Riya Mala 
The Fiji National Archives is encountering challenges due to limited technological resources, hindering public access to Fiji’s documentary heritage.
Principal Archivist Timoci Balenaivalu is hopeful their budget submission will be approved, enabling them to invest in new technologies and enhance their digitization efforts.
He says that the National Archives has many plans in the pipeline, but their implementation depends upon budget allocation in the new financial year.
“The main challenge is ensuring that we have obvious technology. That would assist the general public in accessing these records. These are the main challenges that we have. And also getting the resource personnel. I think last year we were given a budget. And also, in addition to that, we are looking for the next budget.”
Balenaivalu clarifies that digitalization of resources will not affect the preservation of archives.
“This decision is not only putting the documents online. There are guidelines and standards involved. We know that when we digitize we don’t put online the high quality documents. We put it online, but we advise the users, the customers. If you want to get a copy, you need to pay for a certain copy.”
Emitai Boladuadua, the oldest staff member at National Archives, says the proposals made by the board will be beneficial.
The national budget will be announced on June 28th.
