...a very interesting suggestion made this week to us about a solution to the issue of printed materials for the Left Archive. The function of the Archive is to digitize and put materials online for open access and that side of it is going very well. However, the issue of what happens to donated or collected materials remains. Some people will take them back, others are simply building up.

Obviously a display space or library is beyond our capacity and while it might be possible to donate them to another institution the chances are that they will gather dust - all institutions seem to be overburdened by similar materials. As people will know National Archives and the National Library are unable to keep up with the volumes of material that pour in. And the idea that they would be displayed in that context appears remote. So, while saved from attics and now scanned and made available, what can be done with them?

Someone mentioned that it might be possible to purchase some sort of time capsule and place the various editions of United Irishman, Socialist Voice, An Pholacht/Republican News and so on in it and - if someone has some land somewhere where this could be placed in - this would constitute a fine legacy for the future. We can also have a drive with the Left Archive podcasts on it and the unedited audio of the full interviews too. A large enough capsule and it would also be possible to digitize the entire CLR too on a drive.

For the moment the immediate issue would be the size of the capsule and the land and of course the ability to pay for one. Amazon has capsules, but they're all a bit on the small size.

The example shown is 10cm x 26cm though it does only cost £34.90. However that's obviously insufficient as well as leaving the documents that could be placed in it rolled up which would not be good for their longevity. Also notable is that this one is said to last about 200 years which while a considerable length of time may not be sufficient.

Anyhow, there's another option that would be better. This time capsule, or more accurately vault, is 48x 40 x 16 inches which would allow documents to be place flat in it.

Note the size of the person in the diagram. In practice we might get An Phoblachts and United Irishman placed side by side in it. Though probably not the IRSP's Starry Plough or the CPI's Irish Socialist because they're all large sized publications and three across won't fit.

One can even have a graphic placed on the container so that would, of course be the Irish Left Archive logo. I've dummied up a version like that so you can see what it would look like.

The one big problem is price - the vault above is just shy of $3,000. So the idea would be to get a fund together in order to purchase this. Not really sure what the best way to go about that would be.
Anyhow, it's just a suggestion.

What do people think?