Buddhist Hour
Radio Broadcast on Hillside 88.0 FM
Radio Script 335 for Sunday 27
June 2004
This script is entitled: The John D. Hughes
Collection. Illuminating the path, guiding the future practitioner.
Our plan is to preserve the John D. Hughes Collection
for use by Buddha Dhamma scholars and practitioners for the next five
hundred years.
It is a library collection of national and
international significance holding in excess of 300,000 thousand
individual objects, with the textual library alone containing 10,000
books; journals and other paper based references.
The Shorter
Oxford English Dictionary defines that for something to be of
significance is to be full of meaning or import. To further explain
its meaning one might say for example, his words were few, but
significant and weighty.
The Heritage Collections Council in
'Significance - A Guide to Assessing the Significance of Cultural
Heritage Objects' notes that as a concept: 'Significance means the
historic, aesthetic, scientific and social values that an object or
collection has for past, present and future generations.'
There
are an estimated 41 million objects held in Australian museums, art
galleries and historical collections. Collectively, these objects
tell the story of our history and the seminal events that contribute
to our sense of identity and national pride.
In the forward to
the 'Significance' Guide - Alan Street, Chair of the Heritage
Collections Council notes: 'our inherited culture is a rich resource
through which we can reach a deeper understanding of our past and the
environment in which we live.'
He wrote that important objects
and collections do not reside solely in our major museums and
collecting institutions. Every community, small regional museum, art
gallery or historical collection are custodians of much of our
cultural heritage - significant items that are held in trust for all
Australians.
The Significance Guide is a resource for everyone
working with collections - including registrars, curators,
conservators, educators, exhibition and public program designers -
and is equally relevant for museums of all sizes, from small,
volunteer-run historical societies to large State and national
institutions.
Significance - A Guide to Assessing the
Significance of Cultural Heritage Objects and Collections is
published by the Heritage Collections Council, 2003. Their website is
http://www.dcita.gov.au. Email hcc.mail@dcita.gov.au
On 9-10
June 2004 a Multicultural Documentary Heritage Workshop was held at
the National Library of Australia, Canberra ACT, with the cooperation
of the National Archives.
The John D. Hughes Collection and
Chan Academy Australia was represented by Evelin Halls a Director of
our Centre. Forty-eight representatives from community organisations
from around our nation attended the two-day workshop.
In the
workshops opening speech the Governor General of Australia Sir James
Gobbo, Chairman of the National Library of Australia Council, said,
"Materials such as photographs, letters, videos, oral history,
newsletters, reports, minutes of meetings collected by ethnic
communities are an important part of Australia's heritage.
These
items need to be preserved for future generations because they
document migrants' experiences of settling in Australia and their
significant contribution to Australian life".
Sir James
Gobbo said the philosophy of multiculturalism has three parts:
1.
Everyone that comes to this country must have a primary loyalty to
Australia.
2. Everyone must be free to maintain their own cultural
heritage.
3. Everyone must have respect for religions.
The
multicultural task force has the projects that the story of each
group should be told and that an encyclopaedia of the Australian
people is produced.
The main aims for our heritage collection
are to preserve, make accessible, and grow the collection for a long,
long time.
The John D. Hughes Collection forms part of the
mainstream repositories of Australia like the National Library in
Canberra.
An important step in the preservation process is
that the community [our Members and the friends of the Chan Academy
Australia] does the maintaining and collection, that it is the
community who owns the asset, not individuals.
One way of
doing this is to interview the old people about the collection and
invite young people, hold exhibitions for example and tell the story,
and to continue that process again and again.
Our Centre has
remained in one location since its inception in 1978 and our records
hold information about the beginnings of Buddha Dhamma in
Australia.
The National Library of Australia wants a full
record of Australia to be preserved. We send a copy of each issue of
our key publications: the Buddha Dhyana Dana Review, the Brooking
Street Bugle and Longhair Australia News, to both the National
Library and State Library of Victoria.
We are legally
required to provide one copy of our publications to the National
Library in Canberra within one month of publication and one copy to
our State Library within two months of publication.
We shall
also send copies of our online editions of these publications, each
with their own ISBN reference to the National and Victorian State
Libraries.
The Significance Guide explains the process of
significance assessment and what it is.
The John D. Hughes
Collection is a library of Significance.
