AO: While it may seem self-evident, this excerpt from the workshop summary report underlines the continued importance of physical buildings to protect archival material. Especially at a time when digitizing has become the focus of archival and library science, the continued maintainance of physical spaces and material culture is highlighted here. Workshop participants also raised the fact that processes for maintaining and archiving the physical artifacts are better understood and established than for maintaining and archiving born-digital materials.
Physical buildings and storage conditions matter greatly when it comes to protecting archive material. Indeed, the 1965 Act of Parliament that established the Kenya National archives and Documentation Service, Frances Mwangi informed us, gave it responsibility “for proper housing, control and preservation of all public records and public archives.”
