17. Maintaining the knowledge base of archives

An audiovisual archive relies heavily on the maintenance of an entire system necessary to preserve the documents in its care, and to provide access to their content. Of crucial importance to this system, in addition to specialist equipment and facilities, is specialist expertise and experience. It is a requirement, therefore, that the archive works to equip itself with the necessary skills and knowledge, and to maintain and retain these at a high level. The development and passing-on of expertise to subsequent generations is a particular challenge, requiring careful planning and resourcing.

The archive must, therefore, keep itself and its employees updated with the latest scientific and technical information from the field of audiovisual archiving. This will include information concerning the extraction of both primary and secondary information from carriers, and improvements in preservation and restoration practices.