001 Documentation Centre
Project Description
Collects and stores information regarding the situation in Burma in a database in Bangkok, for the purpose of analysing the conflict, finding root causes and building lasting peace in the region.
Why is the Documentation Centre Important?
The BI Documentation Centre was designed as the centre of BI's activites to support decision making, project co-ordination and local, regional and international campaigns for peace. Proper documentation becomes the building blocks of research and analysis which is necessary for exploring peaceful forms of struggle and developed in order to create a more solid base for true peace in Burma.
The collection and proper storage of datea is one of the most important concerns to BI because it is strongly felt that the present conflict in Burma has deep historical roots. These roots must be identifies if a proper strategy for bringin about peace is to be found. At the same time, analysis suggests that much of the present struggle was mainly aimed at defensive and survival tactics rather than a total end to the confilct. A study of past and present data related to Burma could prove or disprove this, and could aid in finding a more effective approach to finding peace.
The Documentation Centre at BI is unique in the world in that there are only a few other institutions that have databases like ours, such as the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam (IISH) and the University of Illinois in the United States (UI). IISH has concentrated on collecting primarily grassroots documents, whereas the UI has a great supply of publications. But it is BI which has the widest selection of materials, ranging from human rights reports from our own fieldworkers working on the border, to organisational statements, newspaper articles, etc...
Little of the Documentation Centre directly relates with helpin the grassroots in developing their understanding of peace. Most information comes from international and regional sources, the Doc Centre receives very little information from the grassroots and the vastmajority of grassroots people don't use our services (mainly because our services are not located among the grassroots). The Documentation Centre is instead geared toward supportive, indirect role for the grassroots, espcially collecting opinions and analysis and making this available, especially to other BI projects like the newsletter. Through giving information to other projects, the Doc Centre then has a more direct grassroots use.
Aim
Create and continually update a documentation centre where documents related to Burma can be collected, indexed and filed systematically and ensure that this information is available to use within and outside BI.
Objectives
- Collect as many documets, photos, publications, tapes and other forms of information as possible which provide relevant data on Burma and its civil war
- contact and exchange information with other Burma-related information groups
- researcha nd subscribe to publications which regularly carry stories about Burma
- train interested people at the Thai/Burma border and inside Burma in documentation to increase the amount of reliable data from these areas
- enter all data daily into the database program
- perform upkeep of the subject thesaurus and the database in general
- peform an annual inventory to check that the database matches with the documents actually held
- Make database available to all interested people in the struggle for peace and justice in Burma
- place the database onto the Internet
- place the database onto Micro Flim
- provide weekly summaries of current news via email to all interested parties
- Maintain a manual on how to operate the database
Users of the Doc Centre
The organisation of BI remains the Doc Centre's own heaviest user. This fact is reflected in the quality of the BI newsletter and reports such as The People's Tribunal on Food Scarcity and Militarization in Burma which presented its findings to the United Nations in Geneva.
Increasingly, many foreign univeristy students with an interest in Burma have learned of the exstence of the database and have come to Bangkok to utilize it. This has been a highly positive step. Other users have been Thailand based NGOs and independent journalists. Lately the largest growing group who is using the database are Thai university students.
On average, there is only about one outisde researcher/journalist per month who will come to use the database. This show a great weakness in the project that so lttle people use the database from outside, which is why it is hoped that the putting of the database on the internet will be able to increase the users of the database to any researcher in the world who has access to the internet.
