Faroese national holiday marks digitization milestone for Kringvarpssavn archive

During the Faroese national holiday, Ólavsøka, significant progress was made in the digitization of the Kringvarpssavn, the national archive of the Faroese broadcasting service. Approximately half a million documents, around 13,000 video tapes, and 30,000 audio tapes have now been digitized. This milestone marks the achievement of the main objective of the SavnsGull project, initiated to preserve the archive.

Mass Hoydal, the former leader of SavnsGull, emphasizes the importance of making the archive accessible to all Faroese citizens. In a recent letter to the editor, he expressed his disappointment that this accessibility work has not commenced yet. Hoydal views this issue as crucial for national identity building. “It is essential that we take our responsibilities as Faroese seriously,” he stated.

Hoydal has urged Kringvarpið, the Faroese Broadcasting Corporation, and the government to expedite efforts to enhance public access to the archive. A four-year plan detailing how this can be achieved has already been created, and according to Hoydal, it now depends on the will to implement it effectively.