Saturday, February 19, 2011

Archiving Bloggers' History - An Enormous Task

The image above is an article from a Chinese newspaper called "MyPaper" dated 7 February, 2011 published in the local news section to feature the interview with Char Lee of '2nd Shot' and Jerome Lim of 'The Long and Winding Road' blogs.  It has been translated into English by good friend, LKM. The article was sent to me by James Seah: http://blogtoexpress.blogspot.com/. Thank you both:

"Briefly the report is about the importance and the technological challenges faced to archive digital histories that some bloggers are writing on various aspects of a community's culture e.g. food, housing, entertainment.

In an interview with My Paper, Mr *Paul Arthur, an Aussie scholar in digital histories, opined the need to systemically archive bloggers thinking and reminisces of history. He said this is an enormous and challenging task technologically.

The main challenge is how to preserve the interactive nature of a blog as an archive, given its digital links. Some local bloggers e.g. 2nd Short interviewed felt that blogs of historical value should be archived. The NLB is studying the possibility of doing so.

The side report presented the argument whether a blogger's personal perception of history can qualify to be archived as official history. The President of the Singapore Heritage Society thought an individual's reminisces of history are important as they reflect the experiences of grassroot level of society while Mr Arthur opined that over the past 20 years, history scholars have given more attention to the study of individuals' personal accounts of life experiences because they can reflect certain turning points in history.

The Report mentioned that there are a number of local blogs on historical and cultural heritage worth archiving. The best method is to systemtically group them in various categories in www to facilitate accessibility from public."

("Your blog on 60s Music is listed as one of the cultural heritage blogs. Looks like you cannot rest your fingers." Thanks KM for helping me with the translation. Must buy you another lunch. Andy.)

Image: from 'My Paper'
*Paul Arthur: http://www.paularthur.com/
Blogs cited in newspaper article:http://www.goodmorningyesterday.blogspot.com/

6 comments:

Roger said...

Blogs, whatever their level of sophistication, should be archived as they can be representative of the activities and thinking of people just as archeologists enthuse over even tiny or vague historical fragments from the past.

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Hopefully authentic too.

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Thank you James. I like you being so active as a social blogger. Keep up the great work.
Regards.

*Spelling in email above should read: JAMES.

Anonymous said...

From personal e-mail:

Hi Andy,

Thank you for the great translation with your friend KM and for sharing.

The social history blogs of singapore6osmusic.blogspot.com with the influence of an extensive
collection of Chinese music and songs will certainly generate more interest from the Chinese
readers in MyPaper.

Cheers!
Thimbuktu
(James Seah)

February 20, 2011 10:41 PM

Anonymous said...

Glad to be able to contribute in a small way.

You sh extend ur blog coverage to include more on Chinese music of the 60s and 70s. Perhaps even the 80s?

Cheers

KM

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

With your help I definitely will since I have no knowledge of Chinese whatsoever.

I have posted information about Chinese singers and bands but they are few and far between.

Be prepared for a deluge of vinyl covers in your email.