Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of climate change on South Africa’s Mpumalanga Provincial Archives (MPA) and related records management activities.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative research approach/method was used to collect data from the source, including purposive sampling and expert knowledge solicited through semi-structured interviews. A review was undertaken to source climate data and related archival sector literature.

Findings

Recent extreme weather events in Mpumalanga seem to bear out climate change projections. The current absence of relevant strategies and plans implies that the MPA and provincial departments are not yet prepared for emergencies. The lack of a plan, an implementation strategy and related training may increase the impact of disasters on the provincial archives’ environment. Without disaster plans and robust preparedness, the question of how the MPA is going to preserve archives for future generations is raised. In addition, due to a lack of guidance for registry staff, appraisal is not allowing for identification and processing of archival materials, so combined with a lack of disaster management strategies and plans contributes to the loss of archives.

Research limitations/implications

This research is limited to the MPA; however, the findings may be extended to other South Africa provincial archives and parts of the world experiencing similar issues. There is a need to conduct similar research on a larger scale so as to explore the impact of climate change in other provincial archives to provide a wider context of the problem within South Africa.

Practical implications

When archivists accept holdings into their repositories, they take the responsibility for their archival custody. But, these efforts may come to nothing if the archives are lost. Disaster management is the key to the protection of the archives.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the literature on the impact of climate change on archives. The results achieved should be seen as a first step towards identification of the issue.

中文翻译：

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气候变化对普马兰加省档案和记录管理活动的影响

目的

本文的目的是调查气候变化对南非普马兰加省档案馆 (MPA) 和相关记录管理活动的影响。

设计/方法/方法

使用定性研究方法/方法从源头收集数据，包括有目的的抽样和通过半结构化访谈征集的专家知识。对气候数据和相关档案部门文献的来源进行了审查。

发现

普马兰加省最近的极端天气事件似乎证实了气候变化的预测。目前缺乏相关战略和计划，意味着海洋保护区和省级部门尚未做好应对突发事件的准备。缺乏计划、实施策略和相关培训可能会增加灾害对省级档案馆环境的影响。如果没有灾难计划和强有力的准备，就提出了 MPA 如何为子孙后代保存档案的问​​题。此外，由于缺乏对登记人员的指导，评估不允许对档案材料进行识别和处理，因此加上缺乏灾害管理策略和计划，导致档案丢失。

研究限制/影响

这项研究仅限于 MPA；然而，调查结果可能会扩展到其他南非省级档案馆和世界上遇到类似问题的地区。有必要在更大范围内进行类似的研究，以探索其他省级档案中气候变化的影响，从而为南非境内的问题提供更广泛的背景。

实际影响

当档案员接受馆藏进入他们的知识库时，他们承担了档案保管的责任。但是，如果档案丢失，这些努力可能会落空。灾害管理是档案保护的关键。

原创性/价值

本文对有关气候变化对档案的影响的文献做出了贡献。应将取得的结果视为确定问题的第一步。