Memorandum submitted by South East Museum,
Library and Archive Council (SEMLAC)
WHO WE
ARE
The South East Museum, Library and Archive Council
(SEMLAC) is the regional development agency for museum, library
and archive activity in the South East. We work to improve the
quality of museum, library and archive provision in the South
East in order to maximise the sectors' contribution to the region's
distinctive cultural, social, educational and economic life and
identity. We work in partnership with the Museums, Libraries and
Archives Council and its other Regional Agencies.
OUR INTEREST
IN THE
COMMITTEE'S
INQUIRY
Our interest concerns the potential of audiovisual
archives to contribute to the success of the creative industries
in our region.
Since our establishment in 2002, we have been
working to define the existing audiovisual collections in the
South East and to support their strategic development. This resulted
in the publication in 2004 of the South East Audiovisual Mapping
and Strategy report (available at http://www.semlac.org.uk/archives7.html).
Since that time, we have made significant strides in developing
a partnership with Screen South (the South East arm of the UK
Film Council) and SEEDA our regional development agency to help
support the commercial development of our regional audiovisual
archives. We are progressing a series of commercial case studies
between commercial providers and collections in the South East
including a partnership between BBC Motion Gallery and the National
Motor Museum, Beaulieu.
As part of our efforts to showcase the value
of these collections to the creative industries, with our partners
we published a toolkit at the South East Media Network's Digital
Convergence conference in December. The toolkit provides advice
and guideline to help those with audiovisual collections in the
South East generate income by meeting the needs of potential commercial
partners. It us available at http://www.semlac.org.uk/archives_avcommercialstudy.html
IMPACT UPON
AUDIOVISUAL ARCHIVES
OF RECENT
AND FUTURE
DEVELOPMENTS IN
DIGITAL CONVERGENCE
We know that content creators are very interested
in repurposing material held in audiovisual archives to create
new digital products for various platforms. At present the potential
for repurposing is limited by the fact that the vast majority
of existing audiovisual material is not ready to be exploited
by the market. By not ready, we mean that the collections are
not well enough catalogued and digitised and that more often than
not the rights to exploit the content is not owned by the holder
of the collection. The key issue is where investment should come
from to overcome these limiting factors. From our commercial study
assessments, we believe that new content creators will have some
role to play in this investment process but without some element
of public sector incentive there will not be sufficient critical
mass available for new content creators to invest.
This issue of public sector investment has been
raised by us and other bodies in relation to the Committee's Heritage
Inquiry. We hope that the Committee will be able to take a joined-up
approach by referencing this issue in relation to this creative
industries inquiry.
BALANCE BETWEEN
RIGHTS OF
CREATORS AND
EXPECTATIONS OF
CONSUMERS
We support the progress made so far by the BBC
Creative Archive Licence Group. The composition of the group is
understandably dominated by large audiovisual content providers,
and we would urge the Committee to encourage the group to take
a wider view of the contribution which content held in all kinds
of museums, libraries and archives through the representation
of MLA on the forthcoming Consultative Panel. The proposals developed
by the group need to be able to accommodate the needs of smaller
content providers to allow them to take advantage of the opportunities
available through application of the Licence.
The Committee will be aware that the British
Film Institute (BFI) has a particular policy and pastoral care
role for the regional audiovisual archives, which the UK Film
Council provides small financial support for through its regional
Screen Agencies. The BFI should be specifically charged with representing
the interests of the regional audiovisual archives on the Group
and its Consultative Panel.
The rights issues are complex and not easily
resolvable without significant resources, which are often not
available to the 116 organisations holding extant audiovisual
collections in the South East. We would urge the Committee to
encourage the Licence Group to create a blueprint for resolving
rights issues which is workable where the rights of the creators
are not known and which is useful for smaller organisations. To
do this effectively the Group will need to look at the structures
to make this happen. We hope that the Committee will be able to
recommend that the Group take account of these issues in setting
the terms of reference for the Consultative Group.
28 February 2006
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