The Pacific Manuscripts Bureau: a Duty of Care for the Preservation and Dissemination of Pacific Documentation
Abstract
The Pacific Manuscripts Bureau (PMB) is one of very few long-term archival projects in the world based on international cooperation. For 27 years it has responded to the twin imperatives of academic research requirements and the need to preserve the documentary cultural heritage of the Pacific islands. The Bureau is small in scale: one room, one camera, one officer; a cork in an ocean of Pacific archives. Known affectionately as "Pambu", the Bureau has a strong reputation, a resilience born out of the necessity of its task and an enormous amount of support.
With minimal resources and independent funding, the Bureau responds constructively to Pacific documentary preservation needs by making microfilm copies of Pacific archives. The survey and arrangement of the archives and manuscripts for microfilming provides archival expertise (a scarce resource in the Pacific) which helps to keep the original records in good order, while the microfilms themselves provide security against their loss. The microfilms, which are distributed widely by subscription and direct sales, also provide valuable sources for academic research especially when access to the originals, if they survive, can be difficult and expensive.
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