Taking archives to the people: an examination of public programs in the National Archives of the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives

Abstract

Archives serve as society's collective memory in so far as they provide evidence of the past and promote accountability and transparency of past actions. An appreciation of archives would then result in citizens linking archival records with their identity, history, civic duty and cultural heritage. However, research in Eastern and Southern Africa indicates that most citizens are unaware of archives and rarely use them. Apart from financial constraints, this is often associated with inadequate outreach programs. Taking archives to the people (promoting archives) is one way of making citizens aware of archival holdings and facilitating access and use of these resources. Through the application of three research techniques, this article shows that, although the number of archival users in this region is declining, public programming initiatives were not prioritised. Reasons for this included lack of policies; shortage of staff; lack of skills; reluctance to rope in technology in public programming initiatives; working in silos; and budgetary constraints. This article recommends a framework that may help archivists in the Eastern and Southern Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives region to raise awareness about public archival repositories, despite the existing challenges.

Applying Batho Pele principles in South African public archives – Do public programming initiatives count?

“…According to Saurombe and Ngulube (2016), archivists must understand that public programming initiatives are not used as one-way communication channels to the community. Feedback loops help archivists understand their users and help users have a fulfilling experience when interacting with the archival resources.…”

“…Therefore, Venson et al (2014) point out the necessity of the National Archives communicating this point to the public and the governing authorities. Fulfilling the needs of the unknown public will remain difficult (Saurombe and Ngulube, 2016). Therefore, through consultation efforts such as public programming initiatives, archivists will get to know their users and be able to decide how to serve them effectively.…”

“…However, researchers such as Ngulube et al (2017), Mukwevho and Ngoepe (2019), and Netshakhuma (2019) are of the view that the NARSSA still needs to strengthen its efforts towards reaching out to the South African communities, particularly the marginalised communities. Ngoepe (2017) and Saurombe (2018) further discuss the problem of undocumented communities within the archives, and minimal efforts have been made by the NARSSA directed towards changing this status quo.…”

National archives’ priorities: an international overview

“…Some authors have undertaken case studies of specific archive planning experience such as at NARA, the Norwegian National Archive (Bearman 1996;Herstad 1998). Other studies have focused on archives in certain regions such as those authored by Saurombe (2020) and Ngulube and Tafor (2006), both on African archives. The former analyses two dissemination endeavours undertaken in the ICA region known as ESARBICA, covering eastern and southern Africa.…”

Online presence of public archival institutions of South Africa

“…Public programming can be explained as all activities undertaken by archival institutions to promote access and use of their archival holdings. Ngulube and Saurombe (2016) describe public programming as a function performed by archivists to create awareness of their archives. From the review of literature, public programming initiatives may include exhibitions, outreach activities (visits to schools, colleges etc.…”