Management of Lubaga Archdiocesan Church Archives in Uganda

Abstract

Church archives serves as a repository for the official records and historical materials that document the heritage of the church. The study examined the management of Kampala Archdiocesan Archives. The objectives of the study were; i), to identify the types and forms of archives that exist at Lubaga Archdiocese ii) to establish the services offered by the Lubaga Archdiocesan church archives, iii) to examine the management of Lubaga Archdiocesan archives- acquisition, processing such as cataloguing, classification, indexing, arrangement and storage and iv) to establish factors that could hinder or factors that have promoted effective management of the Lubaga Archdiocesan Archives. The study adopted a case study design coupled with a qualitative approach with the help of in-depth interviews and observation methods of data collection on a sample of 25 participants who were the users of the Archives and church administrators as well as the archivists. The researcher transcribed the interviews verbatim and analysis of the transcripts was carried out by the researcher while utilizing Miles and Huberman‘s (1994) four-step model. The study revealed that Lubaga Archdiocesan archives offered a number of services which included administrative services, general historical research, reference services, and photocopying, scanning, and image reproduction services. It was also revealed that the archives of Lubaga Archdiocese mainly included baptismal records, marriage records, and burial records which are primary sources of information for genealogists and family history researchers. Other church records in the Archive included church histories and historical and biographical sketches, scrapbooks, correspondences, photographs, minutes of meetings, membership Registers, instructional materials, and newsletters. The Lubaga Archdiocesan Archives various faced various challenges that included budget constraints, limited archival skills, and inadequate equipment and storage space among others. The study concludes that the Archdiocesan creates and receives large amounts of records, which need proper management to enhance strategic decision making of its operations. The archive is currently using traditional methods in managing their archives which are ineffective. The study recommends that the Chancery should formulate and promulgate a written policy statement for carrying out archives management work, and allocate more funds for the procurement and expansion of a range of archives facilities among others. Equally, management should ensure digitalization of Archives by the Archdiocese to replace the manual system and ease the collection and keeping as well as retrieval and access to the archives; undertake routine Appraisal and Review by the Archivists.