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| Can you remember where you were and what you were doing when you witnessed, by television or radio, the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York on the 11th of September, 2001? Or during the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 26 December 2004? Or during the first Moon landing on that historic day of 20 July 1969? The list is endless of these seminal, unforgettable events in living memory, marker points in history and events which our children and our children's children must see and hear.
But will they be able to do so? Coverage of the events of "9/11" and its aftermath are held in television libraries around the world. So, too, the devastating images of the tsunami in which entire communities disappeared in a flash. But what of the famed Moon walk? The original videotape on which those historic transmissions were recorded is now lost - only copies can be found.
The first moon walk happened not less than 40 years ago. But 40 years from now, in an uncertain world of shifting structures, how many of today's radio and television libraries, film and sound archives and digital data banks will still be intact and accessible? Are we still certain that the footage of that historic moment would still be seen and heard by people beyond our time?
Much, perhaps most, of the world's audiovisual heritage of the last century has already been lost to posterity. And much more is threatened even as we speak. It's not just the news of the day - it's the great films, songs speeches and musical performances of the past; it's the soap operas that made us cry and advertisements which so accurately chronicle our very own social history; it's the evocative ethnographic recordings of the people, places and even animals that now survive only in memory. And it's not just the horror stories of decay and destruction which surface occasionally: just as bad is the myths that spreads alongside the new technologies that promise quick fixes for complex problems.
The process of preserving and providing permanent access to the world's audiovisual heritage involves a never-ending quest for technical, legal and political solutions, for funding, for a growing army of skilled professionals equipped with the appropriate technologies, and even for stable and sustainable institutional structures.
But it's also a quest for recognition of the audiovisual heritage, which surely now deserves the same cultural stature and resources we accord to the printed word and the graphic arts. On 27 October 1980 - nearly a century after the advent of sound recordings and moving images - UNESCO adopted the first international instrument calling for their protection and preservation. From this year on, in concert with film, sound and broadcast archives and archivists around the world, UNESCO will mark the annual World Day for Audiovisual heritage on that date.
A day to celebrate that heritage... And a day to hug an archivist - if you can find one... With this task at hand, we need a lot more of them.
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