Commentary

Recognition of the Importance of Archives in Society

By

Abu, Alilu

Library Unit of Network Programmes

The Universal Declaration on Archives as adopted by the 36th Session of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO on 10th November 2011 defines archives to include all recorded decisions, actions and memories in all formats including paper, digital, and audio visual.

Accordingly archives has historically been distinct as a range of physical artifacts, an accumulation of historical records that have been selected for permanent or long-term preservation on grounds of their enduring cultural, historical, or evidentiary value.. Archives in their universal acceptance contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of that person or organization. In a simple term, Archives are records of value that have been selected for permanent preservation.

Archives are, of course, not merely dumping grounds for old materials. Much effort had been made to ensure that the materials are cared for, properly organized and accessible to the researchers and the society.

Today it seems strange to researchers of kinds that anyone should question the necessity for collecting materials from the past and organizing them so that we in contemporary times may use them in our society. The past is always relevant to the present, informing our views, answering our questions and pointing us in the right direction. At the same time, contemporary insights let us reacquaint ourselves with past documentation and see in it, for the first time as it were, implications up till now unseen or unappreciated. Archives are an essential means of examining the past.

According to studies (66.6%) of the searchers used archives for research purpose, 33.3% for informational purpose while 11.1% and 5.5% used them for litigation and administrative purposes respectively.

In this scenario therefore, the uses of archives cannot be overemphasized, among the importunes are to ensure that the records of today are preserved for the future generations. In so doing, people can then use the records to study the life, ideas and thoughts of their original creators.

They also serve as society collective memory as they provide the evidence of the past and promote accountability and transparency of past actions.

In our society of today, archives help the people to understand their history and the roles of particular individuals, organizations and movement. Knowledge of the past creates a better future.

Apart from helping to foster and promote a sense of community and identity, archives safeguard the rights of individuals within the democratic society and provide a vehicle by which to measure government accountability through maintaining vital compares.

Among others, archives ensure that historically significant records are systematically described and wherever possible made available for a variety of research uses; including teaching purposes, building plans, publications television and radio programmes and plays as well as legal proceedings.

Again understanding and awareness of archives among the general public and key decision-makers can be comprehended from the UNESCO Declaration which emphasizes the key role of archives in administrative transparency and democratic accountability, as well as the preservation of collective social memory.

It is with these facts of the importance of archives that we can proudly say amalgamation documents were kept untouched since hundred years ago.

While we celebrate our centenary as a nation, we must not forget to preserve the entire documents that relate to activities as a nation for future generations.

Therefore we call on President Goodluck Jonathan to take his transformation programmes into our National Archival policy in order to bring about administrative transparency and democratic accountability, as well as the preservation of collective social memory for the generations to come.

Normally we should not think that an archive is the material itself but perhaps this material will change our innovations and reorientations for better nation

The challenge now is to use the effort to recognize the importance of archives to maximum effects that they create , so that we shake off outdated perceptions of their roles and finally to make them take their rightful place as a major player at heart of public administration and the center of social memory in our society.