The Significance
guide shows us how we can use our collection and bring out
significance and value. It asks what is the story behind a collection
as the stories are also important?
Many of our heritage
resources have been donated to the Collection by overseas
monasteries, Buddhist organisations and
practitioners.
"Significance" is not just the
physical nature, it is much broader: the history and the value - the
story behind the objects.
Be careful when you "restore":
you may remove traces of the story; there is a temptation to make
things look better but the danger is you may lose the story behind
them.
Objects often have more than one significance, but it
does not matter how many - it is about significance not scoring.
The
National Library of Australia advises that there are four points of
significance:
1. Historic significance.
People, events,
places, themes.
2 .Aesthetic significance.
Includes fine
design
3. Scientific or research significance.
Research
component: the potential to yield more information; research
potential.
4. Social or spiritual attachment.
Means people
having a connection, either social or spiritual, to what is there
(not social as historic). Some objects are beyond material
significance equaling spiritual meanings above their historic
meanings
We will assess the John D. Hughes Collection's
significance applying these four criteria.
If the community
ceases to value significance, no longer care, it can diminish
significance.
Provenance is the life story of the
object.
Provenance is used to document the origin of the
record; the original order is to be kept; if you do not know the
order, then look for connections.
Provenance has a long
tradition in the art world. We intend describing our Collections
significance as part of the process of applying for a grant to
continue in our work to preserve and increase suitable access to the
collection.
We are about to undergo a cultural change in our
organisation on the basis of significance.
The story we have
to tell is important.
To learn more about how to work with and
care for your collection visit the Australian Museums and Galleries
Online, AMOL at amol.org.au. This is a website from the National
Library of Australia that provides copyright free manuals and guides.
Why does one thing last longer than another?
The
practical guidelines provided by the Significance guide from the
National Library for the preservation of a collection includes:
Do
not ever laminate
Do not completely seal things in plastic
Make
copies of laminated items
Do not use sticky tape - it will
stain
Normal Reflex paper is ok; the next level up is Reflex
archival paper
Zeta Florence paper and Conservation Resources
International provide the top-range acid free paper
Acid-free
paper is often made from cotton or linen (plant material)
Newspaper
is highly acidic: make photocopies of newspaper articles
Put
newspapers in separate pockets
Archival quality: boxes labeled
"archive boxes" are not necessarily acid free or
alkaline-buffered
Ink: look for permanent pens: permanent ink,
otherwise it will fade
It is important to have clean, dry hands
for general documents and books
Polyester sleeves are good - the
ones that have "copysafe" written on them
Polyethylene
is copysafe
UHU glue is ok, it is starch based
Do not store
items in PVC (you can tell when it is PVC, it smells oily)
Do not
fold paper
Do not fold textiles
Wrap things in white old
sheets, non-died calico bags; wash if new
Do not sit rolled things
on something
Do not use magnetic photo albums
There are
archival quality photo albums
Photo corners are good
Do not dry
mount
Video tapes, audio tapes, CDs and DVDs have archival value
of 10 years
Keep tapes and disks well and cool
Keep library
clean, cool, dry, dusted and vacuum cleaned regularly
There will
be no machines to play videos in the future
Solution: "migrate":
still keep the original, but digitise and migrate (re-copy)
When
you migrate, you may need to change the system
Note: every time
you copy a CD you get an error rate - be conservative is the
answer
Make transcriptions and store on acid free paper
Use
plastic paper clips - do not use staples that rust - remove
Books:
do not pull out of shelf from top; otherwise spine will tear
Wash
your hands every 1/2 hour rather than wearing gloves because they can
make you clumsy
Do use gloves when handling art work such as
paintings
There are archival aids or filotape document repair tape
- it will not stain, but do not use it for art work, better take
precious things to a conservator
You can put things in bags: glad
wrap and glad oven wraps are good, even Safeway homebrands are
ok
Document cleaning pad: rub in circles, but do not use over
pencil and art work
You can use Staedtler mars plastic erasers to
clean dirty marks on letters, etc.
Do not use rubber bands -
rubber deteriorates quickly
Bubble wrap is ok to fill up space,
for example in boxes
It is good to box things
For displays: use
photo corners, frames, window mats to hold things down
The
motto of the National Archives, Canberra is
"illuminating
the past
guiding the future"
An archive is a
collection of stories, for example, the story about Buddhism, our
organisation, Buddha Dhamma in Australia, etc. which equals the story
of Australia.
