IASA-BAAC 2026 Conference

You will be able to validate your attendance (Check-In to sessions) using your personal schedule.

1:30pm EEST

Azimuth Adjustments: Will We Do All Our Collections Again?

Monday October 19, 2026 1:30pm - 2:30pm EEST

Statehood hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

The current methodology to correct azimuth on quarter inch audio tape based upon a combination of spectral tools and listening abilities has led in the last 25 years to common practices how to digitize tapes with wrongly adjusted azimuth. In a recent field test with senior archive audio engineers and young students, a test was done to compare different approaches how to adjust azimuth – based upon ears, spectral tools, and completely new approaches. The test results of traditional and new methodologies will be presented, which might put a new light and a question in the way how collections have been digitised in the past.

Speakers

Jean-Christophe Kummer

Managing Partner, NOA GmbH

Jean-Christophe Kummer is responsible for business development, company management, and the worldwide expansion of NOA systems. From his early days, he has been an entrepreneur. After earning his Tonmeister degree in Vienna in the early 90s, he was involved in many classical recordings... Read More →

Prof.in Dr. Nadja Wallaszkovits

Professor for Conservation of New Media and Digital Information, Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design

will be added later

Monday October 19, 2026 1:30pm - 2:30pm EEST
Statehood hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Long Presentation, Hybrid

global Y
Zoom link https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86939636277
Zoom password 289030

3:30pm EEST

Permanent Records, Permanent Access, Permanent Readability: Cerabyte The New Storage Technology

Monday October 19, 2026 3:30pm - 4:30pm EEST

Statehood hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Existing storage technologies for medium- to long-term preservation, such as magnetic tape, as well as emerging approaches for very long-term storage, including DNA, Microsoft Silica/SPhotonix, and Holomem, still face significant limitations in fast access and high-performance readout. Without these capabilities, any new storage medium is unlikely to meet the practical requirements of contemporary and future data storage infrastructures.

Cerabyte introduces a new technology for permanent, sustainable, and cost-efficient data storage over extended periods, while delivering high-performance and random-access. Based on ceramic materials, the medium suffers no bit rot and withstands humidity, high temperature, corrosion, and magnetic pulses.

A technology intended to preserve data across centuries raises two fundamental questions for archives: first, how can data be read if the original reading technology is no longer available; and second, assuming the bits can be recovered, how can they be translated into meaningful information?

Although Cerabyte provides dedicated high-performance readers, the stored data can also be read independently using standard industrial microscopy. Provided that the error-correction algorithms remain known, the encoded information can be reconstructed from the recovered bit patterns.

Our presentation will demonstrate such an independent recovery workflow. A feature film from one of the world’s largest entertainment corporations, whose name will be disclosed prior to IASA, will be written to Cerabyte media. It will be read using an industrial microscope and a makeshift decoder developed by CERN.

The workflow, technical approach, and results will be presented and discussed at IASA.

Speakers

Martin Kunze

CMO, Cerabyte & Memory of Mankind

Martin Kunze is an Austrian silicate technologist, ceramics specialist, and visionary inventor dedicated to preserving information for future generations. In 2012, he founded the groundbreaking Memory of Mankind project, a unique time capsule of our civilization etched onto durable ceramic tiles a... Read More →

Monday October 19, 2026 3:30pm - 4:30pm EEST
Statehood hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Long Presentation, In Person

Zoom link https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86939636277
Zoom password 289030

11:00am EEST

Archives as a Witness: A Case of National Social Security Fund-Uganda

Tuesday October 20, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm EEST

Education hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Four years ago the National Social Security Fund of Uganda faced a parliamentary probe. This probe requested for archives dating back in the 80s, fortunately, the Fund had digitised its records dating the late 1970s and all the records and archives were available within the required time. This amazed the probe, because like most institutions in developing countries, there is a poor culture of records keeping and moreso challenges of resources to digitise their records. To us, when we digitised our archives was focus was for preservation and future, little did we know, that our archives would become the much needed witness we needed. In this presentation, we share our digital transformation journey, how the decision to digitise saved us and is now contributing to the strategic direction of the organisation, the challenges and some of the emerging technologies we are adopting to meet the demands of our users and clients.

