IN LIGHT of the tragic history which has been told about Jamaica's archiving, especially in relation to the lost Ring Ding and other such tapes, a conference on archiving audio visual material is more than timely. In realisation of this The National Library of Jamaica and the Local Organising Committee launched the first Caribbean Audio Visual Information Conference (CAVIC) 2003 last week.
Under the title 'Audio Visual Archiving: Our National Heritage and History', the conference is scheduled to run from November 4 to 9 at the Knutsford Court Hotel, Kingston and the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies.
The conference should be of interest to everyone who creates, organises, distributes and preserves film, video, and audio tapes as well as radio and television programmes. As such, it should impact on the work of libraries, radio stations, free to air television and cable television among others.
The conference launch took place at the 'Talk of the Town Restauraunt' at The Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston. Hopeton Dunn, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Creative Production and Training Centre (CPTC) Limited, chaired the event. Dunn pointed out that Jamaica has already suffered "very serious mishaps in the past" in the preservation of our sound material.
CULTURAL HERITAGE
He argued that the conference is particularly timely as the Caribbean is currently, and has been for some time, "wrestling" with the preservation of its cultural heritage, of which audio visual documents are an important part.
The conference is slated to cover such issues as intellectual property rights in relation to archived materials, sales of archived material, use of the material in television programming, preparing for natural disasters, ethics and the presence of Caribbean audio-visual heritage in other archives.
Using a combination of workshops and panel discussions the nine-day conference hopes to expose participants to developments and trends in archiving as well as strengthen Caribbean audio-visual archiving networks. Participating experts will add an international perspective from Cuba, Sweden, Australia and the United Kingdom.
Executive Director of the National Library Association, Winsome Hudson pointed out that with the change in technology it has become increasingly important that audio-visual works be given equal prominence with printed works. "We want to make sure that all of us learn from our mistakes of the past and make informed decisions about what we keep and what we discard," she said.
The attendance to the full conference costs $9000.00 while the day rate is $3000.00.
Maureen Webster Prince, Head of Archiving at the National Library summed up the most important reason behind the conference. "We owe it to generations yet unborn," she said.
