TNAG-2769-FCO40-3986-Hong-Kong-and-the-media-interviews--press-briefings-and-the--1994 — Page 182

HONG KONG GOVERNMENT INFORMATION SERVICES PRESS CUTTINGS AND PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE/LIBRARIES: PROPOSALS FOR THEIR MODERNISATION

1. General

This paper replaces that dated 30th March 1993 which was faxed on 31st March to Peter Moss, Assistant Director HKGIS, and acknowledged by him in a fax letter of 1st April. He then said that the costs quoted in it were "competitive with those we have been quoted for other options" and that the paper would be passed on to the Information Technology Services Department for comment. There were however, two points raised in that letter, viz. first, the belief that "we should contemplate publication on CD Rom" and, secondly, the [large] "amount of time taken to scan and input the data at such high resolutions" which, in the light of subsequent discussion between Peter Moss and the author, and combined, with relevant advances achieved in appropriate technologies, make major revision of our proposals essential. This paper therefore supersedes the other and, additionally, links the requirements for the press cuttings library/archive to that for the photographic archive as the two are so complementary and naturally so closely linked operationally. In addition, where reference to the film/video library interlink seems essential, brief comment on it is included.

2. General Background

With Hong Kong frequently in the world headlines, as the countdown to handover in 1997 continues, the need to be able to service the world's media - and especially television and the press better than China is an obvious route to helping to ensure that the Hong Kong Government's point of view commands, and continues to command world endorsement. Providing newstories with depths of relevant coverage and with material which is unhackneyed and of good visual and audio quality becomes vital. Nor is it sufficient to respond to news items hours or even days later: an immediate and complete response delivered unerringly and without loss of quality direct to the user is essential.

At the present time the HKGIS is not equipped to respond effectively and rapidly to emerging news stories which concern it. Even after transferring its present film holding to video it will have taken only the first and easiest step towards its goal vis à vis the moving image. Whilst so far as its cuttings and photographic holdings are concerned it is not going to do justice to their quality and extent and relevance unless radical improvements to its storage, accessing, handling and delivery systems are effected on an interlocking and mutually supportive basis. And the obviously desirable target of linking and responding to requirements as appropriate from whichever collection or holding is involved will remain for ever unattainable unless the whole operational basis is rethought and reengineered to take account of emerging international news systems.