Speakers

Winny Nekesa Akullo

Records Manager, National Social Security Fund - Uganda

Winny Nekesa Akullo is a Records and Information Management professional at the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) with expertise in institutional records governance, archives management, and digital transformation. Her work focuses on strengthening records systems, ensuring regulatory... Read More →

Shaban Bwayo

Tead Leader - Records, National Social Security Fund - Uganda

Shaban Bwayo is a records management professional for over 10 years. He is currently a Tead leader - records at the National Social Security Fund. He is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Records and Archival Management at Makerere University

Tuesday October 20, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm EEST
Education hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Long Presentation, In Person

Zoom link https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81977024051
Zoom password 867213

1:30pm EEST

Digital Preservation and Conservation of the Audiovisual Collections in Archives in South Africa In Times Peace and War

Tuesday October 20, 2026 1:30pm - 2:30pm EEST

Education hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Globally, archives exist to preserve rare and archival collection of enduring nature. Audiovisual (AV) recordings specifically need to be preserved from factors such as water, fire, temperature and humidity which have a potentiality to destroy them permanently. Wars also pose threat as fragile and rare AV recordings can be destroyed in archives during the war. As the world is in digital era, traditional archives need to adapt to the era to ensure long term preservation and optimal accessibility of the archival audiovisual collection even post wars. Digital preservation of audiovisual heritage in archives is of utmost important to protect their originality, authenticity and uniqueness. Adequate digital storage facilities, outside replication centres and data security are essential to ensure protection of the AV collections. The purpose of this study was to investigate digital preservation of AV collections to ensure that the archival collections are still accessible post wars. The study adopted the qualitative research approach. To collect in-depth data, seven AV archivists were interviewed virtually. Interview schedule was used to collect data. The findings indicated that all archives in South Africa are busy digitising their AV heritage. The findings indicate that there is a backlog in the digitisation of millions of AV recordings. More budget is also essential for the archives to buy requisite state-of-the-art equipment to digitise AV collections. With adequate budget, more qualified archivists can be employed to accelerate digitisation. The study recommended cloud storage of the digitised AV collections so that they are accessible post wars.

Speakers

Samuel Maredi Mojapelo

Full Professor, University of South Africa

Samuel Maredi Mojapelo (PhD) is the Professor in the Department of Information Science, University of South Africa (Unisa). He worked as a teacher in Limpopo province for 22 years. After that, he joined the Gauteng Department of Basic Education in 2008 as a Senior Education Specialist... Read More →

Tuesday October 20, 2026 1:30pm - 2:30pm EEST
Education hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Long Presentation, In Person

global Y
Zoom link https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81977024051
Zoom password 867213

2:00pm EEST

Radio/Archive: Exploring Literary Radio Archives as Sites of Memory and Cultural Identity

Tuesday October 20, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm EEST

Statehood hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

This talk will focus on a newly launched research project conducted in collaboration with CKUA Radio, Canada’s oldest public radio station. Founded in 1927, CKUA radio was launched by the University of Alberta’s Department of Extension as a form of educational outreach through in-person lecture circuits in rural Alberta. Broadcasting initially from the University of Alberta campus, the station focused from the outset on literary readings, dramatic performances, music concerts, and academic lectures. University faculty continued to develop CKUA radio programming for over 40 years following CKUA’s departure from campus, first under the Radio Service, and then the Department of Radio and Television (RTV). The CKUA archives, both at its downtown Edmonton location and related archives of RTV held at the University of Alberta Archives, offer valuable media and textual records of the station’s role in shaping diverse creative cultures regionally and nationally. This talk will open up questions about the place of literary radio in audiovisual archives as sites of memory and cultural identity worthy of preservation and attention.

Speakers

Sean Luyk

Digital Curation Librarian, University of Alberta

Sean Luyk is the Digital Curation Librarian at the University of Alberta Library where he is responsible for the University of Alberta’s Aviary repository, and is a co-investigator on the SpokenWeb project. Sean is an Affiliated Researcher of the Sound Studies Institute, and a Fellow... Read More →

Tuesday October 20, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm EEST
Statehood hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Long Presentation, Online

Zoom link https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86939636277
Zoom password 289030

2:00pm EEST

Restoring Image and Sound, Rebuilding Stories: Polish Pre-War movies from FINA archives.

Tuesday October 20, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm EEST

Events hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania: Great Hall

The presentation addresses the restoration projects of two pre-war Polish feature films: Paweł and Gaweł (Paweł i Gaweł, 1938, dir. M. Krawicz) and What Women Want (O czym marzą kobiety, 1937, dir. A. Marten). The restorations were based on pre-war nitrate-based copies 16 mm and 35 mm, positive and internegatives. All available materials were heavily degraded and incomplete, displaying extensive mechanical damage and defects.

