Participants who completed the Assessment and Preser-vation of Analog Audio media programme were on Wednes-day evening presented with certificates from Ohio University.
This is the first time such an effort has been mounted in Guyana where students were given training on how to collect, preserve and store audio and catalogs from archives in institutions such as the National Library, University of Guyana and National Cultural Centre with the assistance of students and professors from the Ohio University (OU).
Assistant Professor in Music Production at OU, Eddie Ashworth said the participants needed to have an understanding of analog tape and methods of preservation. He commended the students for the hard work they put in. He stated that they were originally archiving audio from the National Communications Network (NCN) and they eventually realized that they wanted to do a representative sampling of Guyanese collections.
The original target was 1200-1800 assets, and so far they have sampled 1400 catalogs, he said. The work, he added, will not stop there, as provision has been made for the participants to be equipped to continue the work when they leave. The goal, he said, was for the participants to create core competencies in professional archives. He further added that they will continue to consult with the participants.
One of the participants, Nadine Moore, said the experience was really interesting and that to date they have been able to assess 90% of the records at the National Library.
The participants were Jonnel Henry, Clyden Harris, Sharmane Thomas, Orpheao Griffin, Collin Charles, Shaliza McAndrew, Keisha McAlmont, Burchmore Simon, Micah Morgan, Nadine Moore, Nizam Bacchus, Sheldon Tappin, Karen Boodram, and Pauline Stanford.
The programme was facilitated by the UG Centre of Communication Studies in collaboration with OU.
