USP workshop Thursday 25 August 2016 “Researchers need to be free, to be open to the immersive experience of exploratory research, receptive to the power of what you read, attentive to the voices you encounter, allow them to move you, change your minds and generate new understandings… archives are often the start of many histories yet to be written or imagined. These future possibilities are precious and exciting.” (Ballantyne, 2015) The aim of PMB Help with long-term preservation of the documentary heritage of the Pacific Islands and to make it accessible. What the PMB does • Arrange, lists and copies archives • Provide access • Provide support to researchers • Supports archives and libraries in the Pacific Islands Why? Archives are often in vulnerable conditions out in the islands —Cyclones, tsunamis —Mould, pests —Political instability —Few resources Scholars, students and Church of Melanesia archives in Santo, researchers of all kinds use Vanuatu, 2012 archives for their work Vulnerable documents The Bureau’s collection Over 4000 reels of microfilm Reels in PMB Ms. Series by Content Government Diaries Letters Church/ Whaling mission Types of documents Letters Diaries Photographs Novels, stories, music Dictionaries Church and mission records Company records Poster promoting maternal & child health in PNG, c.1956. (Jean Chambers collection, PMB 1255/1; PMB Photo9/01.) Types of documents Shipping registers Youth and womens’ group newsletters Newspapers Scientific papers Broadcast reports (ABC) Minutes and accounts Posters Poster advertising the Goroka show, 1968 (Norman Wilson papers, PMB 1246/42.) PMB Photograph Collection Over 80 photographic collections 1849- Solomon Islands PNG Cook Islands Vanuatu Samoa Niue PMB Photo 43. Professor Murray Groves, Photographs of the Motu People of Papua PMBPhoto43/148 Who do we work with? Churches and missions Researchers Judiciaries Non-Government Organisations Companies Trade Unions Individuals A travel poster promoting a cruise to the Solomon Islands from the Burns, Philp & Co. collection, NBAC. Collecting priorities - Micronesia, Polynesia and Melanesia - Archives located in the Pacific Islands and archives held by individuals and organisations throughout the world, which are not easily accessible through libraries or archives - Copying projects today include climate change, land and sea ownership and Pacific languages - What do YOU want the PMB to be copying? Working in the islands Digitising documents at the Tuvalu National Setting up digitisation copying equipment, Library and Archives, October 2006 Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, August 2014 Appraising and organising Digitisation equipment and software Digital repatriation back to owners of collections in the Pacific Islands Pambu then and now Copying the Noser Archives at Divine Word University in Madang, PMB poster encouraging students 2001 in the Islands to access the collections What can USP access? ALL of the digital content New content is added each year Microfilm titles are gradually being digitized and uploaded – suggestions please! Photograph of fish traps, probably from Malabunga, East New Britain, from Lida Tonkin Collection Pacific Resources throughout the world National Library of Australia – Pacific Resources https://www.nla.gov.au/what-we-collect/pacific- collections Pacific Resources throughout the world The NLA also selectively acquires theses on microfiche produced in US universities about the Pacific (exc. NZ) The NLA has 5,958 records for items in or about Pacific languages held by the NLA. Many of these are for Bible translations, but there are a significant number of readers, government documents, dictionaries and linguistic/syntactical works about the languages. Pacific Resources throughout the world Australian War Memorial – Pacific Resources https://www.awm.gov.au/ National Archives of Australia – Pacific Resources http://naa.gov.au/ Pacific Resources throughout the world Pacific Research Archives, ANU http://archives.anu.edu.au/collections/pacific- research-archives ANU Maps Online http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/mapsonline/ ANU Student Theses on Pacific subjects https://anulib.anu.edu.au/ Pacific Resources throughout the world National Library of New Zealand http://natlib.govt.nz/ National Archives of New Zealand http://archives.govt.nz/ Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin http://www.otago.ac.nz/library/hocken/ Pacific Resources throughout the world University of Hawaii http://library.manoa.hawaii.edu/departments/hp/ University of California San Diego PNG patrol reports http://library.ucsd.edu/dc/collection/bb30391860 Pacific Resources throughout the world Archives and libraries in the Pacific Islands.