MELBOURNE: 28 July 2010 -- The ancient Egyptians wrote their
history on walls, possibly because they knew that if they put it in
files, it would be lost forever! Not so for the Australia-Pacific
Province (who have no strong connection with the ancient Egyptians
despite weird theories to the contrary), who have Fr Frank Freeman as
archivist. His archives are a joy to behold.
Frank has been at work for some two years now,
building on some earlier efforts to provide an archival system that
would stand the challenge of time and necessary expansion. The 'system'
is basically a Dewey system adapted to the Congregation's needs, and
given its application in this instance, it could be a system others
might benefit from. An email to fbfreeman@donbosco.asn.au would elicit
that help.
All correspondence from the beginning of the
Salesian presence in this part of the world, provincial newsletters,
council minutes, year books, visitations, Chapters, photographic
resources and more have been fully listed, registered and preserved in
appropriate storage. Appeals have been made to Rectors and confreres -
there has been a policy of sensitising everyone in the province to the
importance of archives. This has produced fine results. The
province now has a valuable historical resource.
Apart from continuing with the unfinished areas and
of course the ongoing need for updating of completed areas, another
challenge facing our archivist is policy and practice in the 'born
digital' area. Here he may well be helped by the fact that of all
the nations in the world, Australia is regarded as being the leader in
this area. The National Archives have processes in place to help deal
with the ever-evolving challenge of digital archiving and are offering
them free for the use of institutions and individuals. _________________ AustraLasia is an
email
service
for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions
as an
agency for ANS based in
Rome.
For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com
.
Use Bosconet-wiki
to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on
austraLasia
2009 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser
address bar - add it from there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle. Avail
yourself of the Salesian
Digital
Library
at http://sdl.sdb.org
