record management

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION SCIENCES

COURSE TITLE: ADVANCED ARCHIVES MANAGEMENT
COURSE CODE:
TASK
Discuss the challenges that a national archival institution is likely to face in managing archives in digital formats and suggest possible solutions.

PRESENTED

PRESENTED
DATE: MAY 2014
INTRODUCTION
Advances in technology have seen the application of information and communication technologies in almost every sphere of life. In information management, this application has seen the digitization on many archival collections. The digitization of archival collections however offers opportunities as well as challenges. This paper aims at examining the challenges of managing archives in digital formats with a view to recommending the way forward.
According to IRMT (2009), archives are records, usually but not necessarily non-current records, of enduring value selected for permanent preservation. Archives will normally be preserved in an archival repository, which is managed by an archival institution. An archival institution on the other hand is the agency responsible for selecting, acquiring, preserving, and making available archives.
The main activities carried out by archival institutions include the following (IRMT, 1999).
 Accessioning
 Arrangement
 Description
 Reference services
 Outreach

APPLICATION OF ICTs IN THE MANAGEMENT OF ARCHIVES
In the last decade, advancements in technology have led to tremendous growth in computational power, networking bandwidth and connectivity. This had led to the adoption and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in almost every aspect of modern life. Organizations have massively adopted the use of business systems and even electronic document and records management systems in their operations in order to leverage on the benefits of technology. Consequently, the number of organizations making information digitally available has spiraled. Archival institutions have also been

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