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The first pilot Memory of the World State of Preservation Report 2020 for Southeast Asia reveals interesting findings

In Southeast Asia, there are currently 30 inscriptions on the MoW International Register, recognized for their global significance. However, until now, no data had been collected on their state of preservation and accessibility to the public. With the aim to address these issues, UNESCO Bangkok Office with the support of the Japanese Funds-in-Trust (JFIT) initiated a pilot survey in order to analyse the MoW inscriptions from Southeast Asia.

The survey had a high completion rate, with information received from 28 inscriptions, that resulted in the State of Preservation Report for Southeast Asia 2020 providing interesting findings with recommendations to be considered.

In terms of the type of memory institutes holding the MoW inscriptions in Southeast Asia, 34% are libraries, 30% are archives, 15% are archaeological sites, and 12% are museums. The high number of MoW inscriptions at archaeological sites can be attributed to stone inscriptions, which are a prevalent form of documentary heritage in Southeast Asia.

In relation to preservation, UNESCO and Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific (MOWCAP), along with stakeholders and the private sector, as stated in the conclusions of the report, should leverage efforts to mobilize funding and collaboration to improve serious concerns related to the environment and tropical weather in the region that are highly affecting the MoW collections. Trainings should also be developed to help address management, preservation, disaster risks issues and the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic.

The results of the survey related to access suggest that financial and technical support is needed to ensure that all MoW collections are digitised and made available for the public in line with 2015 UNESCO’s Recommendation on Documentary Heritage which is available in several languages of Southeast Asia and promotes among others the principle of open access. Further work in promoting open access licenses is required, in particular with the use of Creative Commons copyright licenses.

When addressing the issue of outreach, the report recommended that custodians of inscriptions who do not have a logo should request it to UNESCO Secretariat in order to use their logos according to the guidelines. In fact, it is a key aspect to mobilize funding and raise the visibility of collections to internal and external stakeholders. Training on social media to enhance the visibility and communications around these inscriptions could also be enhanced.

UNESCO established the Memory of the World Programme in 1992 to facilitate preservation of the world’s documentary heritage, assist with universal access to it and increase awareness of the existence and significance of documentary heritage. UNESCO would like to thank all the custodians of the MoW inscriptions for their time to complete the survey and for providing valuable information.

For more information, access the State of Preservation Report for Southeast Asia 2020.

Some interesting results extracted from the report:

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New Publication on the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme

The volume “The UNESCO Memory of the World Programme: Key Aspects and Recent Developments” responds to the growing interest in the scientific study of the Memory of the World Programme (MoW) and its core concept of documentary heritage, which has received little attention from scholarship so far.

This publication is the sixth in the Springer Heritage Studies Series, and provides a first collection of differing approaches (including reflected reports, essays, research contributions, and theoretical reflections) for the study of the MoW Programme, offering a basis for follow-up activities.

The volume, edited by Ray Edmondson (past Chair of MOWCAP), Lothar Jordan and Anca Claudia Prodan, brings together 21 scholars from around the globe to present aspects deemed crucial for understanding MoW, its development, relevance and potential.

The aim of the publications is to encourage academic research on MoW and to enhance the understanding of its potential and place within Heritage Studies and beyond. 

The publication includes chapters from a number of experts involved in MOWCAP, including:

Ray Edmondson, Reviewing the MoW General Guidelines: Reflections on the Experience of 2015–2017;

Helen Jarvis, The Pathway to the Recommendation Concerning the Preservation of, and Access to, Documentary Heritage Including in Digital Form;

Kyung-ho Suh, History Wars in the Memory of the World: The Documents of the Nanjing Massacre and the “Comfort Women”’;

Richard Engelhardt, Methodological Convergence: Documentary Heritage and the International Framework for Cultural Heritage Protection;

Helen H. K Ieong, Memory of the World Education in Macau.

