Chapter 5 Tapestry of the education and training landscape for archives and records management in Africa

Managing Digital Records in Africa draws on the research work of the InterPARES Trust (ITrust) project that investigated interrelated archival issues focusing on legal analysis, infrastructure, trust, authentication, and education within the African context. This research-focused book provides a legal analysis and systematic assessment of how African institutions manage digital records in four countries (i.e., Botswana, Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe). It also examines the extent to which records are managed using Internet-based applications, trust in such records, and digital record authentication to support the auditing process. Finally, it provides a curriculum analysis in digital records at institutions of higher learning in 38 African countries. The book's case studies illustrate the threads of discussion, which span the ITrust domains of legislation, infrastructure, authentication, trust, and education in archives and records management. The book can be used as a premier reference source by private and public organizations, researchers, educators, archivists, records managers, and postgraduate students to make informed decisions about digital records, records management systems, cloud-based services, authenticating records, and identifying universities on the continent that offer archival programmes. The book may also find expression to practitioners in other fields such as law and auditing

Chapter 1 Law and record keeping

Managing Digital Records in Africa draws on the research work of the InterPARES Trust (ITrust) project that investigated interrelated archival issues focusing on legal analysis, infrastructure, trust, authentication, and education within the African context. This research-focused book provides a legal analysis and systematic assessment of how African institutions manage digital records in four countries (i.e., Botswana, Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe). It also examines the extent to which records are managed using Internet-based applications, trust in such records, and digital record authentication to support the auditing process. Finally, it provides a curriculum analysis in digital records at institutions of higher learning in 38 African countries. The book's case studies illustrate the threads of discussion, which span the ITrust domains of legislation, infrastructure, authentication, trust, and education in archives and records management. The book can be used as a premier reference source by private and public organizations, researchers, educators, archivists, records managers, and postgraduate students to make informed decisions about digital records, records management systems, cloud-based services, authenticating records, and identifying universities on the continent that offer archival programmes. The book may also find expression to practitioners in other fields such as law and auditing

Managing records in South African public health care institutions : a critical analysis

The historical evolution of South Africa’s health sector, dating back to the 17th century, is significantly different from that of other African countries. Throughout the four centuries of development there have been numerous advances in health policy, legislative instruments and health system progress. Against this background this dissertation critically analysed the management of records in public health care institutions in South Africa. The study did this by addressing three objectives: assess the legislative, policy and regulatory contextual framework of South Africa’s health care system; assess the effectiveness of records management within public health care institutions; and identify appropriate interventions to address the challenges facing records management in the health care system. The study used purposive sampling to identify respondents with diverse expertise in three main sectors: the public sector, the private sector as well as in academic and research institutions. Using interview research technique the study solicited data that was analysed in order to provide a composite picture in addressing the research objectives. The analysis of data revealed three overarching themes. First, there is substantial legislative and regulatory dissonance in the management of health records in the country. While there are extensive legislative, regulatory and policy instruments that could be used to manage records, many lack coherence with records management issues such as records retention. Second, understanding the complex interplay of different legal and regulatory instruments is a critical first step, but it remains the beginning of the process towards building a sophisticated implementation process. For this process to be successful, study respondents argued that records compliance would have to be the backbone of all other compliance processes. Third, while there were substantial areas of weakness in the management of records in South Africa’s public health sector, there have been a number of pockets of excellence. These include the efforts towards complying to access to information legislation by the Limpopo Department of Health and Social Development as well as the successful introduction of Enterprise Content Management systems in health care institutions by the Western Cape Department of HealthInformation ScienceD. Litt. et Phil. (Information Science

Establishing an international computational network for librarians and archivists

Research and experimentation are underway in libraries, archives, and research institutions on various digital strategies, including computational methods and tools, to manage "Collections as Data." This involves new ways for librarians and archivists to manage, preserve, and provide access to their digital collections. A major component in this ongoing process is the education and training needed by information professionals to function effectively in the 21st century. Accessible and transferable infrastructure is a key requirement in creating a network of collaboration for information professionals to fully realize the full potential of managing "Collections as Data." Elements needed include: 1. Open source research and educational platforms to remove barriers to access to curation tools and resources. These are needed to deliver and share computational educational programs. 2. Creation of a Cloud-based student-learning environment. 3. Development of Open Source software architectures that use computational infrastructure. 4. Exploration of new pedagogies for educating librarians and archivists in computational methods and tools. 5. Establishment of a community of practice for developing collaborative projects, and liaising with the wider international iSchool community and practitioners in the field. Our "Blue Sky" proposal seeks to explore a number of these challenges (infrastructure, computation, collaboration, learning) that stimulate the iSchool research community and have the potential to jumpstart international collaborative networks. The goal is to establish an international computational network for supporting librarians and archivists, akin to the existing Sloan Foundation funded "Data Curation Network", which seeks to model a cross-institutional staffing approach for curating research data in digital repositories.Ope

