Question 5 The decrease in funding for libraries and archives is a result of the decrease in the appreciation of the work that is done by these institutions. The archival profession must affirm their significance in keeping records for the public. This can be done by selective archiving. Archiving any form of information makes many potential financiers to view the profession as a simple storage option. If they focus on storing value information, people will be able to recognize their significance and justify the need for financing their activities.

The collapse of the archival profession is a threat to the archival professionals. Advocacy is one of the methods they can apply to promote their profession. These professionals must be vocal about the practices involved in their profession and their benefits. Most people view the archival profession from a literal perspective, as a practice that deals with the storage of old documents and information. If the professionals advocate for the profession, many people will gain a sense of enlightenment regarding the actual role played by profession in the society. The professionals must also exhibit determination towards the profession. Complaining and relenting only enhances the negative view of the profession among ordinary members of the public.

The media can play a significant role in enlightening the public about the significance of professional archivists. The media should advertise archival practices its value of help different sectors of the society such as education and knowledge dispensation. The significance of archival professionals can also be publicized through exhibitions and campaigns carried out by the professional archivists and other related stakeholders. This will enable more people to have access to information about the actual role of these professionals.

Question 6

Digitization is a contemporary trend in the archival profession....

Digitization can have either negative or positive impact on the archival information. Digitization helps to preserve significant quantities of information in a smaller space. Computers and other memory chips can hold a lot of information on a smaller space compared to physical preservation methods. Digitization also enables quick access to preserved information. It provides search options, where individuals can search the specific content of their interest. This is a major improvement from the traditional physical preservation methods, where individuals could manually search all the files in the archives. Conversely, digitization exposes the archival information to threats of alteration and unauthorized access. External parties with adequate knowledge can hack the digital systems and gain access to the archival information without authorization.
Apparently, digitization is an effective preservation medium. Digitization enables information to be viewed in the future after it is recorded. Digitization also offers many methods of preservation. It has the capacity to protect the information from distortion. Digitization avails advanced protection measures for archival information. By using firewalls and passwords only, the authorized individuals can have access to digitized archival information. Seemingly, digitization does not alter the nature of documents in which the information is recorded. For instance, text data can be scanned and stored in digital files without any alterations. Digitization of archival data also makes the information accessible from any location. Digitized information can be accessed through the databases of the archival institutions. This makes digitization a more improved version of the traditional archival preservation methods.

Question 7

Many issues within the archival profession need to be addressed. One of the issues is…