Thailand - The Netherlands
Introduction
In 2007 a project was set up by the PRD Museum and Archive (part of the Public Relations Department of the Royal Thai Government, Bangkok), and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, Hilversum. The objective of the project is to develop a plan for safeguarding television heritage kept at the PRD Archive, including a strategy for securing the necessary funding.
The project is also a pilot for the Archives at Risk, a worldwide initiative for rescuing endangered audiovisual archives. The cooperation between PRD and Sound & Vision should provide insight into the methodology for projects in which organizations with experience in digital media management partner with organizations that are just starting to create a modern (digital) archive. More concretely, tools for preservation planning were tested in this project, to determine whether they should be included in the toolbox and information packages offered in the framework of Archives at Risk.
The head of the PRD Archive and Museum, Ms Kannika Chivapakdee, worked with several staff members of Sound & Vision. In 2007 the Director of Sound & Vision, Edwin van Huis, visited Bangkok to discuss the scope and schedule for the project. Early in 2008 Ms Chivapakdee prepared a report summarizing the situation of the PRD Museum and Archive in which she set out the various issues. This was then discussed at a meeting in Hilversum and served to prepare for a working visit to PRD Museum and Archive during which the next steps in the project would be carried out by staff from the two partners. In August 2008 Ms Irmgard Noordhoek of Sound & Vision spent two weeks working with Ms Kannika Chivapakdee; they presented a report on this visit at the FIAT conference in Copenhagen (20 September, 2008).
The inventories and tests for digitization of sample materials that have been done so far are the basis for the next stage. Now that insight has been gained into the type and conditions of materials, the next steps concern setting priorities, making a preservation plan, cost estimates and budgets, and identifying funding sources.
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Activities
In 2007 and the first half 2008 several steps were taken to lift the organization of the audiovisual materials to the level of a properly managed archive. These activities focused on three aspects: inventory, storage, and cooperation with regional TV stations.
For both the film and video collections kept at PRD in Bangkok inventories were made in simple spreadsheets. These inventories consisted of list of tape numbers and a brief indication of what is on the tapes. The spreadsheets served as the basis: to come to priorities for preservation and reformatting, data would have to be added on how much material there is, in which formats, and in which condition. A spreadsheet was chosen because it is a handy entry-level tool, a stepping stone towards a more sophisticated catalogue database. A database with interfaces tailored to specific input, feedback and controlled terms is more difficult to develop and to use, and the functionality it offers becomes interesting only when there are a lot of fine-grained data to deal with.
In order to determine priorities for the archive, about 10% of the film collection was tested to check its condition and to decide whether it could still be played .and digitized. Sound & Vision arranged for digitization of three fragments, to study quality issues and come to specifications for digitization.
In 2008, air-conditioning was installed for store rooms for film and tapes in the main PRD premises (not yet in other departments), so that deterioration of materials is slowed down and the time path for digitization can be a little longer.
The cooperation with PRD agencies in other provinces is important to come to a national network for archiving and preservation. For one partner storage and inventories of the video collections were arranged, whereas with another cooperation was started to digitize materials and then deposit a copy in the PRD Archive.
In this cooperation, it is not only the concrete results that matter, but also the intangible spinoffs. In the course of joint work on concrete activities a shared view on audiovisual archiving and an awareness of professional standards may evolve. As there is no archive school in Thailand, the profession formally does not exist. Consequently the only way to establish an archival system is for those managing materials to create it together by agreeing on procedures and tasks. From such a support base it becomes possible to promote the principle of audiovisual archiving with producers and broadcasters. At the moment, not even the PRD Archive has a retention policy, and broadcast materials are not saved systematically.
In February 2008 Ms Chivapakdee paid a visit to the Dutch partner to discuss her report on the collections and needs of the archive. Together with the preparation in the first year, this paved the way for the working visit of Ms Irmgard Noordhoek to Bangkok in August 2008. The schedule for the two weeks included further work on the inventories of tv materials, studying web resources, and visits to other departments at PRD to understand the infrastructure on which the PRD Archive may rely. Throughout the two weeks of intensive discussion, the process of mapping out needs, requirements and resources served to define a feasible approach for the PRD Archive.
