8% of Kyrgyzstan's film, photo and sound archive digitised

The digitisation of Kyrgyzstan's audiovisual heritage is progressing, but remains at an early stage. As of 1 January this year, 8.1% of the documents in the Central State Film, Photo and Sound Archives of the Republic were stored in digital format.

Of the nearly 200,000 items in storage (199,082), only 16,103 documents have been converted to electronic format. These include 12,968 photographs on CD, 1,412 audio recordings on CD and DVD, and 1,723 video documents on DVD.

The main body of the collection is still represented by analogue media:

• 17,325 film reels;
• 71,504 photographs on film;
• 8,278 phonograms on magnetic tape;
• as well as 340 video cassettes (VHS) and 33 audio cassettes.

In fact, tens of thousands of unique photographs, audio and video recordings are not protected from wear and tear or loss.

In addition, the audiovisual archive acquisition system includes nine specialised institutions with 13 video, photo and sound archives at their disposal, as well as 85 organisations with 100 film, video, photo and sound archives.