Society of Nigerian Archivists (SNA) Celebrates 2023 Archives Day, 75th Anniversary of ICA

…Calls For Proper Record Keeping In Nigeria

The Society of Nigerian Archivists (SNA) is set to join the rest of the world to celebrate the International Archives Day and the 75th Anniversary of International Council of Archives (ICA) on June 9, 2023, a day set aside for Archivists all over the world.

All around the world, professionals in the archival community unite their voices on June 9 to make the people understand why it is essential to support archives and the profession.

The ICA believes that the value of archives and archivists should be promoted at the international level.

According to the Chairman of the Caretaker Committee of SNA, Mrs. Yemisi Grace Oyebo, who spoke in an interview, the objectives of the International Archives Day and International Archives Week are to raise public awareness of the importance of records and archives; raise awareness among senior decision-makers of the benefits of records management for good governance and development; and improve the private and public sectors’ understanding of the necessity of long-term archival preservation and access.

Oyebo stated that the day and week are also meant to showcase the unique, extraordinary, and rare documents preserved in archival institutions; and advance the image of records and archives to enhance their visibility globally.

“This year, it will be the fifth International Archives Week (#IAW2023) and it will be special as it marked the 75th anniversary of ICA and 40th Anniversary of SNA.

“That is why from Monday 5 to Friday 9 June 2023, we will celebrate #75YearsICA of dedicated work to promote the importance of records and archives, and our profession.

“As revealed by the Caretaker Committee of SNA, this year in Nigeria, there will be programme of webinars, which consists of sessions that will cover different topics of discussion from June 5 to 8 as we link up with ICA.

“The 40th anniversary of SNA will be celebrated during the society’s conference in November 2023.

“To celebrate the 75th anniversary, ICA will launch its official Instagram account with an Instagram Takeover campaign and other programs,” Oyebo said.

The Caretaker Committee Chairman stated that on the first day of the week, the ICA will kick off the International Archives Week with a special webinar on “The impact of social changes on archival work.”

She said that the event will be a virtual conversation with the ICA Elected Officers about how archival institutions, like many other cultural organizations, are changing the way they do their work.

On the second day, she said, the Section on Human Rights and Archives will host a virtual panel, in which invitees, including the ICA President, will discuss how the connection between Human Rights and Archives has evolved in the last 20 years since the creation of this professional section of the ICA.

“On the third day, the ICA professional sections will be hosting a showcase session for all their African colleagues to present to them on how they can engage in the ICA groups.

The day will end with the Association of Latin American Archivists (ALA) who will host a webinar to celebrate its 50th Anniversary working with the professional community in the region.

“Finally, on the fourth day, the Active New Professionals 2023 will host a virtual talk where they will introduce their project to the new professionals and early career professionals ahead of the ICA Congress in Abu Dhabi,” she said.

Mrs. Yemisi Oyebo however, emphasised the need for Nigerians to embrace record keeping and make use of professionals for the job in various institutions, organizations, and corporations.

“We want people to understand that record keeping is an important area we need to embrace in Nigeria. Archives and archivists play important roles in accountability, transparency, democracy, heritage, memory and development of the society at large.

“We have lost several archival materials and important records, as well as valuable information resources due to our careless ways of keeping records after the colonial era” The state of records keeping in our country needs urgent attention if we must salvage and protect our historical legacy items in families, business organizations, financial institutions, religious groups, traditional institutions, government institutions and the entire nation called Nigeria.

“This is what the revamped SNA is trying to correct and we will not relent until we achieve our aims on the long run.

“The Society of Nigerian Archivists, on behalf of Nigeria re-joined ICA this year, in our efforts to collaborate with the rest of the world that have embraced state of the art record keeping standards; so that we will resume back to keeping important records and information resources for future reference and for the use of the coming generations,” she said.

She called on the new government to see proper records keeping as a priority by reviewing and implementing the National Archives Act of 1992, and by empowering The National Archives across the country in different ways to make our dreams to meet up with other professional Archivists in developed world come true.

Oyebo said: “We have brilliant Archivists, Record Keepers, Historians, Librarians and Heritage keepers in our country; we only need a forward looking government that will give us enabling resources, right environment and proper governance structure to be able to harness our talents and bring back the lost glory of archiving and record keeping in Nigeria.”