THE National Archives is working towards placing its records on the internet this year.

Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr. Frank Anthony said that preliminary work in the form of digitalization of thousands of historical documents is ongoing and proceeding satisfactorily.
Documents are being scanned using computer software and equipment acquired through a grant from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and there is also simultaneous compilation of a database.
Dr. Anthony said that the intention is to merge images to related data and once this is done the records will be placed online where they can be accessed by researchers and other interested persons.

SOUND ARCHIVE
Images will be available as attachments to the related information. The National Archives will also be breaking new ground with the development of a sound archive comprising audio cassettes which were used prior to the advent of video recordings.
Staffers have retrieved audio cassettes from the National Communications Network (NCN) and the University of Guyana, among others.
Work on cleaning these up and retrieving information on them is ongoing and the staffers will also look at the establishment of a video archive to ensure that these types of records are preserved.
During 2013, Dr. Anthony said, the National Archives benefited from close collaboration with the National Archives of the Netherlands.
Researchers from the Netherlands had visited the National Archives and had exhibited keen interest in the plethora of Dutch documents dating back to 1735 which are a part of the holdings.

(By Clifford Stanley)