Aquisition and organisation of archives and records

Abstract

Introduction Acquisition of materials for information either for rivate or public purposes is complex and dependent on library-based information services. According to acquisition policy of the National Archives of Nigeria (NAN), "acquisition is a set off process that begins with the assurance of the quality of information with archival value by the creator of the archival records and ends with the preparedness of the national archives to make the acquired information available for use". In order to plan for meaningful development in various sectors of a country, records of the past must be referred to. This is because one cannot improve on something that one does not know anything about. Acquisition processes are intertwined to a lesser or greater extent, acquisition activities (in particular in the case of private records) have to be organized through good collegial information exchange and an effort is made to avoid duplication or the breaking- up of archives among various memory institutions. An organization or individual transferring private information has to be prepared primarily to transfer the ownership of information and artifact to the national archives. Acquisitions are made inconformity with prevailing legislation relating to archival functions, also all private records acquisition must conform to the framework of the acquisition policy. The archive does not have the resources to purchase archival records and documents for its holdings. The archives shall assess cost in relation to benefits on all materials to be acquired. According to NAN "acquisition of record of archival value as in the case of record survey involves in the main movement of archivist of all record creating agencies. This is for the simple reason that such programmes are drawn up based on record located during survey tours. Therefore, acquisition of archive and records should not be limited to a particular sector of a country only. Due to dwindling budgeting allocation over the years, no acquisition of archival material has been carried out nationwide (National Archive of Nigeria). By this, we have simply gone back to the days of Prof. Dike's concern which explains that this department is aware of the fact that valuable records are wasting away in our public offices, records that deserved to be permanently preserved as our collective cultural and historical memory. Thus, funding is required in addition to movement of staff and materials.