Welcome to SOIMA In Practice, An ICCROM Initiative

Since the invention of sound and image recording technologies in the 19th century, professionals and amateurs worldwide have used these media to document the world around them.  Over the years, rapid technological improvements have made recording devices more portable and inexpensive.  Today, sound and moving image records are created and used by a wide range of institutions and individuals for a variety of purposes, ranging from entertainment to education. They are used to record important events, document institutional memory, oral histories, artistic performances and great works of fiction.  With or without realizing it, we rely on these sounds and images throughout our daily lives.  And increasingly, we expect to be able to access audiovisual media created in the past, whether that be five years ago or fifty.

Yet preserving and providing access to these media is an enormous challenge.  Audiovisual records are dynamic media (as opposed to static, such as photographs and paper), meaning they rely on machines in order to be played back.  They are also made of fragile materials that are easily damaged if not stored in optimal conditions.  Thus, in order to survive very far into the future, audiovisual media must be protected against technological obsolescence, heat and humidity damage, and natural or man-made disasters, among other threats.  And as we move into the digital era, these problems are only intensifying.

Recognizing the importance of audiovisual records and their preservation, UNESCO has declared 27 October as the annual World Day for Audiovisual Heritage.

This website aims to further increase awareness of the need for and obstacles to audiovisual preservation. An initiative of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property's  (ICCROM) SOIMA (Sound and Image Collections Conservation) Programme, it is a platform for highlighting the issues and challenges that smaller institutions, which might not function specifically as audiovisual archives, face in preserving sound and image materials.  By bringing together case studies from a variety of institutions, including museums, broadcasters, universities, libraries, and research centres, this publication highlights strategies used to ensure long term preservation and access to collections within specific institutional contexts.

Often "best practices" seem beyond an institution's or individual’s budget and capabilities, and the level of expertise required to reach the standards can appear daunting.  But with creative strategies, many preservation challenges can be solved or mitigated.  Therefore, the primary aim of this website is to present examples where the professionals in charge of audiovisual collections have employed innovative strategies to overcome certain management or preservation issues. There are case studies from Brazil and India, where the heat and humidity forced archives to carefully think through how to create climate controlled storage for audiovisual media.  From Barbados, one professional describes the process of bringing recognition of broadcast collection to the larger institution, and to the entire country. And from Australia comes the story of the enormous struggle that the National Film and Sound Archive endured as they fought for autonomy and self-governance. 

In addition to these case studies, on this website you will also find information on the SOIMA Programme, on past and upcoming SOIMA training courses, and more detail about the authors of the case studies. Most of the contributors in this edition are participants and lecturers of the first course SOIMA course offered by ICCROM, SOIMA 2007: Safeguarding Sound and Image Collections, which was held in Rio de Janeiro in August 2007.

As the SOIMA community grows, we expect to post many more case studies, offering a wide range of experience in solving challenges of sound and image preservation.  If you would like to contribute a case study, or offer general feedback about this website, please send us a message.