Around 5 million records are expected to be saved through digitisation as the National Archives begins its search for companies to get the job done.
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The National Archives is on the hunt for experts to help it undertake the enormous task of digitising its growing backlog of at-risk historical documents detailing the country's history.
A tender released by the archives agency last month revealed it was looking to outsource the complex job to suppliers who could provide "end-to-end digitisation services for photographic materials, aerial film and microforms".
It would establish a five-year standing panel of suitable companies to complete the task.
Additional information provided to applicants showed there are nearly 5 million records needing digitisation.
The bulk of the records are black-and-white and colour negatives, prints and glass plates, which totalled up to 4.9 million.
There are also more than 100,000 aerial film rolls and prints along with microfilms and aperture cards.
Offers to undertake the work will close in mid-August.
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The National Archives launched a public bid in May to save the vital records after the federal budget failed to deliver adequate funding.
It turned to the public for donations and paid memberships.
"There are no backup copies. Once these records are lost, they are lost forever," the institution's website said.
"Right now, we simply don't have the resources or the funding to save the huge amount of material that needs to be preserved."
It came just two months after a review by David Tune was publicly released recommending $67.7 million be given to the archives to undertake the critical task.
The federal government announced in early July it would commit the required funding to the archives to help its digitisation efforts and address the growing backlog of overdue document retrievals.
But Liberal senator Amanda Stoker, who is responsible for the National Archives, said the deterioration of some records remained a natural consequence of the passage of time.
"There is always going to be a process of degradation over time and this process doesn't really ever come to a stop," she told The Canberra Times earlier this month.
"The investment we have here is based on working with the Archives and the department to identify all of the significant records that are at risk and making sure they are all appropriately preserved.
"I'm optimistic that will represent a complete preservation of the matters that are of historical importance.