3.4 Review of literature based on the main themes of the study
3.4.2 Digital archives management
Digital records and archives management constitute the backbone of open government (Hare 2013:9). Archival records are knowledge assets, identities, memories and evidence of creators, useful for preserving and safeguarding their interests and lawful rights in a specific environment (An, Bai, Deng, Zhong and Dong 2017:19). The International Council on Archives [ICA] (2016) defines ‘archives’ as the byproducts of human activities, which have been documented and retained for their enduring value. Records emanate from the business activities of organisations and individuals and present a picture of past events. These records occur in different formats such as moving image, photographic, sound, written, analogue and digital (International Council on Archives [ICA] 2016). Archives as records are different from other information materials because of the following unique characteristics:
i. Archives occur in digital and analogic media, not only paper documents.
Examples include electronic resources (including web sites and email), film, photographs, sound recordings and written documents;
ii. A record does not become an archive because it is old, but because it is no longer required for its original use;
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iii. Archives are not consciously created as historical records but as a result of business transactions. They must therefore be viewed in the light of who drew up that document and why; and
iv. Archives are retained for their enduring historical value. Thus, archive collections do not and cannot hold every document created (International Council on Archives [ICA] 2016).
Further, ICA (2016) pointed out that for an archive to be valuable it must be a trusted resource, possessing the following qualities:
i. Integrity: the content has not been altered or changed;
ii. Usability: the archive must be in a usable condition and accessible location.
iii. Reliability: the information in the record accurately represents the event; and iv. Authenticity: the record is what it purports to be, was created at the time
purported, and by the person that the document purports to have been created (International Council on Archives [ICA] 2016).
Creation, sharing and use of digital content has rissen to great heights in virtually every area of human activity in society but mainly in research, scholarship and science. Management of these digital assets for present and long-term use is however very important for societal continuity. Quoting Cohen et al. (2006:11), Laughton (2011) described digital archiving as the ability to collect, safeguard and ensure access to digital data. Quisbert (2006:24-5) broke down archiving into four components as follows:
v. The Intellectual aspect of archiving - This aspect entails the people within the Archives who must meet set intellectual requirements.
vi. The Function aspect of archiving - This aspect informs on the purpose (function) of the Archive.
vii. The Activity aspect of archiving -This aspect concerns all activities undertaken in the course of the archival process for example categorization and cataloguing.
viii. The Support aspect in archiving - This entails the support system of the Archive, which comprises the people (archivists) and tools (current technology including software tools).
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From the foregoing, the archival object takes centre stage and the identified aspects interact with and handle the archival object (Quisbert 2006:24-5).
Personal archives, business archives, government archives and educational archives with digital archival resources, also known as online (or digital) archives, support the management of digital collections. Digital archives can be described as archival repositories dedicated to ensuring the integrity and long-term access and usability of a nation’s intellectual, economic, cultural and social heritage which are in digital form, by continually migrating to newer formats (Commission on preservation and access and the Research Libraries Group (1996:8). Digital or online archiving therefore encompasses preservation as a function. Developing and implementing preservation strategies to maintain the evidential value of archives encompasses methodologies, procedures, laws and policies which address digital information resources throughout their lifecycle (National Archives of Australia 2006). This is affirmed by Doueihi (2011) who states that “digital archiving is not only about converting the record of the past into digital form, not only about preserving the digital present: it is also about the future: a future of access, of relevance …” Therefore, lifecycle management of electronic records is a key issue in digital archiving and the key to ‘unlocking’
archival resources.
Sustainability of digital archiving activities is crucial in public organisations. Boamah (2014) noted that the term digital sustainability is often used interchangeably with digital preservation. The concept of sustainability is applicable in different fields, disciplines and industries. According to Chengalur-Smith, Sidorova and Daniel (2010), sustainability is the ability of a system to survive and thrive over time, both environmentally and economically. In the context of digital services and collections, Rieger (2011) defined sustainability as the state of being able to gain access to the necessary resources for the maintenance, protection, increase and development of the value to digital content and its usability. Therefore, the focus of sustainability efforts in a digital archive is prolonging the lifespan of digital archives through various long- term preservation strategies and providing continued access to the archival resources.
With this understanding, archival repositories are shifting from the place of institutional thinking, to building of organizational networks in order to achieve sustainability in their digital archiving endeavors.
83 3.4.3 An overview of digital archiving
The genesis of the African “archival story” dates back to the early 19th century when Europe discovered the “dark continent” (Africa) and delved into the process of colonization and the scramble for Africa - the rest is history. One reason why Africa was infamously referred to as “the dark continent” is because the arts of writing and recordkeeping had been alien in the region prior to the 19th century (Asogwa 2012:198). Ironically, colonization triggered continental development which was as a result of the introduction of religion, education, among other social activities. Formal records management gradually became a reality, albeit with shortfalls, such as the failure of colonial masters to enact sound and solid archival legislations in their colonies, leading to defunct recordkeeping systems and a state of archival under- development (Asogwa 2012:207).
Today, the integration of ICT as a tool for enhancing efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery has prompted governments throughout the world to acknowledge and prioritize digital archiving within the public sector and institutions of higher learning.
