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Disaster Preparedness And Security Management In Archives
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND TO THE PROBLEM
It is
incredible but true that the generality of people including some
educated elites do not know what archives are, some associated archives
with artifacts, monuments, and others believe that the word is derived
from archeology. At best, a good number of people think that archives
are the old and use less staff meant for the incinerator. This ignorance
permeates some an official publication in which archives is mentioned
in casual reference to art and culture.
The word “Archive†is
pronounced “Arkiveâ€. An ordinary meaning of the word Archive is public
or government records and the place for keeping them. This is to say
that the word has a dual meaning of being public or government records
as well as being a place where such records are housed. They are kept
officially or privately but the documents are exclusive.
According
to the Italian Archivist Casanova defined “Archives†as the orderly
accumulation of documents which were created in the course of its
activity by an institution or an individual, and which are preserved for
the accomplishment of its political, legal or cultural purposes by such
an institution or individuals. The essential elements in this
definition relates to the reasons why materials were produced or
accumulated.
To be archives, materials must have been created or
accumulated to accomplish some purpose. In a government agency, the
purpose is the accomplishment of its official business. Casanova
stressed their creation to accomplish “Political, Cultural or legal
purposes.
In professional parlance, Archives are document drawn up
or used in the course of administrative or executive transaction
(whether public or private) which formed a part and which are
subsequently preserved (in their own information) by the person or
persons responsible for that transaction or their legitimate successors.
Originally,
the term “Archive†is derived from Greek word “(Acheron) which means
that archives belongs to an office. They are generally used to designate
agencies or administrative units, responsible for identifying,
appraising, accessioning, preserving, arranging, describing and
providing reference services on archives materials and for approving the
destruction of records of transitory values.
When archivists accept
holdings into their repositories, they are taking responsibility for the
custody for these materials. All their efforts may come to naught if
the archives are lost as a result of a disaster or breach in security.
Security and disaster management are the key to the protection of
archival materials from human and natural causes. However, many
incidents which can be described as disaster have destroyed or seriously
damaged parts of archives collections and building. An early account of
damage to a book is a pious account of the loss of Queen Margaret’s
gospels by a careless priest who dropped the book into a deep and fast
flowing river. The story tells us that due to divine intervention, the
book was located on the river bed and recovered undamaged and that this
minor miracle occurred because the original owner was a saint. Since few
of us are saints, we can take little comfort from this.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 4]
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]The project is based on the Disaster Preparedness and Security Management of National Archives, Owerri Branch. This work is divided into 5 (five) chapter.Chapter one, highlighted what disaster is and different causes and types of disaster. In chapter two, the necessary literatures were reviewed. In chapter three, the research method used was survey method, the research finding were based on the data collected from the research instrument are shown in the methodology. Chapter four, shows how date ... Continue reading---
