The International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) was established in 1969 to serve as a forum for international co-operation between archives, libraries, and individuals interested in the preservation of recorded sound and audiovisual documents.

IASA aims

The IASA constitution states the following purposes:

Membership

IASA has members from more than 70 countries representing a broad palette of audiovisual archives and personal interests which are distinguished by their focus on particular subjects and areas, for example: archives for all sorts of musical recordings, historic, literary, folkloric and ethnological sound documents, theatre productions and oral history interviews, bio-acoustics, environmental and medical sounds, linguistic and dialect recordings, as well as recordings for forensic purposes.

IASA activities

IASA promotes the open and ongoing exchange of ideas and information on current issues in the audiovisual field via annual conferences, an IASA Journal, email list and the IASA web site.

Annual conferences

IASA has held a conference each year since its inception, sometimes in partnership with related organisations. In 2010, IASA and the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) came together for the first time in a joint IASA-AMIA conference held in Philadelphia, USA. With more than 750 participants and more than 100 presentations and lectures this was one of the biggest conferences in the audiovisual archiving field ever. The 2013 conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, was held in association with the Baltic Audiovisual Archival Council. The 2019 conference was held in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Publications

IASA follows closely the progress of technology and members can call upon a pool of expertise for help and advice on various aspects, ranging from digitisation to metadata to technical issues. In this regard, IASA has published a number of special publications:

Awards and grants

The organisation issues awards for outstanding contributions to the profession of sound and audiovisual archiving, as well as financial support for research, for training, and for participating in annual conferences:

Collaboration

IASA has long standing relationships with international organisations such as UNESCO and Europeana and is a respected partner in various international audiovisual archive projects. IASA is a founding member of the CCAAA (Co-ordinating Council of Audiovisual Archive Associations). In 2012 and 2013, IASA hosted the official website of the UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, an event held annually on 27 October to raise awareness of the significance of and threats to sound and moving image heritage worldwide.

Executive Board and President

Executive Board

Term of office from 2020 to 2023:

President

Source:

Previous Board members

Committees and Sections

IASA Committees focus on topics that are of common interest to all archives and collections. IASA Sections provide a platform for the exchange of information between specific types of archives and collections.

Organising Knowledge Committee

The Organising Knowledge Committee concerns itself with standards and rules as well as with systems, automated or manual, for the documentation and cataloguing of audiovisual media. Officers (chairpersons, secretaries) of the Organising Knowledge Committee (previously known as the Cataloguing and Documentation Committee) are elected within the committee. The committees exclusively decide on the objects and tasks they deal with.

Discography Committee

The Discography Committee deals with standards and recommended practices, as well as current and ongoing projects involving published recordings. Officers of the Discography Committee (chairpersons, secretaries) are elected within the committee. The committees exclusively decide on the objects and tasks they deal with.

Technical Committee

The Technical Committee devotes itself to all technical aspects of sound and audiovisual recordings. This includes the actual recording processes, optimisation of reproduction of historical and modern recordings, transfer and digitisation technologies, standards and storage technologies, software and carriers. The Technical Committee is concerned with the preservation of sound and audiovisual media and technically sustainable approaches to future access. The creation of special publications enabling the AV archive community to take educated decisions regarding this, is a main concern of the committee. The Technical Committee has delivered several papers, which serve as technical guidelines, in the series Standards, Recommended Practices and Strategies. Officers of the Technical Committee (chairpersons, secretaries) are elected within the committee. The committees exclusively decide on the objects and tasks they deal with.

Training & Education Committee

The Training & Education Committee seeks to create and support an Audiovisual archival community who are knowledgeable, professional, capable of caring for their collections effectively, and acknowledged as such by their institutions or wider professional community. Officers of the Training & Education Committee (chairpersons, secretaries) are elected within the committee. The committees exclusively decide on the objects and tasks they deal with. The Training and Education Committee concerns itself with audiovisual archiving Training & Education, as well as concentrated actions in gaining multifunctional training and education material.

National Archives Section

The National Archives Section is where members meet to consider issues facing officially designated national collections, e.g. acquisition policies, legal deposit, the management of large collections, whether held in archives, museums, libraries, dedicated audiovisual organisations or research institutes and universities.

Broadcast Archives Section

The Broadcast Archives Section handles the special responsibilities of audiovisual archives in broadcast companies.

Europeana Sounds Task Force

The Europeana Sounds Task Force works on the following activities:

Regional branches

National and regional branches of IASA, with their own membership and activities, exist for Austria, Britain and Ireland and German-Swissgerman regions.