The Library has entered into a cooperative agreement that will ensure that high-interest foreign news broadcasts such as those from Al-Jazeerah and from Pakistan, Russia and the Philippines are archived and available for future research.
The agreement is with SCOLA, a nonprofit educational corporation that receives and retransmits television programming of long-term research value from around the world in native languages. Under this cooperative agreement, a minimum of 3,750 hours of programming in digital form will be archived by SCOLA over a six-month period and made available to the Library and its researchers.
Funding is provided by the Library of Congress through the congressionally mandated National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP). SCOLA will match the $250,000 provided by the Library, as required by the legislation. The agreement, subject to continuing matching contributions from SCOLA, is for an initial period of six months, renewable up to four years.
The NDIIPP initiative (www.digitalpreservation.gov), which is led by the Library of Congress, is focused on the long-term preservation of important historic and cultural digital materials for which no analog equivalent exists.
SCOLA (www.scola.org) has agreements with approximately 90 countries to obtain and disseminate copies of foreign television programs. While in the past SCOLA has retained broadcast material for only a brief period, it is developing a capability to archive the programs it now transmits
digitally.
The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program was authorized by Congress in December 2000 to develop and execute a congressionally approved plan for a national collaborative effort to preserve digital materials. Congress appropriated $99.8 million to establish the program.
