At the 1996 African Studies Association conference at San Francisco, Ghana Studies Council members voted unanimously to support the Ghana National Archives "handlist-capturing" project (see GSC minutes in Newsletter, issue 10). The purpose of the project was to enter into a computer database [i.e. capture] information from "23 HUGE three-ring binders filled with handwritten listing of all Colonial Secretary's Office records" preserved at the Archives. While flipping through the pages of the 23 three-ring binders for Archival listing might have been cumbersome to the research, it was far superior to the previous searches via index-carding of Archive materials. Because of an earlier GSC funding, it is confirmed by Mr. Anim-Asante (Project Coordinator) that "updating of the handlist has been completed and that the database management system has been installed, with a third of the handlists captured on the new system."
The hand-listed documents of the Colonial Secretary's Office that was to be captured into the system include the following:
01. Imperial and Gold Coast Goverments.
02. Establisments and Personalities.
03. Finance and Stores.
04. Judicial
05. Legal and Legislation.
06. Customs, Trade and Shipping.
07. Posts and Telegraph.
08. Agriculture.
09. Animal Health.
10. Forestry.
11. Medical and Sanitory.
12. Land and Survey.
13. Harbours and waterways.
14. Public Works.
15. Police and Prisons
16. Railways.
17. Motor transport.
18. Education and Religion.
19. Geological
20. Municipalities and Townships.
21. Native Affairs.
22. Naval, Military and Air.
23. War.
24. Publications, Printing and stationery.
25. Clubs, Public Institutions, Games, etc.
26. Census.
It is the goal of the National Archive to get all of the above documents classified into their subject catagories and in "their original order." Descriptive lists are also to be prepared to make them accessible and to derive the most effective use of them. Ultimately, the Archives will provide a guide to the collection. According to Mr. Anim-Asante, there are over 50,000 C.S.O. files at the Ghana National Archives.
Additional funding requested of GSC ($636.00) will be used to cover the following project activites:
01. Sorting, Listing and Accessioning of C.S.O. papers (Supplementary).
02. Data Capturing (on-going Project plus Suplementary).
GSC check for the requested amount was issued to the Archives in the month of April, 1998.