Kenya Progressing with Digitization of Historical Records Historical records in paper or microfilm format could vanish forever if proper measures are not taken for their preservation. So the news that the Kenya National Archives, a museum cum art gallery, is digitizing
40,000
unique
documents
comes as no surprise. Following in the footsteps of libraries, museums and other organizations across the world, the Kenyan Government is embarking on a major project which will chart the history of the country digitally for easy access by researchers and history enthusiasts.
The Kenya National Archive collections include material relating to the colonial and post-colonial government of Kenya up to the early 1960s. They provide a complete picture of the social, political, economic, and religious problems of development in equatorial Africa. The collection includes a large number of microfilm reels of newspapers, journals, and papers of assorted associations. The digitizing project of the Kenya National Archives and Documentation Service (KNADS) began in 2007.
Objectives of KNADS The Kenya National Archives and Documentation Services (KNADS), a department under the Ministry of State for National Heritage and Culture, is responsible for the control and preservation of all public archives and public records in Kenya. The main aims of its digitization project are as follows
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To address the public’s need to have instant access to records: as original archival records are available as single copies, it is not possible for multiple users to access them. Electronic documents can be accessed simultaneously.
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Ease search processes: Document retrieval is much easier once they are indexed and archived. Automatic identification of documents is not possible with paper based records.
The Process of Digitization at KNADS
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The first step is cleansing of the documents, including de-magnetizing, unclipping and batching of documents.
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The second step is scanning, indexing and editing of historical documents
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The third step involved filtering the documents. Activities included OCR and PDF conversion.
Digitization was not easy when KNADS started out. The first three years of the project were outsourced due to the shortage of manpower and equipment. The many challenges the department faced are discussed in a paper published by UNESCO titled ‘The Road to Providing Access to Kenya’s Information Heritage’.
Challenges
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The process of digitization includes the image capture of drawings and maps of different formats and so advanced technology and hi-speed scanners are required
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Extra investment is required to create backups and to manage the electronic repository created with extra hard disks, DVD, and PDF
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Quality may be compromised with mass digitization, especially when the archival quality digitization requires a high resolution
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Even though the prime function of transforming documents to electronic format is speedy record access, progress has been slow for sometime due to the following reasons:
o The KNADS website got hacked o Hosting the website with mass volume of data became an issue o There were technological challenges in uploading documents in the server
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Digitization had to be handled by skillful professionals to ensure quality output
Some of these challenges have been resolved and KNADS is forging ahead with its aim to make Kenya’s epic history available to the world.
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