archival DigitiZation and Pavilion
The core objective of the R.O.A.D. Programme’s digitization initiative is to preserve and make accessible a comprehensive collection of records related to the development of Trans-Atlantic slave societies. This involves:
Digitization of Records: The project aims to digitize millions of pages from archives in Barbados and abroad. These records document the movement, sale, and life events of enslaved individuals, as well as their resistance, survival, and eventual emancipation.
Creation of a Public Database: The digital archives will be housed on an open-access platform, allowing researchers, educators, and descendant communities to search and explore the records.
Storytelling and Narrative Reconstruction: Through partnerships with scholars, artists, and community leaders, the project will support efforts to tell the personal stories of enslaved people and their descendants, bringing humanity to the statistics and lists often found in the records.
Educational Resources: The digitized collection will serve as the foundation for educational initiatives aimed at teaching students about the history of slavery and its long-term impacts on contemporary society.
The 58,000 sq. ft. Digitisation Pavilion is staffed by over 100 technicians trained in the scanning, metadata extraction, transcription, and interpolation of some 40 million pages of records documenting the development of Trans-Atlantic slave societies. These records date back to the first landing of English ships in the early 17th century, and will be made available in electronic form to recount the harrowing history of the enslavement of Africans over the course of three centuries. LMI Group International is leading the digitisation project, ensuring state-of-the-art standards in image capture, data integrity, and public access.
The opportunity to make records publicly available is a case study in how a motivated, nimble, well-funded developing nation can leapfrog “gold standard” legacy cultural heritage institutions.
The District will extend its reach internationally, providing opportunities for collaboration with other nations with similar cultural preservation needs, potentially even “upstream” to British cultural heritage institutions that have been hobbled by underfunding and legacy technologies.
There are four phases of the Archival Digitization project:
Preservation
Scanning, Transcription, Metadata Extraction, Interpolation, and ML Automation
Accessibility
Advocacy
Our digital ecosystem comprises a complex network of (primarily open source) tools that enable us to produce world-class digital cultural heritage in a manner customized to Barbados’ priorities, enabling the nation to narrate its own past, present, and future.
Opening March 2025