the EAR 2.0 » Outreach

Friends of the Archive launch event postponed… but come join us for cake anyway!

ambittel — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 22:06:13 +0000

It’s been a while since we’ve posted news here, but that’s not for lack of things to talk about — quite the contrary! The Archive staff have all been busy making preparations for this year’s 50th anniversary celebrations. If you’ve seen the calendar of events you may have noticed a Friends of the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive launch event scheduled for this coming Wednesday, October 27th. We’ve decided to postpone that event until sometime in the spring, closer to the Association for Recorded Sound Collections 2011 conference, which we’re hosting here in L.A. in honor of the Archive’s 50th anniversary.

The Friends of the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive is a group for donors and other supporters of the Archive’s missions to collect, preserve, and provide access to audiovisual materials that document the world’s musical cultures, and to serve as a center of research and education on ethnographic media archiving. We will soon be reaching out for members of this group — which will enjoy special privileges like attendance at invitation-only events — but we’re not quite ready for that yet. Until then, you can still…

Join us for cake (and coffee, tea, and other treats), in celebration of World Day for Audiovisual Heritage this coming Wednesday, October 27th from 4:30-5:30 PM in front of the Archive (1630 Schoenberg Music Building). This is the same day originally scheduled for our Friends launch event, but without the guest speakers. Come meet the Archivists, check out our collections, and learn why now is the time to plan for the future of your fieldwork documentation or other collections — even if you haven’t yet started documenting or collecting.

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Stay tuned the EAR for further announcements about the Friends of the Ethnomusicology Archive and other news and events. You can subscribe to the EAR via email or RSS feed.

Exhibiting at the 3rd Annual Archives Bazaar

ambittel — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:51:05 +0000

Just a little in advance of UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage (27 October), we participated in the 3rd Annual L.A. Archives Bazaar, hosted at the Davidson Conference Center at USC. The Bazaar is a one-day gathering of local archives, special collections libraries, historical societies, authors, filmmakers, and other folks interested in the history and culture of greater L.A. — a town that, contrary to common belief, has plenty of both.

It was well worth crossing into “enemy territory” (UCLA and USC are crosstown rivals) to be a part of this event. It’s the first time we’ve been able to exhibited at the Archives Bazaar — space always fills up quickly for this popular event.

Yes, you read that right — I used the words “archive” and “popular” in the same sentence. USC was a new location for the Bazaar, as the previous space — The Huntington Library — proved too small for both the exhibitors and the crowds of attendees. All expectations were for a much larger crowd to see this year’s 65 organizations and a variety of presenters of local lore, some well known.

The place was hopping from before 10 am (the official start time of the Bazaar) until at least 4:30 PM.

Our main reasons for participating were to connect with other members of the local archival community and to raise awareness about the Ethnomusicology Archive and the unique kinds of collections we offer. We definitely drew a lot of attention with our videos — selected from our collection of local materials and projected on the wall behind us (hey, we’re a media archive, it’s what we do).

UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage

ambittel — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:00:02 +0000

Happy World Day for Audiovisual Heritage!

From the UNESCO website:

Audiovisual documents, such as films, radio and television programmes, audio and video recordings, contain the primary records of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Transcending language and cultural boundaries, appealing immediately to the eye and the ear, to the literate and illiterate, audiovisual documents have transformed society by becoming a permanent complement to the traditional written record.

However, they are extremely vulnerable and it is estimated that we have no more than 10 to 15 years to transfer audiovisual records to digital to prevent their loss. Much of the world’s audiovisual heritage has already been irrevocably lost through neglect, destruction, decay and the lack of resources, skills, and structures, thus impoverishing the memory of mankind. Much more will be lost if stronger and concerted international action is not taken.

It was in this context, that the General Conference in 2005 approved the commemoration of a World Day for Audiovisual Heritage as a mechanism to raise general awareness of the need for urgent measures to be taken and to acknowledge the importance of audiovisual documents as an integral part of national identity.

A message from the Director General of UNESCO. [PDF]

Yes, Virginia… archives are not just for paper anymore!