JEDDAH: The Saudi Broadcasting Authority on Thursday announced the preservation of 1.4 million film and radio materials, saying this process had been done manually over decades before the materials were 100 percent digitally preserved.
Its announcement coincided with International Archives Day, which is celebrated every year on June 9.
The SBA has 500,000 TV items and 900,000 radio pieces encompassing the history of the Kingdom. It will be launching a digital platform to allow people to access archived historical and modern material about the country.
Saudi Arabia, in keeping with its digital transformation and significant developments in document and information collection, has dedicated IT and communication resources for archive preservation.
The authorities working together in this area are the King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives (Darah), the National Center for Archives & Records, and the SBA.
Darah archives all forms of Saudi and Islamic heritage, literature, historical, and geographical sources found on paper, photographs, film, and audio.
The NACR is tasked with developing a system to ensure the archives are in place and organized.
The SBA, a member of the International Council on Archives since 2019, has film and radio materials produced through domestic TV channels and radio stations.
The ICA was established in 1948 with the support of UNESCO for heritage preservation and representation of documentation and archival professionals.
In 2007, it decided that June 9 would be International Archives Day to celebrate the memory of nations and their invaluable historical documents.
The SBA tweeted: “It is the documentary trace of human activity, an indispensable heritage from generation to generation. It is the memory of past events, and the witness that cannot be dispensed with.”
The celebration of International Archives Day is an occasion to strengthen cooperation mechanisms between archival institutions worldwide and raise the level of their documentation practice.
It also serves as an opportunity to spread documentary culture among society and develop and expand it with supporting technology.
