarchive and AskArchivists

Photo from the SABC Radio Archives 

International Archives Day

This year's activities on 9 June will concentrate on democracy in many ways.

The National Archives of the United Kingdom has come up with this topic, suggesting that we make June 9th. a "Twitter day where archives share stories and records within their collection showcasing democracy and rights in different ways". 

It is a subject, that most archives can relate to and tell stories about. No matter if you are a large, national archive, a municipal institution or a community archive, we all have records and other material, that can be used to tell the story of democratic development, and people who have stood up for their rights. 

Ideas about what to share, could be records that: 

• have established fundamental rights in your country 
• tell the story of individuals, who played a part in establishing democratic conditions 
• relate to rights of specific groups ( indigenous, ethnic, LGBT, women, children...) 
• show the history of the right to form trade unions and political or religious communities 
• picture election and election days, both national and local 
• sound archives with important speaches, interviews etc. 

Your contribution 

And finally your contribution could naturally also be constitutional documents of huge importance and great archival beauty. It is your choice, and we look forward to your contribution. 

#IAD15 #democracy : register on blog Ask Archivists 

If you wish to join, make a comment on the same blogpost on the weblog of Ask Archivists. And on June 9th. post your content to relevant platforms - blogs, flickr, instagram, your website, etc. - and tweet about it using the combination of two tags: #IAD15 #democracy. 

Join International Archives Day on Twitter! 

We hope a lot of archives will join, and help show the world, how archives play a vital part in documenting the history of democracy.

South Africa had a National Archives Week here last week, and The Archival Platform published ten reasons to celebrate archives. It slots in perfectly with International Archives Day.

TEN REASONS TO CELEBRATE ARCHIVES 

* Our national archival heritage is held safe in many hands, providing us with the resources that we need when we reckon with the past, try to understand the present and plan for or imagine the future. 

* The passionate and hard-working archivists who do their best to preserve and promote our archival heritage even though they often work under very difficult circumstances. 

* Records managers who work to keep the records of government safe so that they can be used by the state and civil society and honour the constitutional commitment to transparent and accountable governance. 

* Active citizens who use records to hold government to account – as citizens in a democratic state should. 

* The officials who process Promotion of Access to Information (PAIA) requests promptly to honour the constitutional promise of freedom of access to information. 

* Archive activists who collect and preserve the resources that complement the records of government and fill the gaps in the historical record. 

* Individuals and families who hold the records of their personal pasts safe for future generations. 

* Universities who make a significant but often unacknowledged contribution in building our national archival heritage. 

* Museums and libraries, though often not thought of as archives, who hold collections that people can draw on to understand the past. 

* The positive signs that tell us that government is beginning to take responsibility for ensuring that the national archival system is adequately resourced and capacitated to meet its important mandates!

Photo: From the Archives:
Record Cover of "Die Wêreld van Pierneef", a well-known painter of South Africa, with a tribute audio package compiled by J.F. Marais, for the radio service, Afrikaanse Diens. It was produced in 1963.
The painting reflects the South African landscape. 

South African National Archives Week 5 -9 May 2014 - SABC Radio Archives busy with 2014 Elections

The SABC Radio Archives have been busy with requests for the South African National Elections 2014 this week, which culminated in voting day on 7 May.
It is the same week of National Archives Week from 5 - 9 May 2014.

The theme for National Archives Week is:

“Archives for Democracy, Accountability and Transparency”.

The SABC Sound Archives preserves material for the following reasons (copied from the SABC Media Libraries website) - which addresses the theme of this week perfectly!

• "To preserve SABC broadcasts and raw material as a corporate function;
• To be of service as a well-organised source of broadcast material to the SABC;
• To preserve permanently highlights in the history of the development and broadcast patterns of broadcasting in South Africa;
• To bequeath to future generations an audio-image of South Africa at certain periods as it was portrayed by the SABC;
• To provide researchers with information and facts on sound carriers that are not available in any other form;
• To preserve, as part of the National Broadcaster’s function and as far as possible, complete recordings of the South African culture legends and oral traditions) including a comprehensive set of nature and habitat sounds of South Africa."

Obakeng Phiri, Sound Restoration Archivist, found the following clip from 20 years back - our first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994.

With the 2014 elections, the SABC Radio Archives are especially busy during this time with requests about the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994. This clip is from a report by Angie Kapelianis in 1994 and Nelson Mandela saying that the first vote is a great moment in South Africa.

The SABC Radio Archives is part of the SABC Media Libraries, the information hub for audio and printed material relating to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), the national broadcaster of South Africa.


Web: SABC Radio Archives

Facebook: SABC Radio Archives

Twitter: SABC Radio Archives


Blog post by Karen du Toit, and audio clip found by archivist Obakeng Phiri.

Democracy in sound

Opening parliament on the 2nd February 1990, Pres. F.W. de Klerk, in his first speech after assuming National Party leadership, called for a non-racist South Africa, for unbanning of liberation movements and for negotiations about the country’s future. This year on the 11th February 2010, 20 years after the release of Nelson Mandela, South Africans commemorated these events by opening parliament in the evening for the first time in history.

- Bernard Monyai, SABC Radio Archives