An et al (2017:27) aver that rapid development of ICT has had the effect that digital recordkeeping has become a crucial element that should be entrenched as a risk- control measure in an enterprise records and information architecture in support of organizational business processes in order to ensure responsible generation, preservation and use of digital records. Public agencies all over the world are increasingly shifting from paper-based to digital procedures (Klareld 2015b:12), with the effect that government business has become increasingly reliant on digital records (Cumming and Findlay 2010:265). As a matter of fact, the past decade generated the largest volume of records compared to previous decades of humanity (Mutula 2014:363), though ironically most of these records are less retrievable, reliable or accessible (Duranti 2010:79). Gantz and Reinsel (2012:2) record a report claiming that in the year 2010, one thousand two hundred and fifty gigabytes of data were generated. The report predicted an estimated annual growth of fifty eight percent.
Rosenthal (2018) affirms that as opposed to the past where records were predominantly created on paper and archived in the library, today’s record formats are predominantly digital, encompassing tweets, websites with damaged inaccessible links, blogs, emails and files that can no longer be read. Johnson et al. (2014:226) speculate that the continuously growing heterogeneous digital records in government-
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owned organisations can aptly be denoted as big data. These digital formats are essential not only for enabling and supporting business operations, but they also make up the collective memory of the government (Cumming and Findlay 2010:265).
Digital archiving involves various steps aimed at managing digital records which include creating, acquisition, arrangement and description, storage, preservation and provision of access (Yadav 2016:65-9). Various studies have been undertaken in developed countries to examine the practices for managing digital records and archives in light of new and emerging technologies. For instance, Poole (2020), Lemieux (2016) and InterPARES (2015) focused on the management of d-records and archives. Xiao, Xu and Liu (2019), Stuart (2017, Klareld (2015b) and Adam (2010) examined the impact of, and threats introduced by new record types and formats.
Baron and Thurston (2016), Duranti (2010, Cumming and Findlay (2010) and Caplan (2010) suggested sustainable solutions and strategies for effective management of digital records and archives. While these studies found a place in the current research because of their empirical focus upon digital archiving aspects, their methodological orientations were largely dissimilar to the present study which focused on multiple cases with a higher degree of generalization.
In Africa, various authors have discussed the increase in the generation of digital records and their management in government organisations in the past decade (Ambira 2016; Maseh 2015; Lowry 2013; Mulauzi, Wamundila, Mtanga and Hamooya 2012; Asogwa 2012; Nengomasha 2013). The studies established that unlike paper and microfilm formats, digital records and archives require continued proactive management because of their unique makeup, which should be done in a consistent and systematic manner. As a consequence, recordkeeping practitioners and archivists are re-evaluating traditional solutions about creating, managing, preserving and providing access to records and archives by acquainting themselves with new technologies such as cloud computing, block-chain technology, cryptography and biometrics as well as big data and open data initiatives, among others (Mutula 2013;
Musembe 2019). One such study undertaken by Elragal and Paivarinta (2017) proposed that the access and distribution of digital collections and archives can be realized by innovatively utilizing big data analytics technology to enhance the processes of appraisal, preservation, maintenance and use of digital archives.
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Ngoepe and Saurombe (2016) postulated that legislation has a tremendous impact on the management of digital records and archives in a country. The authors observed that laws in a country affect the manner in which records (including digital records) are managed. They further explain that legislation gives clear mandate for the management of records by outlining the procedures and practices to be undertaken throughout the lifecycle of records. Developed countries such as the UK, Denmark, Republic of Korea, among others have policies addressing e-records management (Musembe 2019; Mutula 2013). Notably, studies carried out in Africa revealed that many of the countries in the continent have legal and regulatory frameworks for records and archives management. However, for close to three decades, a good number of authors have bemoaned the inadequacy of these legal and regulatory frameworks (Maseh 2015; Mutula 2013; Erima 2013; Asogwa 2012; IRMT 2011).
Studies have been carried out to examine the role of records and archives legislation in organisations (Netshakhuma 2019a; Dwoya 2014; Hamooya, Mulauzi and Njobvu 2011) and affirmed that sound legal and regulatory framework for digital records and archives are essential for their effective management. None of the studies focused on impact of the legal and regulatory environment on digital archives in Kenya.
The adoption and use of ICTs in records and archives management has presented challenges in the preservation and management of digital records and revolutionized methods and practices of recordkeeping across the globe (Asogwa 2012:199). In particular, digital archiving is hampered by problems of selection of the right content for archiving, effective archiving of the selected data and ensuring that the archived data can be accessed and used, which if unaddressed will result in an “information black hole” (Rosenthal 2018). Studies undertaken by Ngulube (2012), Sigauke and Nengomasha (2011) and Masenya and Ngulube (2019) drew attention to the challenges that organisations in Africa face with respect to records and archives preservation. The issues illumined in these studies included problems of media fragility, hardware and software obsolescence, rapid technological advancements, and inadequate metadata. In addition, digital records are prone to alteration and corruption, improper handling, unauthorized disclosure of information, mislabeling of storage devises and accidental erasure (Greizter, Strozer, Cohen, Moore, Mundie and Cowley 2014:237-8).
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Other authors have specifically highlighted issues and risks that accost digital archiving activities in public organisations (Akussah and Asamoah 2015; Mutula 2014; Asogwa 2012). Today, African countries are still struggling with risks arising from the integration of digital technologies in records and archives management, which have necessitated the need for proactive digital recordkeeping to be integrated in organizational business processes. Consequently, this thesis is founded on the premise that best practice in digital archiving is the sustainable solution for addressing records-related problems emanating from technological orientations. The next section discusses the state of digital archiving readiness in universities.