A key challenge in both projects was the integration of 35 mm and 16 mm sources into a coherent restored version. The 16mm elements, often used to replace missing sections of the 35 mm materials, were of significantly lower image and sound quality, with reduced resolution, increased grain, limited tonal range, and severely degraded optical soundtracks. Achieving visual and auditory consistency across formats required careful balancing of restoration interventions while preserving the historical authenticity of the films.

In the case of Paweł and Gaweł, the restoration process was further complicated by the need to reconstruct the film’s edit from multiple fragmentary sources. Editorial decisions were guided by comparative analysis of the surviving copies and narrative continuity, making reconstruction an essential component of the restoration.

The presentation outlines the principal stages of digital image and sound restoration, including scanning, image stabilization and cleaning, tonal correction, and sound processing such as noise reduction and synchronization. These case studies illustrate the broader challenges involved in restoring early sound films from heterogeneous and severely damaged archival materials.

Speakers

Grzegorz Krynicki

Head of the Digitization and Restoration Department, National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute (FINA)

Master of Science in Engineering, a graduate of the Faculty of Environmental Engineering at the Warsaw University of Technology. For many years professionally associated with the National Audiovisual Institute, and subsequently with the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute... Read More →

Jakub Stadnik

Senior Specialist for Sound Digitization and Restoration, National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute (FINA)

Dr. Jakub Stadnik is a sound engineer specializing in film sound restoration. He is employed as a Senior Specialist for Sound Digitization and Restoration at the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute (FINA) and serves as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Sound... Read More →

Tuesday October 20, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm EEST
Events hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania: Great Hall

Long Presentation, In Person

3:30pm EEST

Objects of Governance: Indigenous Community Archives, State Intervention, and the Struggle for Autonomy

Tuesday October 20, 2026 3:30pm - 4:30pm EEST

Statehood hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Indigenous First Nation archives in remote Australian homeland communities can represent autonomy and renewal but also dependency and loss. The Australian federal government’s Emergency Response in 2007 intensified these tensions. Military intervention, together with the systematic defunding and restructuring of locally controlled organisations, challenged the information sovereignty underpinning the early development of Indigenous First Nation community archives. But the effects of this state-induced crisis on culturally significant audiovisual archives received little attention in either official evaluations, or archival scholarship. Drawing on critical archival studies and long-term fieldwork in Northern Territory communities, the paper contends that during a crisis, the true extent community archives govern their own historical records is revealed. If community archives become objects of governance rather than agents of their own documentary heritage, it reframes preservation projects as political technologies. For communities dedicated to autonomous archives, self-determination becomes a struggle against the competing archival logics.

Speakers

Robert Lazarus

Senior Lecturer, University of Melbourne

Dr Robert Lazarus is Senior Lecturer in the Robert Cripps Institute for Cultural Conservation at the University of Melbourne. His work focuses on the documentation and conservation of cultural heritage. Current research explores diverse archival practices in Australia, especially... Read More →

Tuesday October 20, 2026 3:30pm - 4:30pm EEST
Statehood hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Long Presentation, In Person

global Y
Zoom link https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86939636277
Zoom password 289030

4:00pm EEST

Celluloid Diplomacy: USIA Films, Propaganda, and the Making of Cold War Latin America

Tuesday October 20, 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm EEST

Events hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania: Great Hall

From 1953 to 1999, the United States Information Agency (USIA) produced or distributed approximately 20,000 motion pictures worldwide. Films focused on Latin America were designed to advance U.S. foreign policy objectives, promoting initiatives such as the Alliance for Progress, anticommunism, and modernization, while countering Soviet influence in the region. Intended primarily for international audiences, these films showcased U.S.-led development projects and encouraged cultural alignment with the United States, offering a counternarrative to the perceived threat of socialism and communism following the Cuban Revolution. Although often categorized as propaganda, USIA films encompass a wide range of subjects and employ diverse cinematic styles. Despite this breadth, cultural and political historians have devoted limited attention to the specific production practices and enduring legacies of this extensive body of work.

