NAN-H-62
Archive
By Mercy Osajiugo
Minna, Nov. 22, 2016 (NAN) An archivist in Niger State, Alhaji Mohammad Kolo, has called on the federal and state governments to introduce e-archiving to save documents from destruction by rodents and termites.
Kolo, who is the Director of Archives at the Office of the Head of Service, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna on Tuesday that important documents such as government gazettes should not be destroyed in heaps of files.
“Record keeping is an important issue that should not be treated with levity.
“The state as a matter of urgency should save the archive from losing its valuable records through parasites,’’ he said.
The archivist said that when parasites invaded his archive, the state government lost some important books and that prompted the engagement of a fumigator to destroy the pests.
“Every Friday, we fumigate the archive; the whole of this place is an enclave of termites so we have to fight them with chemicals.
“For now we are trying to manage the place till we have a better place,” he said.
The director explained that data archiving was the process of moving data that was no longer actively used.
Kolo pointed out that books and files in archives ought to be preserved and protected from dust in glass shelves.
He said that students in tertiary institutions regularly visited the archive to gather information. (NAN)
MNO/MNA/MVO
(Edited by Maureen Atuonwu/Mbadiwe Okwor)