In particular, attention was devoted to the web tools developed by the PrestoSpace project: the Preservation Guide , the SAM analysis tools, and the general PrestoSpace website. These tools help collection managers to answer basic questions about the archive, make assessments and set priorities on the basis of calculations. Before a preservation plan can be drawn up, several rounds of estimating quantities and costs, assessing value and condition, prioritizing and selecting, testing and defining specifications are necessary. PrestoSpace has used experience from audiovisual archives that have gone through this process to make tools that support others in doing the same. Working with them at the PRD Archive yielded some ideas of how the tools can be improved for use by others.
The differences between the two partners are considerable, and work processes and procedures established at Sound & Vision cannot be copied by the PRD Archive. But discussions of how things are handled in The Netherlands contributed to an understanding of the possible roadmap for the PRD Archive. This is not only a matter of concrete tasks to be done within the archive that a manager can list and prioritize. It also relates to the context in which the archive operates, cooperation and support from other agencies, funding streams, larger technical infrastructure, availability of expertise that can be hired, etc. With insight in the circumstances in which the archive functions it becomes easier to distinguish between what must be done, what can be done, and what could be done.
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Results
Kannika Chivapakdee and Irmgard Noordhoek spent a lot of time working together and developing plans for the future, but unfortunately the scheduled visits to the production and news departments had to be cancelled: in this period, there were large demonstrations in Bangkok that changed priorities and made local travel difficult.
After the working visit Kannika Chivapakdee and Irmgard Noordhoek prepared a report together. This outlines the priorities and the next steps, and also shows how important it is to create the right conditions for the archive. In Thailand practitioners have to familiarize themselves with professional approaches somehow on their own, without the support of formal training. At the same time, basic computer skills are not so widespread either. This means that practical work (e.g. working with office software to enter data in a computer) is hampered even if one has the staff who could do it. Similarly, a condition for a successful functioning of an archive is a supportive environment in which its role is recognized by management and colleagues in other departments. It takes time to build such an environment.
Meanwhile, the partners in the project aim for concrete results and focus on activities that can be carried out more or less independently, such as:
- working on inventories and cataloguing
- labelling audiovisual carriers
- locating equipment (for tests and access)
- testing carriers and defining specifications for digitization
Within the archive itself, staff members would perhaps find it easier to see what is expected if the responsibilities were more clearly described. Opportunities for individuals to expand their computer skills would motivate them and make the team more productive. These are points for improvement that the archive staff and management will consider.
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Observations
To set up an archiving service where none existed before in the 75-year history of a large government organization is no mean task. As seen so often, it depends on a few committed individuals to keep the process going. But no amount of dedication can instantly bridge the gap in experience and resources between the ‘starters’ and organizations that have been building their archives over dozens of years.
Cooperative projects should recognize the need to think and work in small steps over an extended period of time. It is not just a matter of investing money. to purchase equipment, bandwidth, or supplies, but of creating lasting structures. Changes in mentality, ideas, awareness, education level are necessary just as well to get to a point at which the archive can fulfill its task. Each organization has to determine how the archive fits into the chain of work processes, and this will be different in every individual case.
Exchange of experiences with other organizations may speed up this process. It is illusory to think that starting archives can easily find their own way if only the information is put on the web. There is still a lack of easily accessible, basic information that directly speaks to newcomers. Linguistic problems are too often underestimated by those fluent in English. Even so-called introductory texts on the web often assume too much - in terms of command of the language, of organization, or of technical expertise and infrastructure. Moreover, all too often readers cannot relate to a written text because it makes assumptions about the context in which they work that do not make sense to them. The organizational structures, (work) culture, social conventions, and cultural values that to a large extent determine what can be said and done do not figure in the professional literature. The context that is silently assumed as a ‘normal’ working environment is in fact foreign to a great many professionals working outside mainstream Western institutions. Translating written information into practical applications then becomes more complicated.
In the end, it is more effective to have staff exchanges between organizations, in which those with some experience work side by side with those that are just starting out. Ideally these exchanges are organized in both directions, so that each comes to know the other’s work environment. The web can offer tools and reference texts that complement such collaboration and also enable partners to continue their exchanges when they are geographically apart but it cannot take the place of personal contacts and discussions between professionals.
Finally, as was clearly stated by Kannika Chivapakdee at the FIAT Conference in Copenhagen (September 20, 2008), the PRD Archive and Museum will have to do the work and find the resources themselves. Cooperation with Sound & Vision has helped to decide on a course of action, make a plan, and know what to ask for. But ultimately it is up to the PRD Archive and Museum to make sure things will indeed happen. And they are confident that they will.
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