Further information on how to purchase the publication can be found here: https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030184407

Opportunity to Input into the Pacific Pathway to Implement the Recommendation

MOWCAP has prepared a draft document on a pathway to implement the UNESCO Recommendation in Pacific countries. We would appreciate receiving any email comments on the document at mowcapinfo@gmail.com.

The pathway is a response to the Pacific Action Plan for Implementing the Recommendation. One of the actions was for MOWCAP to link the PARBICA toolkit to the UNESCO Recommendation so that there is a pathway for Pacific National Archives to influence the implementation of the Recommendation.

2nd Inter-regional Conference for the Memory of the World (MoW) held in Korea, 5-8 November 2019

The 2nd Inter-regional Conference for the Memory of the World (MoW): Preserving & Providing Access to Digital Heritage was held from the 5-8 November, 2019, in Gwangju and Daegu, Republic of Korea.  The conference was organised by UNESCO Bangkok with the support of the Asia Culture Center (ACC), the Asia Culture Institute (ACI), the Commemorative Association of the National Debt Redemption Movement, and the Memory of the World Committee for the Asia Pacific (MOWCAP).

The conference brought together over 100 delegates and speakers from 28 countries, including: Australia; Bhutan; Cambodia; Canada; Côte D’ivoire; Chile; China; Egypt; Indonesia; Iran; Jamaica; Japan; Kazakhstan; Kenya; Malaysia; Mexico; Mongolia; Myanmar; Philippines; the Republic of Korea; Samoa; Senegal; Singapore; Switzerland; Vietnam; the United Kingdom; the Unites States of America; and Uzbekistan. A majority of the delegates are members of the MoW Committees from Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and Africa

Within the overall framework of the UNESCO Recommendation Concerning the Preservation of, and Access to, Documentary Heritage Including in Digital Form (2015), the conference aimed to bring together experts and MoW Committees from Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and Africa to discuss strategies and initiatives for the preservation and access to digital heritage, including the latest policy tools and guidelines.

In addition, the meeting aimed to build on the outcomes of the 1st Inter-regional Conference for the MoW held in Panama in October 2018, to further enhance cooperation between the established regional MoW Committees: Memory of the World Committee for Asia/Pacific (MOWCAP), the African Regional Committee for Memory of the World (ARCMOW), and UNESCO Memory of the World Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean (MOWLAC).

The conference program can be accessed here:

ProgramDownload

The conference proceedings can be accessed here:

ProceedingsDownload

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Disaster Preparedness Workshop

Attendees

UNESCO Japanese Funds in Trust (J-FIT) in partnership with PARBICA (Pacific Regional Branch of the International Council of Archives) provided funding for a very well attended workshop on Disaster Preparedness, Response and Recovery. The workshop was held in Adelaide on 25 October 2019 and was part of the “Designing the Archive” conference.

The workshop was attended by 31 archivists and recordkeepers from Australia, Hong Kong, Kiribati, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, The Gambia, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

The workshop started with a presentation from Dianne Macaskill, vice-chairperson of MOWCAP. She explained that the purpose of the J-FIT was to progress the UNESCO Global Framework for sustainable preservation of documentary heritage through disaster risk reduction and management.

The workshop was based on three guidelines from the PARBICA Recordkeeping Toolkit for Good Governance. The guidelines 20-22 covered Developing a Disaster Preparedness Plan, Developing a Disaster Response Plan and Developing a Disaster Recovery Plan. These and other toolkit guidelines are consistent with achieving Memory of the World objectives and with the MOWCAP Pacific Action Plan on the implementation of the UNESCO Recommendation on Documentary Heritage. The action plan was developed at the PARBICA biennial meeting in Suva, Fiji in 2017. One of the actions was to implement the PARBICA Recordkeeping Toolkit modules on disaster preparedness when they became available.

