Challenges of Digital Preservation of Information: A Case of Kenya National Archives and Documentation Service, Kenya

Abstract

Background of the StudyAcross the world an increasing number of organizations face national and institutional obligations in relation to collection and preservation of digital objects. Digital preservation is a major problem facing information centers all over the world. Most of information centers in the third world countries are faced with issues in digital preservation of information (Moloi and Mutula, (2007). Omekwu (2009) aptly observed that the transient nature of many web resources calls for practice that ensure instrumental value is accessed, acquired and archived electronically to ensure their long-term availability and access in the digital age, preserving of information has become more complex task with many threats including technological obsolescence and deterioration of electronic storage media.Digital preservation is informed by digital collection building but encompasses the acquisition, ongoing maintenance, periodic transformation, and persistent delivery of digital assets. Once digital resources are identified as having long-term value, then the technology systems and accompanying policy frameworks that preserve those digital assets must inspire the same level of trust and confidence in users and stakeholders as do traditional preservation and access services. Digital preservation is the conservation of all digital materials, whether they were born digital, such as emails, websites, video games, and other electronic files, or whether they have been digitized from analogue materials (Conway, 2010). In Kenya, and in the region, efforts are being made to achieve digitization. The latest reports made by