The local History Backup Campaign

In light of the disaster of summer 2019-2020 and the Covid-19 crisis, the drive to protect and preserve collections is being felt more than ever.

It is important that historical and heritage societies take action to protect their collections from potential harm, and to work towards duplication through digitisation and off-site backup storage.

How it works

Historical societies choose five to ten significant or interesting ‘hero’ objects from their collection, and photograph or scan them. These copies then go into either a physical time capsule, or a digital time capsule. Please see the Local History Backup Community in eHive here and the Federation of Australian Historical Societies website here.

Local History Backup instructions (how to create Digital Time Capsule) are available here.

In 2020 FAHS invites all societies to join us in this national project, and to undertake a launch in the first week of May. One of the chief purposes of the project is to seek publicity and recognition of the work of your society and the importance of maintaining and preserving your collection. Local societies that are part of this project can enjoy the benefits of being publicised by the FAHS, but we also recommend that you inform your local community via social media, websites, newspapers, and any other format that is available to you.

The Aims

There are three main aims for this campaign.

The first is to assist and encourage societies towards better preservation and protection of their collections.

The second is to seek publicity and gain recognition of the work of your society and the importance of maintaining and preserving your collection.

The third is to promote in your community an awareness of the richness of your local history and heritage, especially in the face of mounting challenges to its protection and preservation.

For further advice and to inform FAHS that you are participating in the campaign, and of what you are doing, please contact [email protected]