One foot in the grave!

Over the last few years, I have spoken to a number of Australian UAP researchers, about the need to preserve Australian material for future generations of researchers.

At least, long runs of the AFSRS magazine are held by the State Library of South Australia

Sitting around

After such discussions, I found that there are several large collections of UAP material; i.e. Newsletters; report forms; investigation reports; photographs and negatives, sitting in garages, spare rooms and even self-storage units, across the country. There is little hope of the broader research community gaining access to these slowly deteriorating resources. These collections are currently destined too pass away with their owners.

Likewise, long runs of Panorama are held by the State Library of South Australia

Lack of planning

The usual process is simply, that people fail to plan for the future. I note that much of the excellent work undertaken in Victoria by such researchers as Paul Norman, Peter Norris, and John Auchettl, has already been lost to us. I have heard stories of relatives of deceased researchers, emptying years of hard work, into skips, destined for the rubbish tip.

A page of a large scrapbook of un-digitised Australian newspaper clippings

In South Australia, the broader UAP community has lost access to the vast collections of material, formerly held by Colin Norris and Fred Stone.

An article about Colin Norris in an unscanned collection

In the same unscanned collection, an article about Fred Stone

Interstate 

In Western Australia, the collections of groups such as UFORUM; UFO Research (WA) and West Australia UFO Investigation Centre, are no longer accessible to anyone. In Tasmania, TUFOIC's investigation files are harder to access, since Keith Roberts retired from the scene.

Astute readers of this blog will now be asking, what has this author done in regards to his own collection of UAP material? Several years ago, I began the process (which has been completed) of scanning into digital form, my Journals; Newsletters; sighting reports etc. Quietly, over the last couple of years I have been distributing copies of my digitised material, on USB sticks, to 25-30 Australian researchers. Thus most, currently active, Australian researchers have a copy of my files, which include case photographs such as the one below.

Garry Little (deceased) inspects an oat field at Bordertown, South Australia

In addition, the contents of my blog (all current 800 + blog posts, and all future posts) are being archived by the PANDORA Project of the National Library of Australia. Thus, my blog will be publicly available into the future, even if Blogger falls over. This is one of the reasons that I mainly publish all my research work on the blog.

What are you doing?

What are you, or your group, doing to ensure your UAP materials will continue to be available to others, after your passing, or your group dissolves?

I would urge individuals, or committees running groups, to take a serious look at your archives, and decide now, what should happen to them? Can you scan and digitise them now, and make copies available to others? If not, for individuals, look to insert a clause into your will, stating what your wishes are in respect of your UAP material. For groups, make certain that your constitution has a clause specifying what happens to material if the group dissolves.

Failure to do so, will probably result in your UAP collection heading for the rubbish tip; which would be a waste (in all senses of the word.)