Archival digitisation: A vibrant education and research tool for sustainable development

Abstract

Some of the salient aims of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) are quality education; peace and justice; industry, innovations, and infrastructure. The archive is another germane repository centre that serves various sectors of society most especially the education, research, and judicial sectors. Quality education inter-alia entails quality research activities, which is the essence of having archives. The contemporary principles and practices of archival management are moving towards the change from traditional archival practices to archival digitisation. The six geographical zones in Nigeria have three national archives that ought to provide both ancient and current information for the judicial, education and research intents. However, since the establishment of the national archives at the eve and after the independence, the sector has experienced minimal improvements that can give room for global relevance and competition. Hence, this paper delves into the techniques and importance of having the digitised version of national archives. The study adopts a qualitative research method via observation and unstructured interview cum systematic literature review. There was a visitation to the Department of National Archive, Ibadan, Oyo State as a case study and being the oldest, first, and most functional national archive in Nigeria. Some archival users and archivists were interrogated on the current operations of zonal archives at Ibadan, Kaduna, and Enugu. Moreover, the researchers observed the archival materials and modus operandi of the archive management. Consequently, the research reveals that the national archives still operate in traditional mode yet to embark on complete digitisation due to epileptic funding and power supply, low awareness about digitisation, inadequate resources for digitisation, untrained manpower among others. However, the contemporary national archives will be of global stance and compliance with sustainable development goals if archival digitisation is
implemented effectively and swiftly. This research is valuable to academia, government parastatals, judiciary, and other archival users.