I stumbled across this online archive the other day and 2 hours of reading later thought I had to share this with you. Reverend Samuel Marsden was a key figure in the Church Missionary Society here in New Zealand. I am finding his journals incredibly interesting as a direct line of sight into life as it was (from a missionary’s point of view) in the 1800’s New Zealand.
Of equal interest to me is the project process and skill sets required in order to digitise and push to the web for us to view and interact with. As Archivists I believe we must encompass the technological innovations that provide exciting new avenues for sharing the voices of the past that we are the stewards of. Of course, this must be done with discretion and respect for those that we represent but what an extraordinary time we live in.
An exceptional amount of work and collaboration has gone into providing access to these archives. Being accessible from anywhere in the world opens up greater opportunities for research from different perspectives. Many different skill sets are required these days in archives and, as a technology kinda gal, this is exciting to see.
Recognition: Bible photo by Colin Carey, Creative Commons Zero licence, published with thanks from www.arcavee.com
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