Another MOWCAP Pacific Action Plan activity was to link the PARBICA Toolkit guidelines to the UNESCO Recommendation so that there is a pathway for Pacific National Archives to implement the Recommendation. Dianne Macaskill launched a draft copy of the pathway and informed participants that it would shortly be on the MOWCAP website and that feedback would be appreciated before it is finalised. The Toolkit covers many of the guidelines needed by Pacific National Archives to implement the Recommendation. One of the significant gaps that has been identified is the availability of access tools.

The facilitators for the workshop were Brandon Oswald and Emilie Leumas. Brandon Oswald is the Founder/Executive director of the non-profit organization Island Culture Archival Support. He has worked on records preservation and disaster preparedness projects throughout the Pacific. Emilie Leumas is a certified archivist and records manager and is the Director of Archives and Records for the Archdiocese of New Orleans. She received national and international recognition for her efforts in disaster recover after Hurricane Katrina.

The facilitators started the meeting by asking the participants to describe disasters they had experienced in their organisations. Many of the participants gave examples of needing to deal with flood and water damage to archives and records.

The approach taken by the facilitators was very practical. For example, their presentation covered the steps based on the PARBICA Toolkit Guidelines for writing a Disaster Preparedness Plan. The importance of planning before a disaster was emphasized throughout the workshop, including identifying vital records and forming relationships with people who could assist after a disaster.

The afternoon of the workshop was spent doing practical exercises such as practicing recovery treatment for wet letters, videos, documents, maps etc. The participants gave very positive feedback on this aspect of the training as they appreciated the opportunity to gain experience handling and treating damaged documents in a learning environment.

All the participants including those funded through UNESCO J-FIT had the opportunity to attend a range of other sessions during the conference week. These included PARBICA’s Recordkeeping for Good Governance Toolkit – Identifying vital business records for government departments; How to conduct outreach activities with a limited budget; The diversity of contexts:colonisation, languages and geography as barriers to access; Same software, different design: implementation of AtoM with limited resources; Reconciliation and Decolonization of National Archives and Co-designing a low-tech digital community archive.

The feedback from participants at the workshop was very, very positive, both about the conference and the workshop. It provided a lot of opportunities to think about planning and managing for disaster recovery as well as the opportunity to develop more confidence to recover from a disaster should one occur. The workshop finished with a thank you to UNESCO, J-FIT and MOWCAP for the funding that enabled the training to be delivered.

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Sub-Regional Meeting for the Identification and Exchange of Documentary Heritage of Central and Western Asia

The UNESCO Tehran Office, the Iranian National Commission for UNESCO, the National Library and Archives of Iran, and the Iranian National MoW Committee for UNESCO, have cooperated to hold the Sub-Regional Meeting for the Identification and Exchange of Documentary Heritage, from the 3-4 September in Tehran, Iran.

The event brought together delegates from National MoW Committees and National archives and libraries from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, India, Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.  The objective of the meeting was to develop cooperation for joint MoW nominations, identify commonalities of documentary heritage in the region (particularly relating to the Silk Road), and increase cooperation between National MoW Committees in the region.

Prior to the meeting delegates completed a survey of documentary heritage relating to the Silk Road that exists at the national level in libraries, archives, museums, government repositories and private collections. The delegates submitted a report on the results of their survey during the meeting that can be accessed here.

The objective of the survey was to identify collections of significance relating to the Silk Road, that can become part of a national, international or regional Memory of the World nomination, including the potential for a joint nomination. In addition, this survey aimed help identify areas of commonality that could form the basis of wider cooperation projects, such as digital archives/platforms, academic research, preservation initiatives etc.

Andrew Henderson, Secretary-General of MOWCAP, was invited to facilitate the meeting. MOWCAP’s participation in the meeting was made possible through the generous support of the Asia Culture Center, Korea.

