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Ask most people to picture an endangered archive and they imagine brittle paper and fading ink. Few realize that the film, video and sound recordings that document much of modern life are also at risk. In fact, many face a double threat: the materials themselves are inherently unstable and deteriorate over time and the machines built to play them are challenging to repair and hard to find.
Recognizing the urgency of this challenge, Arcadia announced a $2 million grant to create a dedicated audiovisual pilot within the UCLA Library Modern Endangered Archives Program (MEAP). Launched with Arcadia’s support in 2018, MEAP funds and supports partners around the world to preserve at-risk cultural heritage in countries as varied as Argentina, Mali and Ukraine. Local teams document and digitize their collections, which MEAP makes available online through the UCLA Library website. An estimated 110,000 digital objects have already been made accessible.
Last year, MEAP received a record 250 applications to preserve collections in 76 countries, 33 percent more than the previous year, and the program is reaching the limits of what its current staff and review panel can manage.
“There is an enormous need around the world to preserve endangered cultural heritage. Arcadia recognized an opportunity to ease the demands on the program while expanding support for audiovisual collections.”
The new pilot is expected to fund around five audiovisual projects each year while providing dedicated specialists to assess applications and guide projects through digitization, documentation and online publication.
By giving these projects focused support, the pilot will allow MEAP to serve audiovisual collections more effectively while creating additional capacity to fund projects involving print and other materials.UCLA is positioned to lead the work. Library conservation specialists already preserve a range of legacy audiovisual formats and customize systems to work with obsolete hardware. Through MEAP, that knowledge can be shared with communities without these resources.
The grant builds on Arcadia’s sustained investment in MEAP. It will help preserve what Deblinger calls “the very specific 20th-century materials that have captured so much of our lived experience,” while helping communities develop preservation knowledge that lasts beyond any single project.
Arcadia helps people to record cultural heritage, to conserve and restore nature, and to promote open access to knowledge. Since 2002 Arcadia has awarded more than $1.3 billion to organizations around the world.
