NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION

SCIENCE
DEPARTMENT OF RECORDS AND ARCHIVES MANAGEMENT
BSc (Hon) in INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY

STUDENT NAME: Zibusiso Ndlovu

STUDENT NUMBER: N02127723T

COURSE: Archives and Manuscripts Management

COURSE CODE: IIM 1201

LECTURER: Mrs. NLS. Makoni

ASSIGNMENT: a) Illustrate with relevant examples, the importance of keeping archives

and manuscripts. [75]

b) Explain the negative uses of archives. [25]

DUE DATE: 27 May 2022

Muller et al (2010) defined archives as "written documents, drawings, and printed matter,
officially received or produced by an administrative body or one of its officials, at least in so
far as these documents were intended to remain in the custody of that body or that official."
Archives also refer to institutions in which materials which have to be stored over a long
period of time are maintained and brought into use. The archival material has administrative,
financial, judicial, and moreover, historical value. A manuscript can be defined as a book,
composition, or any document, written by hand, not mechanically produced. Archival
material and manuscripts has the ability to shed light on the past and the future. Binark,
(1995) states that, ‘Every nation owns an historical heritage. An important part of this
heritage consists of cultural properties, both material and virtual, such as archives, libraries
and ancient remains. These cultural properties play a big role in being and continuing to be a
nation’. Archives are the deed of a country, the identity, the diary and the whole existence of
a people, the fundamental feature and the most valuable cultural and historical treasury of a
country connecting the past with the present and the present with the future by carrying the
rights and the priorities. The writer of the essay will convey and allay the importance of
keeping archives and manuscripts to the society, individuals and the country as a whole.
Keeping of archives and manuscripts is relevant to the country in the sense that archives and
manuscripts provide evidence, accountability, can be used in research, education. Archiving
information also prevent data loss, and increase security for the information.

To start with, archives and manuscripts can be used in research. This method of research is
called archival research. Archival research is qualitative method of research in which you
take data collected by someone else and analyse it in order to draw your own conclusions
regarding your different hypothesis. This is useful for the type of research where you can
access large quantities of information that has already been compiled. This is useful because
it can help to reduce the amount of time and money spent on research. This type of research
is helpful in a type of hypothesis in which you could not ethically assign participants to
groups; it is also good and researching trends within a population (Carini, 2009). One
advantage of using the archival research method is that the data have already been collected;
therefore, researchers do not need to go through the institutional review process to gain
participants' permission to collect data. In addition, the data can be relatively easy and
inexpensive to review. Finally, the data in archives can be very useful to answer questions in
longitudinal studies, such as looking at health or development over a life span. Without
archival data, the time span that researchers can look at might be limited.

In addition, keeping archives and manuscripts provide a significant value to the researchers in
the sense that, using the archival method one can obtain types of material that would not be
available any other way. If conducting high-level research on a well-known writer, for
instance, there will probably be at least one archive which has hand-corrected manuscripts,
first drafts, and letters describing literary progress. Sometimes one might be the first person
to read these. Occasionally, archives do not even know what they have in their possession,
and you might discover hitherto unknown works. Archives offer a way to break new ground
as a researcher. There are many advantages to the archival method. For instance, this method
is generally inexpensive because although there might be a fee to access relevant research,
there are many free archives as well, and the process is overall typically cheaper than
collecting data oneself. Not collecting the data themselves can also save researchers a lot of
time. The archival method also provides a trustworthy look at the past. This can be quite
useful in comparative research. If a researcher is investigating how a topic has changed over
time, they can use archival sources for proof of what it was like in the past.

Furthermore, keeping of archives and manuscripts is important to scientists and lab

technicians. Modern scientific research, especially physics, is often conducted using complex
machines that take years to build, with experiments running for decades. These projects can
become full-scale institutions with large organizational structures and thousands of
participants. For archivists and others interested in the history of scientific research,
developing a complete picture requires an understanding not only of the work that scientists
and technical staff do but also the contributions of support staff too (Lyons, 2002). For
example, in 1978 Fermilab began its archives project to collect, organize, preserve and make
available material documenting the lab’s unique and ever-growing history. This involves
collecting records that document the contributions of a wide range of laboratory employees
and users. In addition to scientific records, the archives also include materials related to
activities such as the lab’s arts and lectures series, art gallery, and ecological and educational
programmes (Lyons, 2002). In scientific institutions like Fermilab, even people in jobs that
seem unrelated to the lab’s scientific work may have specialized knowledge or perform
functions specific to the lab that can shed light on how the science was carried out. For
instance, several long-time administrative assistants have described preparing complex
scientific manuscripts for publication and the special skills they needed to learn to be able to
do this. Others have talked about helping to organize international conferences where the
scientists shared their latest research. Often, people with this type of knowledge can only be
identified by interviewing others whose key roles are more obvious. Therefore keeping
archives and manuscripts is of paramount importance.

