Documentary Heritage in the Arab Region: A Regional Survey Understanding Needs, Challenges, and Opportunities

The UNESCO Recommendation Concerning the Preservation of, and Access to, Documentary Heritage including in the Digital Form1 was unanimously adopted by Member States at the 38th session of the General Conference in November 2015; the first-ever standard-setting instrument on the protection of the world’s documentary heritage. The recommendation can be seen as the culmination of a growing awareness and shift in attitudes towards the significance of documentary heritage that had begun after the end of the Second World War and emerged in 1992 with the establishment of the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme with a vision to facilitate preservation, assist access to and increase awareness of worldwide documentary heritage. Despite the Member States’ eager adoption of this instrument, and the establishment of several national MOW committees, the Arab region’s rich and varied documentary heritage is increasingly at risk due to neglect, natural decay, technological obsolescence, inadequate housing or, in some cases, deliberate destruction. Across the region, a number of institutions are striving to preserve documentary heritage but continue to face challenges. Lack of financial resources, political instability, natural disasters, the high cost of conservation software and equipment, or limited technical expertise are all factors which hinder their efforts to protect the region’s valuable manuscripts, archives, photos and maps. And while these risks are broadly understood, no hard data had previously been available to analyse the situation and support efforts where they are most needed. In September 2018 a collaboration was formed between the UNESCO Cluster Office for the Gulf States & Yemen and the Qatar National Library, in its capacity as the IFLA-PAC Regional Centre for the Arab Countries and the Middle East, to undertake an ambitious regional survey gathering information on the specific needs and challenges faced by institutions and organizations that hold elements of documentary heritage across the region. The broad aim of undertaking this survey was to understand what types of documentary heritage exists, where it is being held, the risks it faces, and what support these memory institutions need which could then serve as a platform for building more meaningful support programmes in the future.

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Published in: UNESDOC Digital Library
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/
See report on publisher's website: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000375817.locale=en