National Archives: problems and prospects
Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed :
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman established the Directorate of Archives and Libraries in November 1972. In 2001, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina laid the foundation stone for the construction of the National Archives Building. The first phase of construction of the National Archives building was completed in 2004 and the second phase in 2012. At present the activities of the National Archives are carried out in a 5-storey administrative building and a 7-storey stack building located at Agargaon, Sherbangla Nagar, Dhaka-1207. The collections of the National Archives are becoming richer and larger. So far the amount of documents saved exceeds five crore pages. These documents are systematically classified according to document characteristics. Separate catalogs have been created for each class to easily find the useful needle from this huge haystack. However, the number of catalogs is also 65. Anyone who needs information can find it from this specific catalog. The page can be found from the catalog instructions.
The National Archives contains the historical information records or documents of all the government agencies of the country, private organizations and individuals in special cases. These can be called the memory of the nation. National archives preserve the growing characteristics of a country or nation’s existence. However, the concerned people have raised the question of how much expertise the National Archives of Bangladesh can show in this matter. Document management is not getting the attention it should have. Due to this, the situation remains critical there
Historically, countries and institutions have had archives mainly as tools for record-keeping and administration. Archives are central to governance, though this has a fraught history – colonial governments, for example, have collected information about their subjects as a method of control. And decisions about what is deemed “worthy” of archiving can be deeply subjective. However, having a good archive can also help to hold governments accountable to their citizens. According to the ICA, “well-managed archives and records are the means by which a country can understand the who, when, where, how and why of government actions. They enable the delivery of human rights and the ability for a government to explain and defend its actions.”
Historical archives are collections of primary source materials that have been preserved over time for their historical significance. These materials include diaries, photographs, letters, films, books, maps, government documents, and other records that offer insight into the past. Archives can be found in various places depending on the type of document and its age, including libraries, museums, historical societies, universities, online databases, government institutions, and individual donations. Some archives are dedicated to a specific subject or period, while others are broader in scope.
The scale and complexity of digital archives, both born-digital and digitized, are posing enormous challenges for both researchers and memory institutions. In the world of archives, these new types of records are fundamentally changing the landscape as well as the role of archivists and archival institutions. The emergence of new generation technologies also brings a variety of complexities and challenges to archival frameworks, requiring new capabilities and approaches on how best to capture, preserve, contextualize and present the increasingly born-digital and digitized records.
However, this technological shift also brings new opportunities for research and experimentation. For example, technological developments have transformed the way researchers can access and explore archival collections. The digitization of archival materials has opened a variety of large-scale digital collections to the world. Additionally, born-digital archives are beginning to reach terabytes, comprising many different types of media that can be made accessible online.
The big challenges of our time, from global warming to social inequalities, cannot be solved within a single discipline. The same applies to inaccessible archives: we cannot expect archivists or digital humanists alone to find a magical solution that will instantly make digital records more accessible. Instead, we need to set up collaborations across disciplines that seldom talk to each other. Until recently, the scholarship on digitized and born-digital records originated from the archive sector and focused primarily on preservation. No matter what the archive is, or how big it is, granting users access in a way that clearly shows how and why some records are available while others are not, is a key challenge for digital archives. Sustainable ways to maintain and create archives need to be identified, and articles in this special issue illuminate several ways this could be done. A cross-disciplinary approach seems almost inevitable given the status of the digital humanities as a tech-focused study of historical concern. Once the issue of access to archives has been overcome, new computational tools can be developed to either help explore these archives or complete the digitization themselves.
It is observed that our judicial records and land records are in particular are in a miserable condition. People have to suffer a lot to identify and to find it out from archive center. The government and policy makers need to be serious about the problems and potential of National Archives. Moreover, we need to be mindful of how public our national archives are. Public involvement should be increased considering the importance and awareness of archives. After all, we cannot be surprised that the archive is a monument to the nation’s history and heritage. But I feel free to say that archives can play a significant role in preserving the glorious history and heritage of the nation.
(The writer is former Deputy Director General, Bangladesh Ansar and VDP).
