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Access to Records and Archives in Kenya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

Nathan Mnjama
Nathan Mnjama*
Affiliation:
Department of Library and Information Studies, University of Botswana
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Extract

According to Ketelaar (1992:5) “archives - well preserved and accessible to the people - are as essential in a free democracy as government of the people by the people, for the people. Because archives are not only tools of the government, not only sources for historical research, access to public archives gives the people the possibility to exercise their rights and to control their governments, its successes, its failures.” The Dictionary of Archival Terminology defines access as “the availability of records or archives for consultation as a result of legal authorization and the existence of finding aids”. The same Dictionary defines privacy as “the right to be secure from unauthorized disclosure of information contained in records/archives relating to personal or private matters.” McCauseland (1993) on the other hand defines access to include “the terms and conditions of availability of records or information maintained by archives for examination and consultation by researchers”.

Type
Articles
Information
African Research and Documentation , Volume 106 , 2008 , pp. 59 - 75
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2008

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