Matebesi explained that by harnessing the power of data, and embracing emerging technologies, archives empower societies to make informed decisions, foster transparency and preserve cultural heritage. He added that in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, archives play a crucial role in promoting democracy, protecting citizen rights and enhancing quality of human rights.
“The sector is not only adapting to digitization but also tackling the challenges and opportunities presented by technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and blog chain. This inter-disciplinary approach calls for collaborations across various fields, inviting professions and organisations to join this visual conversation. MYSC through Botswana National Archives and Records Services (BNARS) has institutionalized the government of Botswana’s Reset Agenda priority number three, digitisation by implementing the national archives and records management system,” he said.
Furthermore, he explained that that initiative aims to digitalise the government’s records and archive management processes under the one government initiative. He added that the project was well under way at MYSC and BNARS with plans to be extended to other ministries and independent departments. He also said BNARS archives administration systems was currently in the user acceptance training stage, aims to train the public online access to archives and anticipated to go online in the 2024/25 financial year.
He explained that that progress indicated their commitment to the future of cyber archives. He further explained that the cyber archives theme underscored the importance of collaborations of between public and private institutions. He added that to that end, MYSC was reviewing the National Archives, Records Services Act of 2007 to incorporate technological advancement and enhancement government information and personal data.
For her part, the director of BNARS Dineo Phuti said they the National Archives and Records Management Services (NARMS) were already in place at a pilot phase at MYSC and BNARS that had three record centers in Gaborone, Kanye and Francistown. She explained that the system was already working at those centers and had three sub systems that follow the records life cycle divided into three sub systems namely current state, semi-current and non current state where they are found in the archives or become heritage documents.
She added that they already had the record management systems at the above-mentioned organisations. She added that after passing through the three life cycles, where documents have to be kept in the records management unit, where after passing the current statues are taken to the records center are then taken to the archives after 20 years.
Phuti also said when at the archives, the documents become a national heritage. However, she said they did not take all documents to the archives but had to go through assessment to detect if the information was worth been archived or not. She said following the records life cycle made it easy to access information from the documents, as they have to be kept properly, filed, referenced and classified in order to be retrieved swiftly or timely. She pointed out that the photos or whatever documentation that contains the country’s heritage to be kept properly for easy access.
She said they would be covering five Ministries’ and four departments where they are expected to follow the BNARS guidelines. She added that after going through appraisals the records will be available for the public. Furthermore, the two entities have already hosted activation events at the Gaborone BusRank, Main Mall and Block 8 shopping mall while paving way for the main event which it the International Archives Day that will be hosted in Gaborone today (Friday).
