After receiving recognition by the Italian Ministry for Cultural Activities and Heritage, in 1990 the Foundation started working on Giacinto Scelsi's legacy. Just a few months later, the first attempts were made to implement possible enumeration and cataloging systems, especially for the recordings documenting Scelsi's first improvisations, transferred on DAT audio tapes for preservation purposes.
In preparation for the opening of the Archive, which took place on May 6 2009, systematic measures were taken to assure that all documents were reorganized, filed and cataloged in order to be made fully available to the public. It was during this phase that our staff realized the documentation's complete lack of order, probably due to its creator, that led us to create a totally new structure of criteria in order to coherently shape and regulate all materials. To this end, a specially-made computer software was designed: the FIShrdb Archive system is able to internally integrate all the characteristics of a hierarchical database (based on a tree data structure of the documents) with those of relational database management systems, enabling an easy fruition and administration of all the different types of documents present in the archive and connect all materials with a complex authority file system (research access keys).
Simultaneously, the Foundation established an ongoing collaboration with the Central Institute for Sound and Audiovisual Heritage, initiating a complex digitalization process of over 700 recordings that has yet to be completed.
The opening of the Archive to scholars has given way to a whole new and exciting phase characterized by a fruitful relationship of constant collaboration and exchange with both Italian and international users.
Since January 2015 the Foundation has been working on the migration of data from the previously installed FIShrdb software to CollectiveAccess, an open source platform that is fully customizable and will allow the Archive to be available also online.
