Digitization Of Archival Collections In Africa

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02 Nov 2017

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There several objectives in this article, that is:

To examined the principles, benefits, strategies, and critical challenges involved in digitization of archives and records in Africa.

To study the reduction in tears and wears in over-handling of the physical materials, high demand for the records, rising of the profile and prestige of archival institutions in Africa as some of the justifications for digitizing and archiving government or documents.

To review the literature on current issues in archives, electronic records, and digitization that was conducted where revealed much about the new concepts, issues, and modern techniques in archival management.

Targeted audience

These articles are suitable read by researcher who interested to know about the issues, strategies and challenges that have been faced when digitize archival collection in Africa. This article also is very suitable read by government department, librarians, curators, historians, legislator, and educator’s record manager. Furthermore this article must be read by us as a student because there is more useful information about the digitization of archival collections, why it is digitize, the principle of digitization, approach in digitization and barrier that has been faced by archivists in electronic environment. To sum up, this article very important for student because they can obtain new experience and valuable information that will be used and practices it in their study. Others person such as public also can read this article because it is suitable for everyone.

Review

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to discuss approaches to digitization of archival collections by examining the principles, benefits, strategies, and critical challenges involved in digitization of archives and records in Africa. It sees reduction in tears and wears in over-handling of the physical materials, high demand for the records, rising of the profile and prestige of archival institutions in Africa as some of the justifications for digitizing and archiving government documents. A review of literature on current issues in archives, electronic records, and digitization was conducted which revealed much about the new concepts, issues, and modern techniques in archival management. Planning, developing digitization policies, respect of the intellectual property rights, are some of the strategies for embarking on digitization project while constant changes in computer hardware and software, poor archival legislation, and low human capital development in Africa constitute the greatest bottlenecks for digitization initiatives in Africa.

Keyword: Digitization, Digital collections, archival collection, Scholarly communication, Africa, issue, strategies and challenges.

The article has been written by Brendan Eze Asogwa which entitled digitization of archival collections in Africa for scholarly communication has discussed about the issue, strategies, and challenges in digitize an archival collection that should be prepared by archivists and librarians in Africa to embrace the new technology. Most archive and libraries in Africa have materials in analogue formats and traditional formats which where the librarians and archivists still doing the task on printed documents. The traditional medium of archival collection to electronic format has tasked modern archivist, especially with regard to digital preservation, accessibility, copyrights and the issue of intellectual copyrights. This paper has been divided into a few part which include introduction, background of digital libraries or archive, contemporary issues and problems, purpose of study, methodology, digitization, principle of digitization, the why of digitization, gains of digitization of archival collections in Africa, approaches in digitizing archival collection in Africa, challenges of digitization of archives in Africa, conclusion and recommendation.

Firstly author discussed about the background of digital libraries and archives where the Scholler (1984) stated about the phonograph-archive as the first archive in the world. Then, author discussed about contemporary issues and problems that was observed by Witten & Bainbridge, (2003) where the "new strategic vision and economic models were emerging" and modern archivists operating in a context of new social, political, economic and technology which impact on institutions and others. So, the changes in the politics and government in Africa has influence the internal management dynamic of museum, archives and their parent’s institutions. In addition, the rapid and pervasive changes of technology also has affected on work, life and scholarly communication. In addition, the author also stated the purpose and methodology of this article. Next the author discussed about the digitization in Africa. Firstly, he tells about the concepts of digitization by Hughes (2004). Then, he tells about the process of digitization which converts archival materials from formats analog to format digital and the advantage of digital archives over analogue collection. The author also discussed about the principles of digitization which have a few principles that should be notices by archivists which has been confirmed by the preservation committee of Canadian Council of Archive such as must not place original records at risk of damage from handling or use and define the objectives clearly.

In the why of digitization, the author discussed about the reasons of cultural institutions investing on digital projects. On this, he give a few example of websites that can be access from anywhere at any time in rapidly and comprehensively. Then, he describe several gains of digitization of archival collections in Africa which are digitization increases the scholarly value of source materials, the provision of digital archives of Africana materials that can overcame gaps in existing collections, and others. The author also discussed about the approaches in digitizing archival collection in Africa. When initiate the digitizing the archival collections, the archivist must determined the goals and select or consider a few factors which include planning, setting goals, develop digitalization policies, legal or copyright issues, select criteria such as value, significance to the overall collections, user demand and interest, availability, and fragility of the original, verifications and lastly metadata that represent the total historic record of the digital object and the totally of information about the object.

Furthermore, there have more challenges of digitizing the archival collection that has been faced by the archivist in Africa. The barriers that has been faced by them in the electronic environment are constantly changing software and hardware, required enormous funding, staff computer phobia, lack of technical expertise, inadequate technology infrastructures, technological obsolescence, refreshing where moving the files from one physical medium to another that will cause loss of format or identical of files, emulation of sustainability and accessibility of the digitized materials in electronic environment, continues migration, lack of legislation and policy, and lastly the deterioration of digital media. Lastly, the author concludes about the information that will be benefits if using it with more efficiently, properly organized and permanently preserved and discussed about the recommendations of digitizing archival collection in Africa. There are few recommendations that has been stated by author such as new legislation that has been made to protect digital materials, technical feasibility and long-term commitment to infrastructure must be evaluated before embarking the digital conversation projects, and others.

This article is very interesting and informative. The article provides useful information that educates and challenges or analogue archivists, librarians, curators, historians, researchers, civil servants or government officials, legislator, and educators in Africa on issues and challenges posed by e-government and electronic records in the management of archives and records. According to DeGracia P. J. (2009), the digitization generally makes the archivist more effective by improving preservation and access, converting items to digital format that can act as a hindrance to the archivist's mission. Beyond this, there actually are times when digitizing material impairs preservation and access. Because of these factors, it is essential for the archivist to examine the negative aspects of digitization before embarking on a conversion project. Besides, this article also provides several reason of the digitization. According to Jones T. (2001), the main reasons to digitize are to enhance access and improve preservation. By digitizing their collections, cultural heritage institutions can make information accessible that was previously only available to a select group of researchers.

Furthermore this article also brings around the alternative that should be applied by an archivist due to technological obsolescence. So that the archivists in Africa must be conscious of the dangers inherent in emulation, migration and refreshing to maintain the longevity, sustainability, and accessibility of digitized archives in the electronic environment. According to Asogwa E. B. & Ezema J. I., the another challenges is the digital media get lost during disaster or virus attacks, and in Africa there may be absence of or inadequate organizational plans to manage e-records. In my opinion, the reader should do the further research on what archival materials should and should not be digitized. This is because readers should know whether or not the archives have the legal right to copy and disseminate the materials under consideration for digitization. For example the digitization for Web publication tends to focus on "unique archival and visual materials, many of them unpublished and often very desirable for non research applications" (Gertz, 2000, p. 99). Selecting collections or material to digitize should be based on a clear understanding of the user’s needs, and of what digital material can do, that analog material cannot (Conway, 2000). 



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