Sustaining traditions: Ethnomusicological collections, access and sustainability in Australia

Abstract

Researchers and collecting institutions have long been concerned with issues of sustainability and accessibility in relation to the audio and video recordings, metadata and documents that they create and manage. While early research sought to create a sustainable record of performance traditions that would be available to future generations, archives have striven to ensure that these recordings are held in durable and sustainable formats. In recent years this view of sustainability and accessibility has widened to include making records of cultural heritage discoverable and accessible to their countries and communities of origin often to support local efforts to reclaim cultural heritage mat..