Our story is told by the things we own. For
example our minute books, programs, reports and photographs. Our
story is waiting to be written by historians, researchers, Buddhist
scholars and friends.
We intend to writing down where
everything is and sending copies of our archives to the State and
National Libraries.
Custodians must be prepared to help and
serve.
Responsibility with archives. It is essential that we
document our work.
1. Collection policy:
What, when, how,
for whom …to collect.
2. Access policy:
Be definite:
who, where, how.
3. Descriptor standards:
All lists must
meet a certain standard.
Our Centre is a peak Buddha Dhamma
research library providing online resources.
In 2002 we
submitted a paper to the Senate Environment, Communications,
Information Technology and the Arts References Committee Inquiry into
the Role of Libraries in the Online Environment.
We have
defined our strategies to rate our library to meet the changing needs
of Australians.
Some years ago we drafted an intelligible set
of performance indicators. At the time we felt sure that “super”
software being written would trickle down for library use.
Accordingly we put our class one definition at a high level in
1998.
We supposed the eye could probably recognise data or an
icon in context in 0.1 seconds. So we set up a definition of a first
class library such that it could respond to 95% of queries in 1
second:
a second class library responds to 90% of queries in
10 seconds;
a third class library responds to 85% of queries in
100 seconds;
a fourth class library responds to 80% of queries in
1000 seconds;
a fifth class library responds to 75% of queries in
10,000 seconds (2.8 hours);
a sixth class library responds to 70%
of queries in 100,000 seconds (28 hours); and so on.
At that
time (1998) we rated ourselves as a seventh class library on our
query scale. Our first website was set up in 1999. We are now between
a second and third class library at our premises.
The scale
had the major advantage that we did not have to compare ourselves
with others to know where we were.
At the time, by our scale,
there was no first class library in Australia. We like specified
self-rating models for ease of practical use.
Because of our
long-term plans for our library script, we could not find a local
equivalent to what we said we would do.
The Australian
Buddhanet website was just beginning, without a library
function.
Since we found no other groups in Australia were
competing in rivalry with this function of our Buddhist Library
group, we could not find benchmark comparison figures.
Rating
models which are extensions of the simple logistic model of items
with more than two ordered categories provide important relationships
to the Guttman scale.
What is our need for an articulate
interpretation for censorship.
It appears to us that the post
industrial society in Australia presents a very complex world where
the colour is basically grey. Seldom are issues black and white.
Because there is an unhealthy fascination with anything
sexual from the Australian point of view, some persons might wish to
practice tantra not knowing that being heedless can cause diminutive
problems to become bigger by unwise dedication of merit.
To
give some idea of what our e-library had available in 1999, by secret
password we found 117 references to tantra in 28 documents - out of
598 selected documents searched containing some 1.6 million words.
The set-up searched had a vocabulary of about 35,000 English, Pali,
Sanskrit and other words.
We are familiar with classical
admonitions that the diamond brothers and sisters ought not disclose
tantric teachings to inferior persons as defined. As custodians, we
choose not to act heedlessly and have devoted a lot of effort to
provide censorship to save time in untangling incontrovertible
issues.
Our policy is not to disclose exalted practices to
childish, heedless persons mentioned by Shantideva because such
persons may cause trauma to themselves. Our disclosure policies are
prudent so we cannot be "suckered into trying to meet needs just
because they are there".
It is generally held within the
Western world that in the evolution of thought, magic represents a
lower intellectual stratum (Sir J.G. Frazer, 1900).
This
observation is not necessarily true for tantric paths; although there
is no doubt they are dangerous for persons of dubious morality. By
expedient means, we support this view to protect Buddhist practice,
from falling into siddhis (Pali: iddhi). Our vajrayana "hidden"
texts are available to selected persons.
"Hidden"
texts require the inquiring end-user to be furnished initially with
clarification texts; or to confirm the inquirer has a sealed set of
Bodhisattva vows or another empowerment.
This cannot be done
on our websites.
Our present policy involves selective
censorship which means we would not supply such documents on our
Internet site.
Our policy is an issue of not sanctioning "new
age thinking".
