Page 22 - Professorial Lecture - Prof Nengomasha

management of current records, the records centres continue to offer traditional
records services and so does the National Archives whose adoption of ICTs is
very minimal. The National Archives of Namibia has not adequately harnessed
ICTs to provide access and reference services to a wider audience addressing
marginalisation through distance. Any attempts to rectify the situation should
follow best practices as per standards and guidelines.

The digital age has brought opportunities as well as challenges. However, the
challenge of digital obsolescence needs urgent attention. The public service of
Namibia will lose digital continuity and fail to access its digital records if it does
not address digital preservation to ensure that records remain usable overtime.
8.3 Education and Training

Adoption of ICTs require new approaches to records and archives management
education. Records and archives management is converging with other
information management disciplines hence training should take this into
consideration. Stakeholders’ consultations in the process of developing new
curriculum at the University of Namibia have shown the emergence of information
governance positions held by records and archives management graduates in
parastatals, which include Senior Officer Records and Information Management,
Information Management Specialist, and Information Management Officer.
ARMA (n. d.), an international organisation that brings together professionals in
records management, information management, and information governance
provides the following definition of information governance:

Information governance is the overarching and coordinating strategy
for all organizational information. It establishes the authorities, supports,
processes, capabilities, structures, and infrastructure to enable
information to be a useful asset and reduced liability to an organization,
based on that organisation’s specific business requirements and risk
tolerance.

Education and training need to produce versatile graduates with competencies
to manage any information asset. If the brief history of records and archives
management highlighted in this paper has taught us anything, it is that one of the
ingredients to successful records management is trained and skilled manpower.
8.4 Research

Studies on records and archives in Namibia have tended to focus on the public
service of Namibia. There is a need to do more research on the private sector
especially in view of digital transformation. A lot of the developments such as

Prof. Cathrine Nengomasha | Professorial Lecture 22