The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) is to receive an additional AU$41.9 million (US$29.5m) in Federal Government funding to save at-risk audiovisual heritage and build a new backup data center.
The money will be used to digitize approximately 240,000 at-risk audio, video, and film items – much of which is stored on magnetic tape – held by the NFSA and seven other National Collecting Institutions (NCIs) before they deteriorate irretrievably.
The funds will enable the NFSA to expand its digital storage capacity from six petabytes to 165 petabytes over four years and create an off-site data center to provide greater disaster recovery capabilities.
“The stories and memories these materials contain provide us with an immediate connection to our lived past, as well as insights into our national character and where we might be heading,” said NFSA chief executive officer Patrick McIntyre.
“And audio-visual media keep these stories alive in uniquely vital and moving ways. This boost in funding will allow us to get ahead of the risks of obsolete playback equipment and deteriorating tape formats.”
The NFSA holds more than three million items including videos, sound recordings, and images of Australian history. The material to be preserved as a result of the funding will include the Australian War Memorial's peacekeeping collection, the NFSA home movie collection depicting Australian life throughout the 20th century, the personal recordings and film of Sir Robert Menzies held by the National Library of Australia, and "important cultural material" held by AIATSIS.
“This is a major investment in our future, ensuring we can save thousands of hours of radio, television, and film, before it becomes unplayable,” said NFSA head of collection, Jacqui Uhlmann.
The seven other NCIs to benefit are the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), Australian National Maritime Museum, Australian War Memorial, National Gallery of Australia, National Library of Australia, National Museum of Australia, and Questacon.
Some of the money will also be used to support the National Library of Australia's (NLA) Trove website, which provides digital access to millions of newspapers and other works from the NLA's collection.
The National Archives of Australia received AU$67.7 million (US$47.6m) last year as part of a digitization and cybersecurity project to preserve the organization’s most vulnerable collections. Records at risk of being damaged or lost in storage included 11 million photographic items and almost 400,000 audio-visual items on magnetic media and films. These included WW2 soldier service records, recordings of indigenous languages and ceremonies, and tapes of the Stolen Generation royal commission.
“This funding will protect important elements of Australia’s audio-visual history from being permanently lost due to material deterioration,” said MP and Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg. “This is critical to preserving our identity and heritage, increasing the public’s access, and ensuring the archives are available to future generations.”