We have no intention of allowing
displacement of classification of any of our "traditional"
texts.
We do not intend that censorship in the degree of
knowledges needed by the end-users of our systems be extreme. For the
few persons who may be interested in Vajrayana teaching, they
undertake a five year probation period of keeping tantric precepts
and not slandering women.
We only mention this information as
an example of how a special interest group can be ministered to,
because we provide more strata of assistance for users, in the form
of catalogue surrogates useful for suggested headings when machine
searching.
Now we would like to talk a little about the types
of thinking skills we wish to promote.
Buddha Dhamma teaching
becomes feasible for the individual who recognises that his or her
present thinking patterns do not entail critical thinking.
When
present thoughts are inadequate to distinguish relevant from
irrelevant information, claims or reasons, you are ready to learn to
search for better types of minds.
These have precise names in
Pali. Superior language checklists of many types of minds abound in
Abhidhamma documents.
Librarians have familiarity with a
non-Buddhist list of thinking skills compiled by Herri and Dillon,
published in The Australian Library Journal Vol.41 No.2 - May 1992.
In May 2002 we completed three years and three moons teaching
of Prajna Paramitta to classes every Tuesday evening. Much of this
material has been recorded on audio and video tapes. Over time we
intend to transcribe those set of teachings in a style suitable for
English as a second language readers with a view to placing these on
our website at www.bddronline.net.au.
On 22 June 2002 we
commenced a nine year Abhidhamma teaching program. Learning
Abhidhamma requires students to use their own energy to learn.
Internally, they examine the content of their own mind, not their
Teacher’s mind nor the mind of others. The student’s key
reference for the Teachings of Abhidhamma is ‘The Essence of
Buddha Abhidhamma’ by Dr. Tin Mon.
A second reference has
been engaged this year, How Karma Works from the online studies
course of the Asian Studies Institute at www.world-view.org taught by
Geshe Michael Roach.
The present extent of our e-library.
The
information available to our present e-library extends across: two
Local Area Networks - LAN1 and LAN2; two internal emails systems, and
some reaches into the superhighway through our websites.
This
year we launched our sixth website called www.edharma.org.
Our
web sites are part of our “library-without-walls” project.
Our teachers and web masters have developed much savoir-faire
regarding our web sites’ publications over recent years.
Our
major web masters are Evelin Halls, Pennie White, Leanne Eames, Helen
Costas and Julian Bamford. Most of our webmasters are graduates or
post graduates.
In the case of our flagship publication the
Buddha Dhyana Dana Review, we have found how to increase the depth of
knowledge fields online we present to our readers in our
publications.
New translations by Sister M. Uppalawanna from
Pali to English of the Suttas Majjhima Nikaaja 1 – 101, Majjhima
III, Anguttara Nikaaya I – Ruupaadii Ekaka Vagga I can be found
on our website at
http://www.bddronline.net.au/bddr12no3/
We
also have an English Translation of a French publication about the
History of Pureland Buddha Dhamma on our website at
www.bddronline.net.au.
In the case of the Brooking Street
Bugle, we have found how to increase the very human approach online
of our publication.
Now we understand we can illustrate an
article with 200 colour photographs or more on our web site, whereas
if we were to print it we would have to limit the range of
illustrations because of physical space and economic
considerations.
We publish the Brooking Street Bugle our
internal newsletter each fortnight averaging 30 to 40 A4 pages in
print version and online at www.bsbonline.com.au with colour
photographs to give a pictorial account of the many meritorious
activities our Centre’s Members have generated.
We have
around 3500 colour photographs online on our six websites.
Our
webmasters put their time, effort and expertise into running our six
web sites and the extent of our success can be seen by:
Total
visits for all sites since counters have been put on are over 20,000
visits.
We aim to be the fifth most popular Buddha Dhamma
e-resource in the world by 2008.
It helps that we are a
Regional Centre of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, and an
Associated Institution of the World Buddhist University, both
headquartered in Bangkok Thailand.
We receive many
international publications and messages electronically from around
the world. More and more we use email to deliver our key papers in
Australia and globally, as well as communications with our Members.
We are learning to systematise the handling and preservation
of captured data in digital form. We have hundreds of colour
photographs from three digital cameras that we have backed up to CD’s
for storage and use by our webmasters.
