More than 50,000 pages of historical documents digitised

Since the start of its digitisation project in 2020, the Archives Department has digitised more than 50,000 pages of historical documents dating back as far as 1635.

Chief Archivist, Ingrid Thompson, made this disclosure during an interview with the Barbados Government Information Service, following a meeting last Thursday at the Archives Department.

Representatives from Abergower Ltd, a United Kingdom based company specialising in the digisation of records, were on island for a six-day digitisation pilot project that included training staff of the Digitisation Unit at the Archives Department in the most efficient methodologies to maximise output.

They, along with representatives from the British High Commission and the Central Bank of Barbados, got a first-hand look at the Digitisation project which is funded by the High Commission.

Thompson stated that she was pleased with the progress of the project and the interest being generated as a result of it, both locally and internationally.

“I am satisfied because I have a very keen team of young persons who are really interested.  And I’m pleased that it’s helping them to understand Barbadian history, because…they actually read the documents in order to create the necessary metadata. They were able to give me their perspective on historical events”

She continued: “So, it’s two-fold, not only the technical part of it, but really bringing young people together to engage with our records and be aware of our history.”

Meanwhile, British High Commissioner Scott Furssedonn-Wood in a brief statement later in the evening said: “Remembering and understanding our past is vitally important. His Royal Highness Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales saw first-hand the impressive work of Barbados’ Archives Department when he visited Barbados in November [2021]. We are pleased to be supporting this project run by the British company Abergower which, in addition to enabling the digitisation of some of the Archives’ records, will provide advice, options and lessons learned so that Barbados can effectively preserve its records for future generations.” (BGIS)