Niall McNulty published an article in the latest issue of SubText, the Centre for Communication, Media and Society‘s quarterly magazine. The article, ‘ Trailing tales and the tellers’, was on the KZN Literary Tourism project, which Niall has been involved with for the past 7 years.
Seminar on the Preservation and Promotion of Audiovisual Cultural Heritage in France and South Africa
Niall McNulty has been invited to present at a seminar in Cape Town organised as part of the France and South Africa Reciprocal Seasons 2012/2013.
Changes in the media and cultural landscape, as well as new demands and expectations from academics, researchers, and the general public alike, challenge traditional missions of audiovisual archives.
The main purpose of this seminar will be to raise the interest of local actors in the different steps of setting up a preservation and digitisation plan. The program will offer key players in the sector an opportunity to develop professional, commercial, cultural and educational uses of archives and reinforce knowledge and techniques related to the archiving policy of television and film collections.
Discussions and workshops in the seminar will address questions such as: How to develop a professional, efficient digitisation/preservation workflow (with limited staff and resources)? How to source project funding? How to best present collections to the public and to potential funding holders?
Grant McNulty presenting at SAMA National Conference 2012
Grant McNulty will be presenting a paper titled ‘New Digital Technologies and Museums in South Africa: Challenges and Opportunities’ at the 76th South African Museums Association National Conference. The conference takes place from 30 October 2012 – 1 November 2012 at Paarl in the Western Cape.
Grant’s paper explores how museums might navigate a changing, digital world, discussing museums as agents of social inclusion and offering practical examples from projects we have worked on, most notably the Ulwazi Programme, a digital heritage initiative that has been set up by the Libraries and Heritage Department of the eThekwini Municipal Library in Durban to facilitate the recording and sharing of local histories and culture. The presentation is available HERE.
The conference theme focuses on Museums in a Changing World. This theme recognises that museums and other heritage institutions are faced with interpreting, and existing, in a field that is becoming increasingly fluid. While each institution may have a unique set of goals, interests and audiences, the necessity to thrive in the face of change binds all museums, large and small. In order to accommodate a wide range of presentations, the following sub-themes have been identified:
- Communities in Flux
- Heritage Sector
- Accreditation, Standards & Training
- New Technologies
- Green Revolution
- Education for the Future
For more information, visit the SAMA website.
The Memory of the World in the Digital age: Digitization and Preservation
A recent conference held with UNESCO and the University of British Columbia (Canada) explored the main issues affecting the preservation of digital documentary heritage. The more than 500 participants discussed strategies that can contribute to greater protection of digital assets and produced the UNESCO /UBC Vancouver Declaration for implementation by UNESCO, and its Member States, professional associations and industry.
The conference participants included professionals from the heritage sectors, as well as a range of government, IT industry, rightsholders and other stakeholders who were exposed to the views of experts from all levels of development in an attempt to produce practical recommendations to ensure permanent access to digital documentary heritage.
- Read the declaration
- Send your comments/observations (before 19 October) to mowvancouver@unesco.org