UNESCO Memory of the World: Documentary Heritage Against Oblivion

Of the various heritage sites safeguarded by UNESCO, documentary heritage is the youngest child. With the aim of preventing the irrevocable loss of documentary heritage—documents or collections of documents of significant and lasting value, whether on paper, audiovisual, digital or any other medium, the UNESCO Memory of the World (MoW) programme aims to safeguard this heritage and make it more accessible to the general public. The growing awareness of the risks suffered by documentary heritage responds to the understanding that the majority of people’s memory is contained in bibliographic and archival documents that are physically fragile and at constant risk from natural disasters, inadequate custody, theft and war. Sometimes there are practical and political obstacles that prevent access to it, and in other cases, it is threatened with deterioration or destruction. In this text, access and prevention as fundamental principles of the Memory of the World (MoW) programme will guide us through successful examples of safeguarding collections that today form a valuable and unique source. There is a lot to improve, but this instrument has expanded the safeguarding of documentary heritage on a global scale, as it becomes better known, which accredits it as a relevant safeguarding instrument on a global scale.