Call for speakers: Preserving and providing access to digital heritage at 2nd Inter-regional Conference for the Memory of the World

5-8 November, 2019, Republic of Korea: To support the preservation and access to the rich documentary heritage, including digital heritage, held in libraries, archives, museums and private collections from across the Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean, the UNESCO Recommendation Concerning the Preservation of, and Access to, Documentary Heritage Including in Digital Form (2015) is an important standard-setting instrument.

To implement the Recommendation at the national and institutional levels, UNESCO organized a series of consultations in 2017-2018 across the Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean, involving delegates from more than 80 countries. In 2018, the 1st Inter-regional Conference for the Memory of the World was held, bringing together the different regions to discuss the implementation of the Recommendation and to exchange experiences and ideas.

The results of the consultation showed that while a number of important initiatives are taking place in regions relating to analogue documentary heritage, preserving digital heritage is a major challenge, with limited knowledge, expertise and guidelines available on the topic. This also extends to access, with outdated copyright laws, a lack of open access policies, and limited use of free and open-source software being key issues. 

At the global level, UNESCO and international partners are developing a number of important policy guidelines, tools and strategies relating to the preservation of digital documentary heritage. These include the Digital Strategy for Information Sustainability (PERSIST) initiative; UNESCO/PERSIST Guidelines for the Selection of Digital Heritage for Long-Term Preservation; UNESCO Software Heritage Initiative; and the Executive Guide on Digital Preservationdeveloped by the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) in cooperation with UNESCO/PERSIST.

Conference objectives:

In this context, the conference bridges the gap between developments at the global, regional, national and organization levels for digital heritage preservation, and provides clear information to Memory of the World Committees from Asia/Pacific, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean on strategies and initiatives they can use. 

Following the conference, this information will be disseminated to national level stakeholders in government, archives, libraries, museums and the private sector through existing national and regional Memory of the World (MoW) Committee structures.

The meeting will also provide an opportunity for UNESCO MoW National Committees to report back on challenges and opportunities for digital heritage preservation, which is expected to lead to informal developments at the global level.

In addition, the meeting will build on the outcomes of the 1st Inter-regional Conference for the MoW held in Panama in October 2018, to further enhance cooperation between the established regional MoW Committees: Memory of the World Committee for Asia/Pacific (MOWCAP), the African Regional Committee for Memory of the World (ARCMOW), and UNESCO Memory of the World Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean (MOWLAC).

Conference themes:

The conference will be arranged around the five thematic areas of the UNESCO Recommendation: (1) Identification of digital documentary heritage, (2) Preservation of digital documentary heritage, (3) Access to digital documentary heritage, (4) Policy measures for digital documentary heritage, (5) National and international cooperation.

Within this framework, the conference speakers will share current tools, initiatives, guidelines and best practices covering:

Conditions for participation

Experts and delegates from National Memory of the World Committees in the Asia-Pacific are invited to attend as speakers. Travel and accommodation support will be available for selected speakers.

If you are interested in becoming a speaker, please complete the registration form and send it to Ms. Kamonwan Petchot, Communication and Information, UNESCO Bangkok (k.petchot [at] unesco [dot] org) no later than 10 September 2019 (COB, Bangkok time).

Attachment:

Announcements of the 2019 MOWCAP-ACC Small Grants Program

We are pleased to announce the results of the 2019 round of the MOWCAP-Asia Culture Center (ACC) Grants program. This year the grants will support fourteen (14) organisations from across the Asia-Pacific to safeguard and make their documentary heritage collections accessible.

Grants were awarded to organisations from Cambodia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Timor-Leste and Vietnam. Applications were received from organisations from over 35 countries.

The generous financial support of the Asia Culture Center (ACC), and operational support of the Asia Culture Institute (ACI), has made these grants possible.

Statements from MOWCAP, ACC and the ACI:

Dr. Lee Jinsik, Acting President of the ACC, congratulated all the successful organisations and shared that “their work to capture the memory of our region, expressed through its diverse documentary heritage, ensures that future generations can appreciate and understand our regions varied and diverse history for many years to come.”