While some USIA films remain recognizable in different parts of the world, their visibility has long been constrained by a domestic distribution ban that was only lifted in 2013. More recently, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in College Park, Maryland, has digitized a substantial corpus of USIA films along with extensive accompanying documentation. In the case of Latin America, this includes approximately 750 films covering presidential visits, diplomatic exchanges, U.S. aid programs, instructional campaigns, and sociopolitical representations. Physical 16 mm copies of these films are often dispersed across archives, universities, and cultural institutions throughout Latin America. The growing availability of digital access now creates new opportunities to examine the complex significance of these films, the conditions of their production, and their historical contexts. It also enables fresh interpretations at a moment when institutional stewardship—particularly at NARA—faces uncertainty and when shifting political climates call for renewed engagement with the legacies of the Cold War.

Speakers

Juana Suárez

Associate Professor/ MIAP Director, New York University

Juana Suárez combines careers as a scholar, film critic, and media archivist/preservation activist. Her research interests include Media Preservation, Film Archives, Media Archeology, Administration of Memory Institutions, Film Studies, Latin American/Latino-a Cinema, Cultural Studies... Read More →

Tuesday October 20, 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm EEST
Events hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania: Great Hall

Long Presentation, In Person

9:30am EEST

Silences in the Archive: Stories of Transborder Resistance in Mendoza, Argentina During the Last Civil-Military Dictatorship

Wednesday October 21, 2026 9:30am - 10:30am EEST

Education hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

We will share stories from two archives in Mendoza, Argentina, which contain information about the human networks, artistic creations, communication and codes, and experiences of clandestine resistance to dictatorships in the Southern Cone. These stories reveal how, through networks of cooperation, the highest range of the Andes Mountains separating Mendoza and Santiago, Chile, functioned as a hidden bridge between communities. Unregistered stories such as these and the objects surrounding them, due to the secrecy necessitated by their repressive political environment, will remain a lasting silence in archives unless initiatives are taken to register and preserve them.

Páez’s work with the Asociación Ecumenica de Cuyo preserves the archive of the Comité Ecuménico de Acción Social (CEAS), active from 1973 to 1992, which was created to support Chilean exiles in Mendoza during Pinochet’s dictatorship. This collection comprises the case files documenting the passage of Chilean exiles, as well as secret communications between networks of human rights organizations in Santiago and Mendoza. Skinner’s work with Memorias Sonoras includes interviews related to clandestine artistic gatherings and musical composition during the last dictatorship in Argentina. We propose to share stories from these two related projects, draw connections between the encrypted codes in both archives, communicational and musical, and explore the role of the Andes as a connector rather than a border. Finally, we will analyze these sources through the lens of a public consultation realized together in March of 2026, in which many of these ideas were brought forth by members of the community.

Speakers

Mariana Páez

Director, Bibilioteca y Centro de Documentación Mauricio A López

Mariana Páez is the director of the Mauricio A. López Library and Documentation Center in Mendoza, Argentina. As director, she oversees an archive pertaining to ecumenical thought, feminism and liberation theology. The archive includes collections relating to the following figures... Read More →

Andrew Skinner

Co-Director, Memorias Sonoras

Andrew Skinner is the co-director of Memorias Sonoras, an initiative dedicated to supporting musical archives in Mendoza, Argentina, through community collaboration. Over the past three years, through Memorias Sonoras, he managed the preservation of the Zanessi Studios collection... Read More →

Wednesday October 21, 2026 9:30am - 10:30am EEST
Education hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Long Presentation, In Person

Zoom link https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81977024051
Zoom password 867213

11:00am EEST

AI-CODE, Debunk, and the Evidentiary Future of Audiovisual Archives

Wednesday October 21, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm EEST

Events hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania: Great Hall

Preserving the authenticity of digital records in an era of AI-generated content is a growing challenge for archives. This presentation offers one approach through AI-CODE, a Horizon Europe project developing AI-supported services for media asset annotation, content analysis, verification, and credibility assessment. The session will give audiovisual archivists a practical overview of the AI-CODE service ecosystem, with attention to how these tools may support discovery, contextualization, verification, and assessment of audiovisual materials.

