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Rugby's history to go digital

Cape Town - The South African Rugby Union (SARU) has embarked on a major project to digitally capture the game’s written record. The union has requested proposals from specialist companies to begin a process that could take several years to complete.

SARU on Monday announced its intention to scan and digitally archive what will eventually be more than a century’s worth of correspondence, minutes, reports, contracts, manuals, scrap books and photographs as part of an innovative new approach to the game’s heritage.

The full details of the Request for Proposals (RFP) is available at www.sarugby.co.za under the “About Us” tab.

“Rugby’s written record is so vast that the official record is dispersed in different repositories across the country,” said Andy Colquhoun, SARU GM: Corporate Affairs. “The plan is to begin to digitally capture that record in one ‘electronic’ location, both as an historical but also as an operational resource. It is a massive task and will have to be phased over a number of years before it can be completed.”

Colquhoun said the priority would be to first capture the records of the post-1992 South African Rugby Football Union (SARFU) and its successors, SA Rugby (Pty) Ltd and SARU, before work could begin on the pre-1992 record of the different national rugby unions in South Africa.

SARU plans to make the key documents available to the public through a web-based virtual library as well as creating a searchable archive for SARU staff to increase operational efficiency.

“Rather like eating the proverbial elephant, you can only do it one bite at a time,” said Colquhoun. “It’s a significant challenge but we will take a phased approach and we expect to see significant advantages in due course.”
 
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