This paper discusses the guidelines and activities of the Science and Research Centre Koper (SRC, University of Primorska) in the goal-oriented research project. The implementation of our project took place in Australia and Italy, with two objectives: 1) recording and listing the documentary heritage of Slovene institutions and 2) field work in recording and collecting materials of personal nature and video recording of oral testimonies. SRC Koper chose this approach due to the importance ofpersonal materials (correspondence, photographs, diary entries, etc.) and of historical memory as documentary heritage, and the need to at least partly save from disappearance and oblivion the materials that seldom find their way to the archival institutions. Our attention was mainly focused on Australia where we worked closely with local Slovene organisations and individuals. 10 archives of institutions in Victoria and Queensland were more or less described in detail using surveys. The needs and future perspectives of preservation as well as the conditions for collecting and enriching the documentary heritage of the organisations and individuals were identified. Particularly active in this field are Historical Archives for Slovenian Australians (HASA) with the Slovene Society of Melbourne, Archives of the Slovene Religious Centre of St. Cyril and Method in Melbourne and the Archives for Slovenian Australians in Queensland. SRC Koper started the second part of the project with the aim to test the possibilities and to try out several methods that would enable systematic collecting ofpersonal documentation, i.e. historical memory. A test of digital recording and cataloguing of privately owned materials was made to set up virtual archives. Using video equipment, further 12 life-stories, i.e. testimonies were recorded. Both organisational and inthe- field implementation of the project produced abovementioned results, gave us rich experience and offered a number of conclusions, useful for future work in the preservation of documentary evidence of the Slovene presence around the world, for the strategy used by cultural workers living abroad and by their native country in approaching these issues, andfor the evaluation of the heritage for cultural and scientific purposes.