THE MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OFMANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS WITHIN LIBRARYENVIRONMENTS IN EASTERN AND SOUTHERNAFRICAN REGION

摘要

The management and administration of manuscript collections in many African libraries poses considerable challenges. The root cause of the problem stems from failure on the part of librarians to distinguish the peculiar features of archives and manuscripts from the ordinary library materials. Librarians have very often failed to realize that the management and administration of manuscript collections requires different types of skills and treatment. For instance, it is common practice to find manuscript collections placed in the same category with special collections or rare collections. It is also common practice to find manuscript collections being managed by librarians as opposed to trained professional archivists and records managers. While there are areas of convergence in the management and administration of library and manuscript collections, there are certainly major differences in way manuscripts are acquired, processed, stored and accessed. Moreover many libraries lack clear manuscript acquisition policies and as a result have ended up acquiring unsolicited manuscripts which re now underutilized or are irrelevant to their immediate clientele. This paper further argues that time has come for libraries to re-examine their manuscript collection policies, staffing requirements for manuscript collections, access conditions and disposal practices. The paper argues that out although many libraries acquire archives and manuscripts; they are very often ill-pared to face the challenges that go along with managing archives and manuscripts. The paper provides some practical guidelines for managing archives and manuscripts within a library setting where resources and facilities may not be ideal for the management, storage and use of archival materials.