Caroline Caruelle, the Founder of Archive TV, recently participated in Broadcast Media Africa’s (BMA) fourth online forum, which explored “Risks And Disaster Safeguarding For Audio-Visual Archives In Africa”.
During the panel, Broadcast Media Africa (BMA) asked Ms Caruelle to share her experiential advice on the best way to manage risks and safeguarding of audio-visual materials. Caroline focused on storage, suggesting that the physical modality of storage is essential in ensuring that you are able to evacuate your library more efficiently should a hazard occur. Furthermore, this storage method ensures that the archive library is safeguarded from dust and other factors that accelerate materials’ degradation.
According to Caroline, storing materials inboxes is the most feasible storage format in disaster planning.
The Founder also advised that the archivists of film archives store their film reels in vacuum-sealed aluminium bags, safeguarding the reels from deterioration caused by humidity, dust, flooding, light, and fire.
The online forum was an initiative by Broadcast Media Africa (BMA), in partnership with Apricity Consulting, to “Preserve Africa’s Sound and Audio-Visual Assets”. It was hosted with a focus on organising and prioritising the “collections at risk” by recommending practices and strategies for overcoming the challenges archivists face on the African continent when protecting archives from potential hazards and calamities.