Slides of my presentation at the Library of Congress on the Radio Preservation Task Force Conference (RPTF), comparing the preservation of and access to public radio archives in Europe versus the US.

1. Preservation and access
of public radio archives
A western European perspective
Brecht Declercq
2nd Radio Preservation
Task Force Conference
Washington, DC
4th November 2017

2. How did we end up
where we are now?

3. • Where are we starting from?
• Where are we now?
• What has happened in between?
• Which were the decisive factors?
› More progress in EU than in US ?
› European models for US learning ?
Agenda

4. 1. Where are we
starting from?

5.  Western European public radio channels (in principle):
o Part of one national public broadcasting system: radio, TV, online
o Funded under media / culture budget + smaller share from publicity
o Continuous tradition since late 1920s / early 1930s
o Strongholds of national media landscape: market shares 30% to 75%
 Western European public radio archives (in principle):
o Or: preserved by archives dept. of public broadcaster (e.g. ORF, DR)
o Or: preserved by national AV archive (e.g. INA, VIAA, KAVA, B&G)
o Legally considered as heritage: obligation to preserve (+/-)
o Often torn between short term production vs long term preservation
requirements
Largely different starting situations

6. Typical example
of a mid-size, western-European
public radio archive

7.  Organisation:
o Part of general archives dept. together with TV, photo and paper
o 20 employees: mgmt, media mgrs, catalogers, logistics, technicians
o Music vs. spoken word – historical archives vs. daily intake
 Digital acquisition and preservation:
o Yearly digital intake: 5 channels, 45.000 h + 10.000 h of music
o Media management via a MAM shared with the TV archive
 Public access:
o Re-use in new production is the main driver
o Archival website together with TV, 1/10 clips are radio
 Digitisation project:
o Temporary effort, extra budget
o Going on, 5 years done, 3 more to go
Typical example

8. TOTAL ANALOG COLLECTION 365.000 # 249.000 h
¼” audio tapes 120.000 # 74.000 h
Audio cassettes 5.000 # 5.500 h
Digital audio tapes 20.000 # 30.000 h
Commercial CDs 100.000 # 100.000 h
Audio CDRs 20.000 # 20.000 h
Vinyl 80.000 # 13.000 h
Direct cut acetate disks 20.000 # 6.500 h
Typical example

9. 2. Where are we now?
a. digitisation

10. Status: digitisation
Yearly FIAT/IFTA Survey: Where are you on the Timeline?
 Status of transfer-to-file process [radio and TV]?
 Filter: European b’casters or national AV archives: 31/52 responses
 Conclusion for Western-European public radio: canceling the bias
o No indication that radio would keep another pace than TV
o No clear difference commercial vs public broadcasters
o Eastern European archives lag a bit behind on western
o National archives proceed same speed with radio as with other
 Results:
o Transfer-to-file has not yet begun (0% done) 0,0%
o Transfer-to-file has just begun (0-10% done) 19,3%
o Transfer-to-file is under half way (10-50% done) 25,8%
o Transfer-to-file is over half way (50-99% done) 51,6%
o Transfer-to-file is finished (100% done) 3,2%

11. 2. Where are we now?
b. access

12. Status: access
Yearly FIAT/IFTA Survey: Where are you on the Timeline?
 Most advanced level of access?
 Filter: European b’casters or national AV archives: 31/52 responses
 Conclusion for Western-European public radio: canceling the bias
o Public broadcasters more motivated to open up (TV) archives
o Radio/audio is less popular for online access than TV/video
o Eastern European archives lag a bit behind on western
o National archives hardly do special efforts for radio archives
 Results:
o Archival items on own tv, radio & non-dedicated websites: 41,9%
o The above + a special archives website: 6,4%
o The above + social media channels: 22,5%
o The above + platforms for target groups, e.g. education: 29,0%

13. 3. What has happened
in the meantime?

14. • 1995 – 2005: degralescence awareness raising
• 2005 – 2010: lobbying for digitisation and broader access
• 2005 – 2010: first MAM implementations
• 2005 – 2015: Presto projects, culminating in PrestoCentre
• 2005 – 2010: small scale digitisation projects, forerunners go large
• 2010 – 2020: large scale digitisation programs widely spread
• 2010 – 2015: first dedicated archival websites of broadcasters
• 2015 – 2020: governments require return on society
• 2015 – 2020: institutional preservation strategies become national
What happened in the meantime?

15. 4. Which were
the decisive factors?

16.  Preservation:
+ Presto projects: preservation factory approach
+ Forerunners: PSN (INA), Images for the Future (B&G)
+ FIAT/IFTA, IASA
+ National initiatives: EU never directly subsidized digitisation!
 Access:
+ Broadcasters as online actors
+ Call for Return on Society
+/- EUScreen: no real incentive for public broadcasters!
Decisive factors?

17. 5. Did the Europeans
make more progress?

18.  In general:
o Very hard to say, starting points clearly different
o Pros and cons of radio archives managed by the broadcaster
 Preservation:
o Degralescence issues known to both EU and US
o Institutional situation allowed other kind of lobbying
o On average: digitisation programs more advanced in quantity
o Wet van de remmende voorsprong: US is catching up quickly
 Access:
o Public broadcasters acting as commercial ones:
 over-estimation of commercial potential
 under-estimation of return-on-society and threats to legitimacy
o Their treasure, their heritage
o Copyright is extremely prohibitive
o Tearing down fortress walls: mentality shift & legislation (e.g. NRK)
More progress in Europe?

19. 6. Any lessons
from Europe for US?

20. The only relevant lessons are the ones independent of the starting situation
 Preservation:
o Factory approach, e.g. Indiana University MDPI
o Search for advantages of scale
 technical differences easy to overcome
 increasing quantities dramatically decreases digitisation price
 bundling efforts: e.g. VIAA, Save our Sounds, AAPB
 Access:
o Lessons? Which lessons? The grass is always greener
o Return on Society is your best policy when legitimacy is questioned
o Keep on exploiting the fair-use exception!
Any lessons?

21. 7. FIAT/IFTA
the broadcast archives
association

22.  Globally largest broadcaster’s archives association
 Conferences, seminars, publications, surveys, …
 Dedicated to typical broadcast archiving issues
 Television, radio, online
 Independent of who manages them: all welcome
www.fiatifta.org

23. THANKS!
Email: brecht.declercq@viaa.be
Tw: @brecht_declercq
LkIn: be.linkedin.com/in/brechtdeclercq