Ensuring the Authenticity of Records: From Seals to Digital Signatures

The promise of the globalization of trade and particularly electronic commerce to deliver goods and services much faster to clients is talked about in almost all circles of life. Governments are moving towards electronic governance, in an effort to cut down the cost of bureaucratic process and reduce the time spent on paper work. Companies can reach more clients, serve them faster, and make services available 24 hours a day. Although there are obvious advantages brought about the rapid features of modern information and communication technologies, there are also some overwhelming challenges. A bedrock concern is whether electronic information is trustworthy. This raises several questions, such as: can the provenance of electronic messages be accurately determined, what infrastructure is necessary for secure transmission of electronic information, and how to guarantee that the contents of a message have not been altered during transmission? There is a striking resemblance between the struggles of the modern electronic age and those in past eras. Both in antiquity, when human society began introducing writing as a mode of communication complementing oral communication, and in the middle ages, when society in Western Europe gradually moved to trusting the written over the oral, the seal was a common “technology” for guaranteeing the trustworthiness of documents. In the modern era, when society is struggling to balance the opportunities and challenges of electronic information, electronic signatures are advanced as the new authenticating technology. ESARBICA Journal Vol.20 2001: 2-4

Trends in the Enterprise Resource Planning Market Landscape

This article provides a brief discussion of ERPs, including how they can be defined, their component parts, and the evolution of technologies since the 1940s. The article then offers a general overview of the current ERP vendor market landscape based on academic journals and industry reports. The article’s methodological approach is a review of both academic literature and industry expert reports, which the author performed to trace trends within the landscape. Results of the analysis demonstrate that the rapidly evolving market landscape dates back at least six decades, and there are many large, longstanding ERP vendors. Yet, opportunities like cloud computing may result in niche products in existing industry players or through start-ups. Nonetheless, technologies such as blockchain are emerging. It remains to be seen how they will impact the ERP market

Kurumsal İçerik Yönetimi Yapılandırması: Aşamalar, Standartlar ve En İyi Uygulama Rehberleri Üzerine Genel Bir Bakış

Dijital belgelerin yönetimi yıllardır pek çok bilimsel çalışmanın konusunu oluşturmuştur. Dijital belgelerin ve diğer dijital içeriğin yönetiminde kullanılan sistemler üzerine gerçekleştirilen tartışmalarda çoğunlukla farklı terminolojiler, sık sık birbirinin yerine geçen terimler ve küçük nüans farklılıkları kullanılmaktadır. Ayrıca birçok ülkede dijital belgelerin yönetimine yönelik sistemleri değerlendirilmesi ve yapılandırılmasına yönelik fırsatları ve tehditleri gösteren standartlar ve iyi uygulama örneklerini ele alan rehberler geliştirilmiştir. Belge yöneticileri için yazılım uygulamalarının yapılandırılmasında karşılaşılan zorluklara yönelik birçok kaynak var gibi görünürken uygun standartların, iyi uygulama örneklerine yönelik rehberler kadar yapılandırma aşamalarının tanımlanması ve terminolojinin açıklanmasına yönelik ihtiyaçlar bulunmaktadır. Bu makale öncelikle literatür değerlendirmesinden yola çıkarak, tanımlamalara açıklık getirmeyi ve Kurumsal İçerik Yönetimi (KİY) uygulamaları için kullanılan farklı terimler arasındaki bağlantıları ortaya koymaktadır. Çalışma, KİY uygulamalarının yapılandırılmasındaki çeşitli aşamaları tanımlamakta ve standartlar ve iyi uygulama örneklerine yönelik rehberlere genel bir bakış sağlamaktadır. Çalışma son olarak değişikliklere yönelik öneriler getirirken Gap (boşluk) analizi ile en iyi uygulama örnekleri rehberleri ve standartları doğrultusunda yapılandırma aşamalarına yönelik bir değerlendirmeyi içermektedir

Chapter 5 Tapestry of the education and training landscape for archives and records management in Africa

Managing Digital Records in Africa draws on the research work of the InterPARES Trust (ITrust) project that investigated interrelated archival issues focusing on legal analysis, infrastructure, trust, authentication, and education within the African context. This research-focused book provides a legal analysis and systematic assessment of how African institutions manage digital records in four countries (i.e., Botswana, Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe). It also examines the extent to which records are managed using Internet-based applications, trust in such records, and digital record authentication to support the auditing process. Finally, it provides a curriculum analysis in digital records at institutions of higher learning in 38 African countries. The book's case studies illustrate the threads of discussion, which span the ITrust domains of legislation, infrastructure, authentication, trust, and education in archives and records management. The book can be used as a premier reference source by private and public organizations, researchers, educators, archivists, records managers, and postgraduate students to make informed decisions about digital records, records management systems, cloud-based services, authenticating records, and identifying universities on the continent that offer archival programmes. The book may also find expression to practitioners in other fields such as law and auditing