The presentation will include an expert contribution from Debunk.org, a Vilnius-based independent technology think tank and NGO working on disinformation analysis, education, research, and Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI). Debunk will present AI-CODE’s Media Asset Annotation and Management service (MAAM) created by the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH). MAAM uses AI models for content annotation, retrieval, and media verification, including synthetic media and deepfake detection. For audiovisual archivists, MAAM offers a practical view into AI-assisted annotation, retrieval, and authenticity assessment. The presentation will consider how machine-generated labels, synthetic media detection, and explainable model outputs can contribute to verification-oriented approaches to audiovisual materials, especially where provenance, authenticity, and evidentiary context are at stake. Ample time will be reserved for discussion, with the aim of exploring how AI-CODE services might support real-world archival use cases.

Speakers

Randi Cecchine

researcher, AI-CODE

Randi Cecchine has a background in documentary filmmaking, media education, and educational film distribution. Her work focuses on the intersections of audiovisual archives, artificial intelligence, and media literacy. She has researched AI implementation in audiovisual archives... Read More →

Laura Šėrytė

Head of Projects, Debunk

Laura Šėrytė is Head of Projects at Debunk.org, a Vilnius-based independent technology think tank and non-governmental organization that researches disinformation and runs educational media literacy campaigns. She leads the AI-CODE task on user-centered service validation.

Wednesday October 21, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm EEST
Events hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania: Great Hall

Long Presentation, In Person

11:00am EEST

QC for Reformatted Audio Projects

Wednesday October 21, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm EEST

Statehood hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

In archival settings, outsourced reformatting projects create an unusual melding between the industrial processes of mass digitization and the uniqueness of archival assets. Mass digitization methods prioritize saving both effort and cost, but institutions often have little time for a systematic approach to quality control. In this talk, we suggest an approach to quality control for reformatted audio that focuses on developing workflows that work for your institution. We will introduce a variety of time-tested tools at our disposal, from developing quality plans to acceptance sampling techniques. We will then suggest other ambits where QC can be applied, and touch on later developments in QC from projects such as Six Sigma and Lean. Finally, we will look at efforts to standardize perceived audio quality in other fields such as broadcasting (PESQ, PEAQ).

Speakers

Marcos Sueiro Bal

Digital Collections Manager, Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College

Marcos Sueiro Bal is the Digital Collections Manager at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in New York City, USA. Marcos is a member of the technical committees of the Association of Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) and IASA, and was part of the Collection Management... Read More →

Wednesday October 21, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm EEST
Statehood hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Long Presentation, Online - TBD

Zoom link https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86939636277
Zoom password 289030

11:00am EEST

Wartime Recordings of Voskovec and Werich: Optical Digitisation of Damaged Lacquer Discs Using the INA-Saphir System: Technical Resilience and Preservation Refresh Strategies

Thursday October 22, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm EEST

Education hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

The Sound Laboratory of the National Museum has recently expanded its preservation workflows for severely degraded historical sound recordings through the implementation of non-contact optical scanning technologies. Since 2023, the INA-Saphir system has been used to digitise lacquer discs that cannot be safely reproduced using conventional mechanical playback. This approach enables the recovery of audio content from cracked, delaminated, and fragmented carriers and represents a viable preservation strategy for vulnerable sound recordings from the World War II period.

This contribution presents a case study of wartime radio broadcasts by Voskovec and Werich, produced during their exile in the United States for transmission to occupied Czechoslovakia. The original lacquer discs, manufactured and used under wartime conditions, exhibit significant material degradation that limits their accessibility today.
Focusing on applied preservation practice, the paper outlines key stages of the optical digitisation workflow, including condition assessment, capture, signal reconstruction, and post-processing. It highlights practical decision-making in handling fragile media and demonstrates how material analysis informs the selection of appropriate digitisation strategies. The case study illustrates how optical scanning can function as a resilience-oriented approach for preserving obsolete and physically compromised audio carriers that are otherwise unplayable.

Speakers

Geoff Tyson

Sound Engineer, National Museum, Czech Republic

Geoff Tyson is an audio engineer at the National Museum in Prague. Since 2020, he has specialized in the restoration, preservation, and digitization of old historical sound carriers from the 19th and 20th century.

Filip Šír

Head of Digitization Department, National Museum, Czech Republic

Filip Šír is a specialist in the preservation of historical audio heritage in the Czech Republic. Since 2012, he has focused on national coordination, digitization, and long-term conservation of sound documents. He works at the National Museum as head of digitization department... Read More →

Thursday October 22, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm EEST
Education hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Long Presentation, In Person

global Y
Zoom link https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81977024051
Zoom password 867213

1:30pm EEST

Beyond Checksums: Conformance Checking as a Core Component of Authentic Digital Preservation

Thursday October 22, 2026 1:30pm - 2:30pm EEST

Education hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Born-digital audiovisual collections increasingly enter archives with incomplete provenance information, heterogeneous production environments, and varying levels of technical quality. While checksum-based fixity methods reliably confirm bit-level stability after transfer, they do not reveal structural defects already present within files—defects that may affect authenticity, accessibility, and long-term preservation decisions.

