A Summer Education and Training Residency for Radio Afghanistan Archivists

FAIN: PE-50020-08

American Institute of Afghanistan Studies (Boston, MA 02215-1401)
Hiromi L. Sakata (Project Director: July 2007 to August 2013)

Funding details:
Original grant (2008) $68,768.00
Supplement (2009) $8,000.00

Advanced training in archival management in the United States for four Afghan archivists currently engaged in reformatting the audio collections of Radio Afghanistan.

With an NEH grant, the Radio Afghanistan Archives is currently digitizinig its holdings of 8,500 hours of reel-to-reel music tapes recorded and maintained since the early 1960s. Although the archivists are keenly aware of the value of this historical resource and the urgency of its protection, they have had no experience wih the issues and strategies of global intangible cultural property management. AIAS seeks $69,000 in NEH funding to bring Radio Afghanistan archivists for a residency including a 3-week workshop at the University of Washington Ethnomsicology Archives and a 10-day visit to three important archival institutions: The Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music, The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian Institution's GlobalSound Initiative of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. This Residency will enable the Radio Afghanistan Archives to join the ongoing international discussions on standards and techniques of archiving.