On the 29th and 30th of March 2023, we organized a workshop in Vienna, attended by 12 colleagues representing the majority of the affiliated institutions within our working group.
The workshop was a chance to finally meet in person after a few years of online meetings. The goal of the two-day workshop was to discuss the findings gathered from the qualitative research on knowledge sharing within audiovisual archives and collaboratively discuss possible methods.

On the first day, we divided ourselves into four groups and discussed challenges, real-life examples, and possible methods for sharing four different areas of knowledge: 1) organizational knowledge, 2) knowledge about preservation activities, 3) collection knowledge, and 4) technological knowledge and skills.
During the second day, we did the same but discussed knowledge sharing in relation to four scenarios instead: 1) when starting employment, 2) when leaving employment, 3) during day-to-day activities, and 4) when knowledge has left.
It was interesting and inspiring to hear the differences and similarities in experience from so many different perspectives, as we had colleagues joining from all over the world who are working in different types of institutions. Some work at an archive where they are solely responsible for the collections, some within large national organizations that employ 400 people alone within the archiving section.
The following colleagues joined the workshop (in the order of the photo from left to right): Florian Haag from the Austrian Film Museum, Ivan Velisavljevic from the Academic Film Center and Alternative Film Archive in Serbia, Nienke van Schaverbeke from the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, Janneke van Dalen from the Austrian Film Museum, Marie Barešová from the Národní filmový archiv in the Czech Republic, Rosie Taylor from the BFI National Archive in the UK, Sarah Vandegeerde (formerly from BFI) from INA: Institut national de l’audiovisuel in France, Nicolas Sylvestre from the Library and Archives Canada, Tzutzumatzin Soto previously from the Cineteca Nacional de México, Judith Opoku-Boateng from the J.H. Kwabena Nketia Archives University of Ghana, Nadja Šičarov previously Austrian Film Museum and Slovenska kinoteka, and Selina- Emma Okle from the J.H. Kwabena Nketia Archives.

In preparation for the workshop, Nadja Šičarov and Janneke van Dalen prepared the findings related to each of the aforementioned categories of knowledge areas and scenarios, and grouped them into the strongest themes that appeared throughout all of the 90 interviews that have been conducted over the past years. The findings of this research will be presented in a handbook or guidebook for knowledge sharing within audiovisual archives, which will be published with the help of FIAF later this year. Also planned is an online workshop open to colleagues from all over the world that is meant to give ideas and instruct colleagues on how to use the guidebook and how to approach knowledge transfer within their organizations.
In the next few weeks, we will publish a detailed report on the outcomes of the workshop!