This joint presentation brings together archival practice and tool development by the Austrian Mediathek and Jerome Martinez, developer of the MediaInfo project. From the institutional perspective, the Austrian Mediathek presents how systematic conformance checking was integrated into ingest workflows for born-digital audiovisual materials and how this reshaped internal assessment and decision-making processes. Based on the analysis of 4,771 incoming files, the archive identified internal inconsistencies such as truncated bitstreams, container irregularities, and mismatches between declared and actual data structures that remain invisible in traditional workflows.

Complementing this practice-based view, the MediaInfo developer introduces the principles behind the conformance checker, explaining how structural analysis at container and bitstream level makes such inconsistencies detectable and interpretable.

By combining operational archival experience with tool-level insight, the presentation demonstrates how conformance checking strengthens authenticity assessment, improves risk awareness at ingest, and supports informed, transparent preservation planning.

Conformance checking complements fixity by making structural integrity visible—turning stability into trust.

Speakers

Marion Jaks

Long term preservation, Österreichische Mediathek

Marion Jaks is a digital archivist at the Österreichische Mediathek (Austrian Mediathek) in Vienna, Austria. She holds a degree in History and completed professional library training at the Austrian National Library. Her work at the Mediathek spans both analogue and digital collections... Read More →

Jérôme Martinez

CEO, Affiliation MediaArea

Lead developer of #MediaInfo and technical consultant to a variety of projects within the fields of broadcast video, audiovisual archiving, and web video.

Thursday October 22, 2026 1:30pm - 2:30pm EEST
Education hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Long Presentation, In Person

global Y
Zoom link https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81977024051
Zoom password 867213

2:00pm EEST

Decentering Archival Authority: Informal Networks, Post-Custodial Practice, and the IASA Ambassador Framework

Thursday October 22, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm EEST

Statehood hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Contemporary archival discourse increasingly emphasizes the need to move beyond custodial paradigms toward more distributed, relational, and participatory models of stewardship. Within the field of sound and audiovisual heritage, this shift is particularly urgent, as preservation and access are shaped by global asymmetries in resources, infrastructure, and institutional authority. Mobilizing meaningful collaboration across such disparities remains a central challenge, especially where the outcomes of collective action are long-term and not immediately tangible. Within the framework of the IASA, emerging initiatives such as the Ambassador Committee, offer a productive forum for rethinking archival engagement through a post-custodial and decolonial lens.

Participants on the panel will critically examine structural and contextual barriers—including funding inequities, technological divides, and institutional silos—while also interrogating how such constraints intersect with questions of power, representation, and epistemic authority. Conceived as an open and dialogic forum, the panel invites participants to contribute to the co-development of strategies that strengthen informal networks of mutual support and exchange with a participatory platform for shaping the future direction of the Committee. We encourage attendees to actively engage in defining its forthcoming goals, priorities, and activities. This panel also serves as an entry point for broader engagement.

Speakers

Audra V. Adomenas

President, Lithuanian Archives Project

Audra Adomenas is an archivist and nonprofit leader based in Chicago. She is the founder and president of the Lithuanian Archives Project (LAP), established in 2009 and incorporated in 2012 as a not-for-profit organization in the State of Illinois, USA, dedicated to preserving, digitizing... Read More →

Patrick J Midtlyng

President; Head of Recorded Sound Processing Unit Motion Picture, Broadcasting & Recorded Sound Division, IASA; Library of Congress

Patrick Midtlyng is the Head of the Recorded Sound Section at the Library of Congress’s National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, VA. He is responsible for the management and direction of the Recorded Sound Section and oversees all aspects of the National Collection... Read More →

Judith Opoku-Boateng

Director, J. H. Kwabena Nketia Archives of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana

Judith Opoku-Boateng is University Archivist at the University of Ghana, where she leads the development and coordination of the University’s archival systems. With over two decades of experience in audiovisual heritage preservation, she has led major initiatives in audiovisual... Read More →

