Preservation and Access to Public Records and

This book provides and overview of the preservation and access to public archives in South Africa. Various aspects of presevation management such as environmental control and monitoring, handling and use of materials, reformatting, disaster preparedness, preservation planning and policies, security, storage of archives and records, treating selected materials and conducting preservation surveys are covered. A chapter is devoted to research methods that researchers in the social sciences may use when investigating the real world. The major challenges facing archival institutions in South Africa are inadequate housing and environmental conditions of the archival holdings, inadequate preservation programmes and limited conservation education, lack of reliable data on archival preservation activities, limited resources for conservation activities, and the weak organisational structure and funding of archival institutions. This book uses models developed elsewhere as building blocks to demonstrate how South Africa is coping with the opportunities and challenges it faces in relation to preserving and accessing public records and archives.