Digitisation of records and archives at two selected state universities in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This study focused on the digitisation of records and archives at two selected state universities in Zimbabwe, namely Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) and Harare Institute of Technology (HIT). The specific objective was to evaluate the legal and statutory frameworks for managing the digitisation of records and archives at the state universities. The legislative and statutory imperatives in Zimbabwe, the exponential growth in digitised records and archiving in the state universities and the lack of capacity of records personnel with regard to the management of digital records and archives, motivated this study. The records of the state universities are stored on network servers that the university can access. However, individual users are often able to copy or move them to individual desktops and portable devices that are beyond the university’s control. The study adopted a mixed methods convergent parallel research design and collected data through questionnaires and interviews. The data collection instruments provided both quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data were analysed using the SPSS analytical software package, while qualitative data were organised into broad themes and the content reported in narrative form. The findings were that both respondents and participants understand the records management functions in their universities and both state universities are busy creating policies and procedures for the digitisation of records and archives in their business transactions. The findings further indicated that the two state universities were digitising their records and archives using untrained personnel. Legislation, policies, and standards and procedures were not enforced. This exposed the materials to major threats and risks in terms of their integrity, security and authenticity. The study recommended that there the legal and statutory frameworks must be formulated, implemented and enforced to cater for the digitisation of records and archives at state universities in Zimbabwe.

Knowledge and skills for managing digital records at selected state universities in Zimbabwe

“…Lessons learnt from other universities outside Zimbabwe, such as the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Chinyemba & Ngulube 2005), showed that some universities do have positions of university archivist to take charge of the university's memory and evidence. Surprisingly, no state university in Zimbabwe has a position of archivist in its structures (Tsvuura 2021). There are no archivists to take care of memory and evidence of all business transactions, but have positions of university librarians at the top echelon of their structures to take care of library resources for students.…”

“…The adoption of ICTs in state universities brought about a paradigm shift in the creation, receipt and use of records and archives from paper to digital. However, records personnel responsible for managing digital records and archives largely lack the requisite knowledge and skills to manage such resources (Tsvuura 2021). Records personnel often remain a marginal community with some noticeable knowledge and skills gaps in managing the digital records and archives in their institutions.…”

A framework for the digitisation of records and archives at selected state universities in Zimbabwe

“…The digitisation of records and archives has been widely accepted and become an essential part of government structures in both the developed and developing countries. The adoption of digitised records and archives management in the two selected state universities has led to the decentralisation of information through networks, servers, memory sticks, databases, as well as websites in large volumes (Tsvuura 2020). This has resulted in organisational records being stored in individual employees' laptops and memory sticks, who leave the organisations carrying the records with them (Tsvuura & Ngulube 2020).…”

“…The adoption of digitised records and archives management in the two selected state universities has led to the decentralisation of information through networks, servers, memory sticks, databases, as well as websites in large volumes (Tsvuura 2020). This has resulted in organisational records being stored in individual employees' laptops and memory sticks, who leave the organisations carrying the records with them (Tsvuura & Ngulube 2020). A lack of university records management policies that separate official business records from personal records result in the loss of ownership and organisational records embedded in individual laptops and private email inboxes, having a great risk of being lost.…”

“…The objective of this study was to determine whether the state universities were using a model or framework for managing the digital records and archives, as digitisation of records and archives must be a well-planned project with adequate resources and framework of operation (Tsvuura & Ngulube 2020). Another objective was to identify the gaps that exist in the digitisation of records and archives in the two selected state universities and recommend ways of filling those gaps, if they exist.…”