Foundations for preserving and valorizing Oman's audiovisual heritage in the digital age: Towards the realization of Oman Vision 2040

Abstract

Audiovisual archives are an integral part of our collective cultural memory, which their preservation according to rules consistent with these archives is required. Sometimes their migration to more stable and sustainable media is necessary in order to ensure the circulation of this memory across generations. This necessitates thinking about strategies that ensure the long-term preservation of these audiovisual archives and enable the control of methods and techniques for collecting and valorizing audiovisual assets. In this context, the study focuses on the preservation and valorization of Oman's audiovisual heritage. This heritage requires a set of measures to ensure its long-term preservation, visibility and global dissemination, in line with Oman's Vision 2040. These measures are presented in this work as part of an integrated plan to preserve Oman's audiovisual heritage in accordance with international standards. A set of proposals were also presented for the dissemination and valorization of this audiovisual heritage in the digital environment through the use of information technology and the Internet.

A national strategy must be considered for preserving and valuing the Omani audiovisual heritage in order to preserve it and introduce it to serve researchers and scholars. This strategy includes measures to rescue archives threatened by destruction and digitally transform them.

The set of recommendations presented in this paper will enable the vision of a national program for preserving and valuing the Omani audiovisual heritage that can be applied in all institutions that contain audiovisual assets in the Sultanate, thus unifying the methods and rules of preservation as well as how to value the Omani audiovisual heritage.