History of the project

Copyright by David Tames

Volunteer work has often happened in our field. But it has never been organized on a broad level and the results of a single person's effort were rarely evaluated by third parties. Today, as our audiovisual heritage fades faster than we can act, some ideas have changed. The need for helping each other has become increasingly important as we learn more about the losses we have already experienced. More and more educational programs for AV Archiving are emerging in Europe, the United States of America and Australia, but people from continents of lesser incomes often can not afford to participate in these programs, or even go to conferences where exchange of knowledge could take place and continuing education could be assured. For some time now a few people in our profession have been talking about other forms of intellectual exchange. Volunteering is only one idea among many to try and pass on some of the knowledge usually available only through costly educational programs, create networks and to share our enthusiasm and experiences worldwide.

The ideal volunteer, as we imagine her/him, would be a trained media archivist with a few years of experience in the field. She/he is ready for a long term commitment. She/he goes abroad to volunteer at least every second year for at least 6 weeks each time. Naturally, trips of this size and frequency need the support of the volunteers' employer. The volunteer requires financial assistance and healthcare, just to name two basic necessities. Building an organization that will help with these issues is one of our long term goals. It is also essential that some information and knowledge exchange takes place amongst the volunteers. This website would like to serve as this meeting place.

Other efforts are currently being undertaken elsewhere. We hope some day to be able to join all efforts for some form of umbrella that will serve numerous angles.