A BRIEF ON HERITAGE ARCHIVES
Heritage is an independent professional depository of important documents, photographs, leaflets, posters, private correspondences, journals and periodicals, magazines, local history books, and audiovisual and digital items. It aims at creating a new type of open, service-oriented and user-friendly archives in Bangladesh. THE FOCUS IS ON
- Social movements (pro-democracy, labour, students’, peasant, women’s’, environmental, Islamic, nationalist, human right(s)
- Social transformation (emergence of NGO’S, urban growth, new entrepreneurial groups, labour migration, popular culture).
Heritage focuses on the post-colonial period (1947 onward), but also welcomes older material. It concentrates on material produced by civil society but also include material produced by state institutions. Here is what you need to know about the story oh Heritage Archives.
Heritage has been functioning in a separate building of 510sqm. The length of Heritage collection would be approximately 2.5 km.
It has no permanent staff. The founder himself and some temporary staff work here.
It currently remains open 3 & a half hours a day, from 9.00am to 12.30Pm. Three researchers can work together. For financial constraints it can not provide much facilities to the researchers.
Seminars and workshops are being organised regularly to build awarness about archives in Bangladesh.
Heritage Trust publishes a quarterly journal titled Sthaniya Itihas (Local History). Its eleven issues has already been published and the 12th issue is now in press.
It has two guest rooms for the readers. Only researchers can stay their at night only for the purpose of research.
A Trust has been formed. This archives is now the property of the trust.
The Heritage, unique in itself, is established out of founders own resources. Often it receives small generous grant from his close friends, which is insignificant.
