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The digitisation team from the Archaeology Unit at Zimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences (ZMHS) in Harare. Pictured left to right: Rejoice, Moses Mkenala and Nyararai Mundopa.
For a long time, the Zimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences (ZMHS) has been grappling with a large corpus of paper-based and other material forms of records that are now very fragile. Traditionally these records can only be accessed in physical format by visiting the museum. The National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ), in partnership with Uppsala University (Sweden) and the MAEASaM project, have initiated a digitisation project focussing on records belonging to a large sites and monuments archive housed at ZMHS.
The ZMHS documentary archive forms part of The National Archaeological Survey Catalogue for reported and confirmed sites found in Zimbabwe. The archive has a long history that can be traced back to 1948 when it was formally constituted by the Historical Monuments Commission during the colonial era.
The current project aims to contribute towards the preservation of this endangered documentary archive and to help in the critical monitoring and protection of archaeological heritage over time. The project is led by a team comprising of the Project Coordinator and Regional Director Godhi Bvocho, a digitisation technician, Moses Mkenala, and an archaeology curator, Nyararai Ellen Mundopa, from ZMHS. University students on industrial attachment to the museum are also assisting in the project.
Why do we digitise our records when we already have them on paper?
In the case of ZMHS, the documentary archive is digitised largely to ensure that researchers and other users can continue to have access to heritage information without damaging the original source. Digitising may also help museum staff to be able to access and retrieve information for management and curatorial purposes more easily. It is estimated that museums display only about five percent of their collections at any given time with the remainder ‘hidden’ in the archive.
What we are digitising
We have prioritised digitising records that are unique, currently not in the public domain, and are not accessible elsewhere in a digital format. We also believe that it is important to digitise as many of the earliest and most ephemeral records as possible. So far, we have worked on a list of site index cards and are currently in the process of scanning site files. All of this is conducted using a high-quality flatbed A4 scanner with larger sized records being sent out to a vendor for scanning and further metadata capturing. We also use a three-tier checking system which involves three people to verify the metadata of the scanned documents. The process of digitisation will be ongoing.
Looking to the future of digitisation in museums
As the adoption of digital technology is growing at an astonishing rate, so should follow greater visibility of the museum, not only in the protection, conservation and management of cultural heritage but also in its accessibility to different publics.