PARBICA engages in projects to advance archival development and recordkeeping in the Pacific region. These projects are generally undertaken in partnership with allied organisations and sponsors.
Current priorities
Our current priorities include:
Recordkeeping for Good Governance
Development of guidelines and manuals to support improved recordkeeping in support of good governance. For more information, see our Recordkeeping for Good Governance Toolkit.
Education and Training
Making information available to Pacific archives and records staff on existing opportunities and avenues for training and education, as well as promoting establishment of further education programmes and training opportunities in the Pacific Island.
Previous projects
Previous projects have included:
Distance Learning Project
In 2001–2003, PARBICA worked with a team of highly qualified and experienced archival educators led by the International Records Management Trust (IRMT) to undertake a needs assessment study for education and training in Pacific Island countries. The project looked at the feasibility of the establishment of a distance education programme, resulting in a comprehensive proposal to the University of the South Pacific (USP). The project was supported by UNESCO and ICA. You can see the results of this project on the Other publications page.
Low-Cost Archives Storage
In recognition of the difficulties faced by most tropical, small island countries in storage and preservation of records and archives, PARBICA undertook studies on different options for low cost storage led by Ted Ling. A scientific trial of use of non-air-conditioned shipping containers for low-cost storage of records in a tropical environment was undertaken in 2001-2002. This demonstrated that shipping crates were not a suitable option for long-term archives storage in the tropics. You can see the resulting three reports on our Other publications page.
Archives Legislation
PARBICA has promoted passage of archives legislation in countries, states and territories in the Pacific through training at its conferences and by making existing statutes available to its members. In 2001, we published the PARBICA Compendium of Pacific Archives Legislation. The Compendium project was supported by ICA, and undertaken thanks to the generous contribution of time by Editor Nancy Lutton.