FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2019

In 2014 the Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Board founded the Radio Archives Preservation Taskforce (RPTF), aiming to 1) encourage the collaboration between archivists and researchers in the field of radio history, 2) develop an online inventory of extant American radio archival collections, 3) identify and save endangered collections, 4) develop pedagogical guides for utilizing radio and sound archives and 5) act as a clearing house to encourage and expand academic study in the same field via grants, research caucuses, and development of metadata on extant materials.

In 2018 the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) decided to conduct a ground breaking survey amongst its members to gain information about the situation their radio archives were in. The very remarkable results of this survey were presented to an audience of broadcast directors, policy makers and archives specialists at an event in Brussels in September 2018. This publication was also the first visible result of the work of the Radio Archives Expert Group.

From both initiatives it becomes clear that radio archives now enjoy a renewed interest on both sides of the ocean. This workshop will present the main results of the EBU research and enhance the debate amongst the participants: what is the situation of your radio archive? Where does it stand in relation to the television archives? What are your preservation and access plans? How can we collaborate across national borders to reinforce its position?