As sound and audio-visual archives continue to expand in scale, complexity, and strategic importance, industry experts are calling for a fundamental shift in how risks are managed across the entire lifecycle of collections. Rather than treating risk management as a standalone preservation activity, organisations are increasingly recognising the need to embed risk-awareness directly into acquisition, cataloguing, and access workflows.
This critical issue will form a key focus of the upcoming webinar, “Identifying, Safeguarding & Managing Risks To Sound & Audio-Visual Archives & Collections,” taking place on Tuesday, 09 June 2026.
Organised by Broadcast Media Africa (BMA), the webinar will provide a platform for archives professionals, broadcasters, librarians, heritage institutions, records managers, and digital preservation specialists to examine how risk management can be integrated into everyday operational processes to better protect valuable audio and audio-visual collections.
The acquisition stage is the first point at which risks can be identified and managed, or inadvertently introduced into a collection. Poor documentation, uncertain provenance, copyright and ownership disputes, incomplete metadata, and the ingestion of compromised or deteriorating materials can all create long-term challenges that affect preservation, discoverability, and future access.
Similarly, cataloguing workflows play a pivotal role in mitigating risk. Inaccurate metadata, inconsistent classification standards, insufficient contextual information, and inadequate documentation can significantly reduce the value of collections and create barriers to retrieval and use. Effective risk management within cataloguing processes helps ensure that collections remain authentic, searchable, reliable, and fit for long-term preservation.
The webinar will also explore the growing risks associated with providing access to archival materials. As institutions seek to increase public engagement and expand digital access, they must balance accessibility with concerns around intellectual property rights, privacy protection, cybersecurity, data integrity, and unauthorised use of content. Integrating risk controls into access workflows has therefore become essential for safeguarding collections while maintaining public trust and regulatory compliance.
Participants will discuss practical frameworks and strategies for identifying risks at each stage of the archival workflow and implementing measures that minimise vulnerabilities before they become costly or irreversible problems. The conversation will highlight how organisations can move from reactive approaches to proactive risk management models that support both preservation and access objectives.
As archives undergo digital transformation and increasingly manage hybrid collections across physical and digital environments, the ability to embed risk management into routine operational practices is emerging as a defining factor in the sustainability and resilience of archival institutions. Experts suggest that risk-aware workflows not only protect collections but also improve operational efficiency, strengthen governance, enhance compliance, and support informed decision-making.
The webinar comes at a time when archives and memory institutions are under growing pressure to preserve ever-expanding volumes of content while ensuring that materials remain secure, accessible, and trustworthy for future generations.
By focusing on integrating risk management into acquisition, cataloguing, and access processes, the session aims to provide participants with practical insights for building stronger, more resilient archival systems that respond to today’s evolving preservation challenges.
