THE Association of Archives and Records Management Practitioners of Zimbabwe (AARMPZ) has joined hands with the National Archives of Zimbabwe in encouraging local organisations and businesses to adopt digital methods of storing records and move away from the old traditional ways.
AARMPZ convened a three-day second annual general conference in Bulawayo where it educated several organisations on the importance of adopting digital ways of storing records.
The conference was held under the theme, Repositioning of the Records and Archive Profession for the Attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals, and it sought to discover the probable remunerations of merging traditional paper-based records with digital technologies.
Speaking at the conference, National Archives of Zimbabwe director Brenda Mamvura said there was need for public institutions to practise good records management and have good record managing systems to improve efficiency.
“As public institutions, we are there to serve the citizens, so if our records are in shambles, it means that we are going to deliver poor service delivery to the citizens of Zimbabwe,” Mamvura said.
“But as practitioners of records, working in public institutions, if we practice good records management and we have good record keeping systems, it means that we are going to be efficient and effective.
“In turn, we are going to deliver good service delivery to the citizens. It is our desire that we manage public information correctly.”
AARMPZ president Shepard Pondiwa (pictured) said some of the steps that were taken involved introducing the people to digital ways of storage and ways of using them like artificial intelligence.
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“We intend to introduce people to digital archiving, the concept of artificial intelligence, utilising it and data management. As we approach the fourth industrial revolution, these skills are going to be key,” he said.
“One of the challenges that we saw was a lack of professionalism; the people who manage the records at times lack professionalism. So these are issues we addressed that professionals should keep confidential records confidential, secretly and ensure that there is no unauthorised entry where records are kept. We are also going to work closely with the government. Vision 2030 can only be attained when records are managed properly.”
National Archives of Zimbabwe acting deputy director Kudzai Chazovachii said they had created the Electric Document and Records Management System, a more reliable way of storing documents.
AARMPZ is a voluntary, non-profit organisation formed by records managers, archivists, librarians, information technology personnel, academics, students and all interested professions in records, archives and information management.