Moreover, keeping archives and manuscripts is important to the country as a whole because
archives play a critical role in the preservation of culture and heritage. Future successive
generations will know what was valued most as the current generation through the archival
material we preserve (Thurston, 2013). In essence, archive material is a conversation with
posterity. It, therefore, follows that if our archives lack integrity or reflect biases then this will
be an injustice to future generations who may never get to know the true stories of our times.
Africa’s contribution to human civilization is one of the most significant at any epoch and yet
slavery, colonialism, all kind of foreign conquests, apartheid have cumulatively distorted and
even tried to destroy the evidence of this contribution, but archivists today are trying to
address this injustice in our literature and records (Randall, 2002). It ranges from the
colonialism which hindered and subdued the development of Africa to the oppression and
subjugation experienced by the people of South Africa through Apartheid, whose cruel lashes
are seen by the scars on people in present day. As in the nature of scars, they may heal but
they are forever evident. Keeping of archives and manuscripts has allowed great stories to be
retold from generation to generation, igniting the spark to achieve the greater good that is
inherent in all of us as Africans.

In conclusion, the archival material has administrative, financial, judicial, and moreover,
historical value. Whereas manuscripts provide first-hand information of the writer. Therefore
keeping of archives and manuscripts is significant in the sense that archives are the deed of a
country, the identity, the diary and the whole existence of a people, the fundamental feature
and the most valuable cultural and historical treasury of a country connecting the past with
the present and the present with the future by carrying the rights and the priorities. Archives
also provide evidential value and accountability.
b) Explain the negative uses of archives. [25]

So many advantages of using archives have been mentioned in part a, in the above essay.
Despite these advantages, however, archives have got negative uses. Using archival research
method has some drawbacks such as the archival material might meticulous, the material
might also contain dust. Some of the drawbacks of using the arches include the fact that, it
can be quite difficult to locate relevant materials because not all archives adhere to
professional descriptive standards. It could also be difficult and time-consuming to
understand archival sources that are in their original language. Many archives are also not
digitalized and have to be accessed in person to be seen in full. That also makes the process
time-consuming and in some cases impossible, such as during the current public health crisis.

Using archives has one major drawback. If you are accessing transcripts from Parliamentary
debate in the Parliamentary Archives then one of the disadvantages is that what ministers are
revealing is being said in a public space (Malkmus 2008). This could be a disadvantage as
ministers are less likely to highlight the failings of their own policies in public. Thus,
whatever is being revealed is generally a refined answer of the truth which downplays any
failings. These documents sometimes can be inconsequential. What is meant by this is that,
unlike diary entries from people that are effected by government policy, one shouldn’t go into
detail the positive and negative effects of policy like other types of primary document do.

Another disadvantage of using archives is that, that the previous research may be unreliable,
or not collected to the researcher's standard; the researcher has no control over how the data
was collected when using archived information (Malkmus, 2008). There are also downsides
to the fact that the researcher using archives does not conduct the research themselves in this
method. Because the researcher did not have a say in data collection, the research might not
directly or completely what they are researching.

To sum up, disadvantages of using archival research is that the data may not directly respond
to the research question, so the data may have to be re-coded to answer a new question. Also,
the data may not, at times, offer the richness of other forms of data collection, such as
interviews.
REFERENCES

Thurston, A. (2013), “The role of archives in fostering continuity in society”, Government

records management and access to information. Vol. 14 pp 12-15

Randall C. Jimerson, (2002) "The nature of archives and manuscripts", OCLC Systems &
Services: International digital library perspectives, Vol. 18 Issue: 1, pp.21-23

Binark S. (2013), “International Journal on New Trends in Education and Their Implications
January 2013 Vol. 4 Issue: 1 pp 108-114

Carini, Peter. (2009) 'Archivists as Educators: Integrating Primary Sources into the
Curriculum', Journal of Archival Organization, Vol. 7: 1, pp 41 — 50.

Lyons, M. (2002). K-12 instruction and digital access to archival materials. Journal of
Archival Organization, Vol. 1(1), 19-34.

Malkmus, Doris J. (2008): Primary Source Research and the Undergraduate: A Transforming
Landscape, Journal of Archival Organization, Vol. 6:1-2, pp 47-70.