Palau plans to build a state of the art archives facility within the next three years.
According to CNMI Archives Director Herbert Del Rosario, Palau announced during the recent conference of the Pacific Regional Branch International Council on Archives, or Parbica, that it was preparing to build a permanent office for its archives to preserve historical documents.
Del Rosario said “it is a pity that the CNMI is now lagging behind other Pacific islands when it was leading them in previous years.”
He added, “When I first joined Parbica in 1985, I invited Palau to join. Now we’re behind them. We kind of asked them to learn and become part of the group and now they are ahead of us. But we are impressed with their accomplishments.”
Del Rosario said he had postponed his plan to retire due to his concerns about the state of the local archives.
Historical documents are currently kept at acid-free boxes to protect them from termites, among other things, he said.
However, some are just kept in ordinary boxes because the archives cannot afford to buy more equipment and storage boxes due to its limited funding, he said.
“The archives also requires certain humidity control,” he added.
