Just been checking through some of my first aid articles which I prepared as an aide-memoire to carry with me in the bush in the late 80’s and early 90’s when I was leading groups of students in the Grampians and Flinders Ranges.

Do I delete the articles? Are they so far out-of-date to be a danger to unsuspecting readers? Should I add a disclaimer to each article explaining how they could be out-of-date? How do I know if they are out-of-date? Should I update them? How long will they remain up to date? What is their value to bushwalkers? Could I link to more recent articles that I know will be regularly updated? What are the copyright implications?

These were prepared by condensing the information in the first aid manuals provided at Senior First Aid courses I attended. Initially I printed the text on small sheets of paper the size of a business card and stored them in a plastic business card holder with clear pockets. I still carry it in my first aid kit, sealed in a waterproof bag.

Then in the nineties I went digital and imported them into my PDA, initially a Sharp ZQ-650 which had, what was then an enormous memory of 1 Mb. I have just found it in the cupboard and replaced the batteries. It works… sort of!  I remember purchasing this ….it cost as much as a small laptop today! I used to use it to keep my bushwalk diary, emergency contact details for each of the students in my group and phone numbers when on an expedition

Why did I discard it? Was it the white line across the middle of the screen which obliterated some of the words?

Today I have saved the text file as a pdf and imported it into my mobile smartphone (Nokia N95), which I always carry with me in the bush.

Which is likely to be more dependable and easy to use in an emergency? Hard copy or digital?

I think you can guess what I think. Why else would I still carry the hard copy in my first aid kit?

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