Perla Olivia Rodriguez Reséndiz

Professor, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Investigadora del Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliotecológicas y de la Información de la UNAM.
Cuenta con estancias de formación en la Radiotelevisión Italiana (RAI) y la Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, España. Desde hace quince años es docente de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Ha diseñado y producido series radiofónicas, televisivas y multimedia con fin... Read More →

Dr. Marija Dumnić Vilotijević

Senior Research Associate, Institute of Musicology SASA

Marija Dumnić Vilotijević holds MA and PhD in ethnomusicology from Faculty of Music of theUniversity of Arts in Belgrade. She is Senior Research Associate at Institute of Musicology of SerbianAcademy of Sciences and Arts. She specialized in similar institutions of Austrian and BulgarianAcademies... Read More →

Thursday October 22, 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm EEST
Statehood hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Long Presentation, Hybrid

Zoom link https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86939636277
Zoom password 289030

4:00pm EEST

Hearing Udi Voices: The New Online Edition of the Austrian Phonogrammarchiv as Infrastructure for Vulnerable Sonic Memory

Thursday October 22, 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm EEST

Events hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania: Great Hall

In its 1899 founding document, the Phonogrammarchiv (Austrian Academy of Sciences) was conceived with imperial ambition: to document all languages and dialects of Europe—and then the world. In the following decades, researchers and missionaries equipped with the Archive‑Phonograph contributed to this project. Many people were recorded under conditions of violence—under colonial rule, or as prisoners-of-war during WWI—while others later experienced displacement or minoritisation, as imperial, colonial, or national ideologies prevailed, as in several of Adolf Dirr’s Recordings from the Caucasus (1909–1910).

This paper presents the new online version of the Phonogrammarchiv’s ongoing Edition Series, The Complete Historical Collections (1899–1950), focusing on its first edition mentioned above. This publication provides open streaming, interactive transcriptions, and downloads for study and sharing, while discussing the context of production. We address collaborative editing, open access, and accessibility for descendant communities and communities of practice, critically engaging with online publication amid uncertain digital futures and global inequalities.

The second part turns to the earliest known audio recordings of the Udi language, made by Dirr. Situating the recordings within the Udi community’s history—marked by repeated displacement and persecution, including upheavals shortly after the recordings—we highlight the fragility of minority archives in times of political crises. Currently, the audio recordings, photographs and related materials are being prepared for presentation in Zinobiani, the only Udi village in Georgia, highlighting the significance of these discoveries for small communities. Finally, we discuss the ethics and politics of recirculation, on and offline, and argue for the vital role of linguistic documentation as part of community memory and identity.

Speakers

Conny Gruber

Academy Scientist, Phonogrammarchiv (Austrian Academy of Sciences)

Conny Gruber is an ethnomusicologist at the Phonogrammarchiv, Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, responsible for publications and editions. They earned their doctorate at the University of Vienna on the interdependency of gender within dance spaces in southwest Madagascar. Gruber’s... Read More →

Alexander Kavtaradze

Invited Lecturer, Ilia State University (Tbilisi, Georgia)

Alexander Kavtaradze, based in Tbilisi (Georgia), holds a DPhil/PhD in Cultural Studies on the topic, “On the edge of time, space and memory: The Udis of Georgia and Azerbaijan”. His research focuses on the Udis and their historic homeland, Caucasian Albania. He serves as an invited... Read More →

Thursday October 22, 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm EEST
Events hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania: Great Hall

Long Presentation, In Person

4:00pm EEST

Radio Haiti Archive: Toward a Community Politics of Repatriation

Thursday October 22, 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm EEST

Education hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

This presentation tracks dissertation work on how various groups view the repatriation and return of the Radio Haiti Archive, which the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University in North Carolina, USA, currently houses, and the role the Haitian diaspora plays in such efforts. It tracks the concepts emerging from the literature on archival repatriation, describes two interlocking bodies of theoretically informed scholarship: critical archival studies and anti-colonial archivy that serve as theoretical lenses to help frame the research and through which to examine archival repatriation and return, outlines the case study methodology pursued using specifically the methods of interviews and archival research, and offers findings.

Speakers

Sony Prosper

PhD Student, University of Michigan

Sony Prosper is a Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan School of Information in the United States of America. His research has concerned archival return and repatriation, how members and volunteers of community and grassroots archives conceptualize records, and how their conceptualizations... Read More →

Thursday October 22, 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm EEST
Education hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Long Presentation, In Person