Mr. Lee Gi Pyo, President of the ACI, outlined that he was “very impressed with the quality and range of the applications. The Asia Culture Institute is proud to work with MOWCAP to support important documentary heritage initiatives and help bring the region’s documentary heritage projects to life.”

Mr. Kwibae Kim, Chair of MOWCAP, shared that “the projects supported under the 2019 MOWCAP-ACC, grants, and the large number of applications received from across the region, demonstrates the broad range of amazing work being done in our region to preserve and share our documentary heritage. I sincerely thank our partner, Asia Culture Center, whose support has made these grants possible, and also Asia Culture Institute, who have supported the administration of the grants through the MOWCAP Office. MOWCAP congratulates the successful organisations and encourages applications for the next funding round which will open in early 2020.”

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Pacific Action Plan on Implementation of UNESCO Recommendation

The Pacific Action Plan was initially developed at a workshop held on Wednesday 6 September 2017 in Suva, Fiji.  The workshop was held in conjunction with the PARBICA (Pacific Regional Branch of the International  Council of Archives) biennial meeting and was made possible through the support of PARBICA and funding from the Asia Culture Centre.

Delegates who attended all or part of the workshop were from Australia, Federated States of Micronesia (including YAP, Ponhnpei ), Fiji, Kiribati,  New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu.

Following the workshop there was consultation with other Pacific documentary heritage experts.

Information on all the action plans can be viewed here

 

Regional workshop on UNESCO Recommendation on Documentary Heritage concluded in Tehran

Countries of Western and Central Asia such as Iran, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan share cultural and historical commonalities. These commonalities are reflected in the documentary heritage of the region such as the Medieval manuscripts on medicine and pharmacy kept by the Institute of Manuscript of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences or the Old Assyrian Merchant Archives of Kültepe from Turkey, already inscribed into the UNESCO’s Memory of the World (MoW) Register. The shared history and the shared documentary heritage enable also joint nominations to MoW.

In a view to strengthen regional cooperation amongst these countries for the preservation of and access to documentary heritage and within the framework of UNESCO’s 2015 Recommendation, a workshop was organized by the UNESCO Office in Tehran, the Iranian National Commission for UNESCO and the National Library and Archives of Iran on 28 and 29 August 2017.

Opened by Dr Ashraf Boroujerdi, Head of the National Library and Archives of Iran and Chairperson of the Iranian MoW Committee, the workshop was attended by the MoW representatives from seven countries of the sub-region as well as members of the Iranian MoW Committee, including the Library of the Islamic Parliament of Iran, the Centre for Promoting Documentary Heritage, the Iranian Cultural Heritage, the Handcrafts and Tourism Organization and the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.

Facilitated by Ms Misako Ito, Adviser for Communication and Information at UNESCO Bangkok, and Dr Roslyn Russell, Chairperson of the Australian Memory of the World Committee, the workshop explored opportunities for regional collaboration for Memory of the World, including the mechanisms for joint nominations.

In her opening remarks, Ms Esther Kuisch-Laroche, Director and Representative of UNESCO Tehran Office, reminded that the UNESCO MoW programme expresses “the great humanist idea that people from all cultures and faith can unite around common heritage”. Talking about the MoW Register, she added that it “is not just a list of marvelous documents. It is a vision for peace, embodied in maps, books and manuscripts, with the power to change the minds of men and women, to shape a different future for all.”

The UNESCO MoW programme was created in 1992 to protect and promote world’s documentary heritage. The workshop in Tehran resulted in the adoption of a Regional Cooperation Plan for the Implementation of the UNESCO Recommendation on Documentary Heritage in Western and Central Asia.

Main photo caption: Al-Masaalik Wa Al-Mamaalik © National Museum of Iran

Participants of the regional workshop on UNESCO Recommendation on Documentary Heritage at the National Library and Archives of Iran © UNESCO

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