Survey
The SAFE project – The SustainAbility of Italian Film hEritage: Archival Infrastructures, Digital Preservation, Stewardship Strategies investigates the sustainability of Italian non-fiction and non-theatrical film heritage.
The project is conducted in collaboration with several archives, a community that is daily engaged in addressing highly complex and diverse issues: on one hand, aligned with international standards or part of recognized federations, on the other hand, often at the margins of institutional, legislative, and governmental frameworks. This network of archives leads to a diversified approach to preservation and access protocols, as well as the manifestation of different cultural and heritage sensitivities.
To map non-theatrical heritage in Italy and analyze new and possible sustainable preservation practices for film heritage, SAFE proposes a survey using a specific questionnaire to assess procedures and strategies implemented in Italian archives through the three predefined research axes (archival infrastructures, digital preservation, and stewardship). The survey was developed based on prior research, insights from metadesign workshops, and reviewed by more than 20 international experts, allowing for the collection of qualitative and quantitative data from the archives involved in the research.
SAFE Survey is divided into four sections:
I. A description of the institution and its collections (Section I Master Data)
II. The collections preservation infrastructure and practices (Section II Preservation Infrastructure)
III. The digitization, archiving, and digital preservation procedures and practices (Section III Digital Preservation)
IV. The institution's organization and orientations in the preservation, access, and enhancement of collections (Section IV Stewardship)
Purpose, structure, and dissemination
SAFE Survey aims to survey the organization, orientations, and practices of Italian film archives (with particular reference to the segment that preserves mainly and/or exclusively non-theatrical and non-fiction heritage).
SAFE Survey is based on the three research axes guiding the entire project (archival infrastructure, digital preservation, and stewardship), shaped taking into account the reflections and comparisons that emerged from the metadesign workshops, and was reviewed by more than 20 international experts.
SAFE Survey is a quantitative data collection and includes the possibility that the institution will be contacted later by the research team for a supplementary and in-depth interview.
The overall results will be published as aggregated and disaggregated data visualizations, with the hope that they will provide a useful descriptive and analytical tool for collective reflection for our field.
If desired or deemed appropriate by the institution, it is possible to request anonymization of the responses that the compiler provides with a view to the dissemination of the results; data dissemination will in any case be subject to the verification and clearance of the participants.