We are interested in
strategies that will enhance the wider use and distribution of our
resources as well as their preservation.
Researchers need to get
ready for faster learning experiences as best they can.
We are
currently building PHOTOLAN (our third LAN) that may enable us to
view as many as 3000 photographs within half an hour (100 per
minute).
How do we meet community demands for public
information in the online environment?
We have found the first
point of contact for most of our newer Members are our websites.
Buddhists from overseas who are coming to Australia have selected our
Temple as their family Temple after examining the plethora of
information available on our website.
As a result of our six
websites we receive requests for teaching from many countries
including countries where you would like to think the local Buddhists
could provide adequate information to our enquiries (such as Japan
and Bhutan).
Within the Australian continent many interstate
queries regularly have been answered for many years.
We have
been asked to provide papers for Regional Centres overseas and papers
for key cultural conferences both locally, interstate and
overseas.
Before our internet presence we spent enormous
efforts to publish good information globally.
Seven years have
elapsed since we setup our first website www.bdcu.org.au as text
only.
Since then, we have added around 3500 photographs to our
websites, as well as video clips and sound bytes.
In our
library we estimate we have a backlog of about 14,000 historical
photographs and these are being scanned with a view to enter onto our
internet e-library websites and our internal platforms when
classified.
This will help future researchers write a more
definitive role of the early history of Australian Buddha Dhamma
Practice.
We plan to ensure the most effective use of our library
as a public information resource in the online environment.
We
need to fund our third very fast LAN3 which would operate one hundred
times faster than our LAN 2, with a view to transferring our
photographs from a file server we will build to a fast reading
website.
We have the technology for fast uploading packets of
colour photographs onto our websites. This may be viewed in operation
at The Private Museum in Upwey on www.buyresolved.com. where
thumbnails of geological specimens can be viewed by clicking on the
thumbnail to view an enlarged version.
This software is very
fast, 50 times faster than normal website methods we have
employed.
Two of our Members are working on a project to
commence digitalisation of all our library's audio and visual
resources including audio tapes of teachings, radio broadcasts, video
recordings and photographs.
They will commence with our audio
cassettes of teachings given at the Centre. Some of these tapes are
over ten years old and therefore are a priority in terms of their
preservation.
This week one of our Members obtained a new
equipment resource that enables this process of transferring
audiotape directly onto a computer hard drive. In the digitalised
form the information may be preserved on a hard drive for twenty
years or more.
Our Members are committed to continue this
process of preservation for all our audio recordings of teachings of
our founder and visiting teachers as well as visual recordings, as
they are a significant part of the John D. Hughes Collection.
Our
intent is to preserve the two types of Buddha Dhamma in the world:
the material form, the teachings, and the application of the
teachings by our practice and in this way illuminating the past, and
guiding the students practice in the future.
May our nations
heritage collection be preserved, made accessible, and grow for a
long, long time.
May the past be illuminated to guide the
students of the future.
May we all know the significance of
our heritage.
May all beings be well and happy.
Today's
Buddhist Hour Broadcast script number 335 was written and edited by
Anita M. Hughes, Julian Bamford, Evelin Halls, Leila Igracki and
Julie O'Donnell.
Reference
The Shorter Oxford
English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Ed. Onion. C.T.
Clarendon Press Oxford UK. 1973.
Halls, Evelin C. John D.
Hughes Collection Preservation Plan. 2004. Our ref: LAN2
I:/JDHColectionPlan.doc
Hughes, John D. et al. Submission
paper to the 'Inquiry into the Role of Libraries in the Online
Environment' Senate Environment, Communications, Information
Technology and the Arts References Committee. Government of
Australia. Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. 2002. Our
Reference: LAN 2 I:\seninq02.doc
Abhidhamma Studies. How Karma
Works. Course V. Level 1 of Middle Way Philosophy (Madhyamika) The
Asian Classics Institute. Taught by Geshe Michael Roach New York USA
online at www.world-view.org.
This paper is for Free
Distribution. It contains Buddha Dhamma material and is provided for
the purpose of research and study.
Permission is given to
make printouts of this publication for FREE DISTRIBUTION ONLY. Please
keep it in a clean place.
"The gift of Dhamma excels all
other gifts".
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This Radio Script is
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Permission is
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ONLY. Please keep it in a clean place.
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