Collection And Preservation Mechanism Of The Documentary Heritage Materials In The National Archives, Kaduna, Kaduna State, Nigeria

This research was conducted in order to assess the collection and preservation of documentary heritage materials in the National Archive, Kaduna. Five research questions and five related objectives were constructed to meet the demands of the research questions. A survey research method was used for the study. The total population of the study was 33 members of staff of the National Archives, Kaduna. Semi-structured questionnaire was used in collecting data from the respondents and compiled, presented and subjected to chi-square statistical analysis at 0.05 level of significance. Â Findings from the study revealed that the documentary heritage materials in the study area were predominantly newspapers, official manuscripts, official pictures that recorded important events and journals. It was also revealed that documentary heritage materials are mostly acquired through purchases, donations and also weeding from government offices. The study showed that the documentary heritage materials are preserved through the use of iron shelves and dusting the materials/cleaning. The study also showed that lack of modern equipment and facilities, insufficient funds are the major challenges to preservation of documentary heritage materials in National Archives, Kaduna. The main factors that affect the deterioration of documentary heritage materials are un-controlled temperature, relative humidity and chemical factors. The study recommends that digitization of the documentary heritage materials in the study area be given serious attention to avoid loss of some vital information that are in prints.