Date: February 2020
Activity: Developing a Collaborative Relationship with Red Iberoamericana de Preservación Digital de Archivos Sonoros y Audiovisuales (RIPDASA)
The Ibero-American Network for Digital Preservation of Audiovisual Archives (RIPDASA) was launched in 2019 bringing together researchers and professionals in sound and audiovisual archives in Iberoamérica (Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries) to share knowledge and experiences in universities, heritage institutions, private companies, and international organizations with the aim of fostering scientific research on the current state and future of our sound and audiovisual heritage. The ultimate purpose is to propose solutions to mitigate the risk of loss of these valuable assets and ensure access for generations. At the present time, RIPDASA is coordinated by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) with the participation of universities and organizations from Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Spain, Ecuador, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, as well as Mexico; it is currently comprised of 11 chapters, bringing together over 62 researchers in the region (for a detailed list of members, please consult the following link: http://www.cyted.org/content/619rt0584-integrantes).
In February 2020, The Diaspora Project, ArchiRed, the College of Humanities and the School of Communication from the UPR-Río Piedras have all partnered together to represent Puerto Rico in RIPDASA’s network, becoming the first island to join in the Caribbean region.
During 2020, we have focused on the identification and diagnosis of the audio and audiovisual archives available in Puerto Rico. We are gathering data by means of a widely circulated questionnaire, aiming to identify the location of existing archives in the island, and to gain knowledge on the location of institutions who own, collect, and manage sound and audiovisual archives. With the collected information from this instrument, the Puerto Rico branch will produce a written report that will be published as an e-book, to be published by RIPDASA in October 2020.
