Audio-Visual Collection

Date range: 1946-2009

Extent and media: 208 linear shelf metres of audio-visual records

The audio-visual collection consists of films and videos, sound recordings, microfilms, photographic images, as well as digitized material. The collection covers General Conferences, Board of Governors and other meetings, public education initiatives, scientific programmes of the IAEA, meetings of the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission (1946-1952) and the Conference of the Statute of the IAEA (1956). It also showcases people taking part in the work of the Agency in a variety of areas of nuclear technology and science.

The collection of films and videos covers in particular the key moments of General Conferences and public education initiatives about nuclear energy. The material promotes the peaceful uses of atomic energy and documents the IAEA’s scientific programmes (safeguards inspections, nuclear security missions, Monaco laboratories, fruit fly and tse-tse fly eradication). The majority of items were donated by the United Nations, IAEA Member State governments and their agencies or institutions (for example the United States Atomic Energy Commission), or other external institutions. Other items were created by the IAEA Division of Public Information or produced for the IAEA by external contractors and film studios. The IAEA has been granted the ‘fair use’ rights for films it did not create itself, according to which it may use these films for non-profit purposes. The copyright, however, remains with the creators of these films.

The collection of magnetic audio tapes and cassettes covers recordings of Board of Governors meetings, committee meetings, plenary and special sessions of the General Conferences (including Scientific Afternoons, now known as Scientific Forum). It also covers sound recordings of IAEA executive and programme management meetings, staff association meetings, and symposia dedicated to nuclear technology and science, such as the Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy.

The lacquer disc collection consists of 236 audio recordings of the meetings of the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission (1946-1952) and 201 recordings of the Conference of the Statute of the IAEA (1956).The original UNAEC recordings were donated to the IAEA in 1970/1971 by the United Nations Archives. No copies of these sound recordings are available in the United Nations Audio-Visual Library.

The series of microfilms originate from the Coordinated Records Management System registration procedures in use between 1979 and 2007, covering all programmatic activities and subjects, including a sub-set of microfilms with classified correspondence. A minor portion of microfilms contain records of the Board of Governors meetings (1957-1961), records of the General Conference (1957-1998), records of the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission (1946-1952) and publications of the Monaco Environmental Laboratory (1962-1996).

The images in the photo collection originate from various institutions and were collected by the Division of Public Information in an effort to establish an image pool that documents and promotes the Agency’s work and projects. The collection showcases people taking part in the Agency’s work in a variety of areas of nuclear technology and science.