Visitors to the national capital can't fail to notice the magnificent buildings on Lake Burley Griffin by Kings Avenue Bridge. The National Gallery of Australia and the High Court of Australia, but in the early 1980s, those sites featured a bunch of World War Two vintage prefabricated steel Nissen huts containing national treasures. It was where the National Archives, government papers, cabinet records, evidence of Australia's leaders, and bureaucratic decision-making were held.
These days, while some records are on paper, most are in the digital realm. The volume of digital records, as well as official communications via social media, Facebook, tweets, and the like, has grown hugely. Nightlife discusses the difficulties of archiving in the digital age, not just official communications but also social media, film, television, and radio.
David Fricker who was Director General of the National Archives of Australia from 2012 to 2021, and President of the International Council on Archives from 2014-2022 along with Lisa Given, Director of the “Social Change Enabling Impact Platform” and Professor of Information Sciences at RMIT University in Melbourne and Michelle Arrow – Professor of History at Macquarie University and author of 'The Seventies: The Personal, the Political and the Making of Modern Australia' joined Philip Clark on Nightlife to discuss who will curate it, sort what is valuable for future generations, what can be discarded and the enormous challenges ahead.
In this episode