plethaurus

I wonder whether anyone is creating a proper archive of the digital coverage, both professional and amateur, of the Victorian bushfires and their aftermath.

There have been many, many web pages, articles, tweets, blog posts, sites, images, soundbites and videos about the Victorian bushfires and their aftermath. Aid agencies and others are creating databases to track displaced persons, donations, available resources for the relief effort.

We are awash in digital records of the event — but for how long? Any archivist will tell you that digital records  are the most fragile, susceptible to the lightest touch on the DEL key and frequently rendered unreadable or inaccessible by the relentless march of technological innovation.

Perhaps someone at the National Library of Australia or another ‘collecting’ institution has already thought of it. I hope so. The 2009 bushfires have great cultural, historical and scientific significance. A well-filled archive of ditial source material would form a rich case study for sociologists, environmental scientists, urban planners, politicians, aid agencies and NGOs, emergency services coordinators and many others.

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