President's Corner

Dear fellow FIAT/IFTA member - that includes all of you: full member, associated member and individual member, supporting member and honorary member, wherever you are - stay with me for a few minutes; I have some messages for you. Hungary, Budapest and FIAT/IFTA's conference 1997 are history - FIAT/IFTA history. The chairmen of the different commissions are already putting together the programme for the next conference. The venue will be Florence, Italy, and the month is still September (late September this time). Make a note in your calendars and do not hesitate to book hotel room/s for Florence when the invitation for the FIAT/IFTA Conference 1998 is on your desk. Act as quickly as possible to be sure of the room you want. You got the message? good.

Back to FIAT/IFTA history and reflections on why the association was born 20 years ago. A brief history of FIAT/IFTA was written by Anne Hanford and Sam Suratt. What kind of issues were of importance 20 years ago and are those issues still a subject for conversations?

Few television archives were controlled by managers with professional qualifications or experience in archive, library or information fields. There were few defined professional standards or codes, either nationally or internationally. Television Archives frequently had low status within their parent organisation and did not have the necessary financial, technical or professional resources required to establish adequate standards, service or infrastructure. They attracted criticism and concern from their programme making and technical colleagues.

So much for Anne's and Sam's recollections of problems of the past, what about today? The aim of FIAT/IFTA is to change the above mentioned attitudes to the work we are doing. What about the issue of recruiting new directors or heads of archives? Do we have any written recommendations to be forwarded to those who have to work with the employment of new leaders of multimedia archives - also called film libraries, videotape archives or documentation centres? I do not recall any documents in the field but I do recall some lectures on the issue of the qualifications of new leaders.

What is at stake, so to speak? The old archives and libraries are not the same workplaces any more. The new technology within the development of computers and the new development of the materials we have to preserve challenge all of us. Are we prepared for the changes, mentally speaking? Are we resting in the past and not listening to the alarm signal of what might be the working field of tomorrow? I am concerned with the new - if there are any new - ideas in the field of recruiting members for the leading positions within archives.

Recently, an interesting article was published in a Norwegian newspaper dealing with the requirements for being on the board of companies in Norway. The keywords are education in different fields, including degrees from universities in the field of political science, law and economics and also experience from earlier work is important. Leaders with a high standard of knowledge within a defined field were appreciated. What about the memory of the past - low status and no professional attitude to the work to be done.

Are we making the same mistakes today? When a private enterprise employs a new leader they evaluate the persons professional background: education in fields related to the work, experience from earlier work and a close evaluation of the results of the past. As you know, cement is hard to move after some hours and some of us do develop a kind of "cement approach" to new challenges. Those of us who are going to influence the development of the new multimedia archives need some time to consider if they really are fit for the job. The recruitment of new heads of television archives, film archives or multimedia archives must be a serious matter for any company. The archives should not be a resting place for persons waiting to be retired in some years. The standard of your archive and the standard of the future work of FIAT/IFTA are depending on personalities who want to do the work and who ask for the job because they believe they will fit in well with the work of the multimedia archives where recorded sound and videotapes and old films will be the material they have to work with and the material they must keep alive for the next generation.

Good luck to all of you in charge of the archives. If you get a feeling of "cement" or the smell of it - rush to FIAT/IFTA's next conference and we will take care of that cement.

Tedd Johansen

PS. Those who did not attend the Budapest Conference can order a copy of the History of FIAT/IFTA from our Administrative Secretary Gösta Johansson.