The ÃÂsterreichische Mediathek ("Austrian Mediatheque") is the Austrian archive for sound recordings and videos on cultural and contemporary history. It was founded in 1960 as ÃÂsterreichische Phonothek (Austrian Phonothek) by the Ministry of Education and has been a branch of the Technisches Museum Wien (Vienna Technical Museum) since 2001. As video and sound archive, the ÃÂsterreichische Mediathek is responsible for the preservation of the Austrian audio-visual cultural heritage (with the exception of film on photographic carrier material and photography).
The ÃÂsterreichische Mediathek collects audio-visual media published or produced in Austria, as well as international recordings relating to Austria. Further responsibilities include the selective recording of TV and radio programmes received in Austria. In order to preserve its collections, the ÃÂsterreichische Mediathek specializes in digitisation and digital long-term archiving of audio and video material. Scientific projects review the archival stock with regard to content.
The collections of the ÃÂsterreichische Mediathek mainly cover the subject areas music, literature, history, politics and science. The documents span the period from the 19th century to the present and include sound carriers such as instantaneous discs, shellac records, vinyl records, audio tapes, DAT cassettes, compact cassettes, CDs, DVDs, different video formats as well as various file formats.
The collections include (among others):
The ÃÂsterreichische Mediathek is a reference archive. Parts of the stock are also available online. Virtual exhibitions and online media databases are dedicated to various central subject areas: an acoustic chronicle illustrates Austrian history from 1900 to 2008, the web platform journale.at provides the radio station [ÃÂ1]âÂÂs sound radio journals from 1967 to 1999 in full length and the online archive âÂÂÃÂsterreich am Wortâ offers over 9000 sound recordings and videos on Austrian cultural history, also accessible online.