Archival Maintenance Practices for Paper-Based Archival Materials in Academic Libraries in Nigeria

Purpose: This paper examines the archival maintenance practices for paper based archival materials in academic libraries in Nigeria. Design: Two research questions and a hypothesis guided the study. The research design adopted for the study was a descriptive research design while the population of the study comprises of 277 library staff in academic libraries in South East, Nigeria. Questionnaire and structured interview was used to gather data which was analyzed using the Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Frequencies and percentages were used in determining the highest educational qualification of library staff in academic libraries while mean scores and standard deviations were used to elicit information. The hypothesis was tested using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Findings: The findings of the study showed that the archival maintenance practices adopted for archival paper materials include good shelving practices, dusting archival material, mending and repairing, enveloping of archival materials, reprography of archival materials to ensure duplicate copies, boxing of archival materials, control of water flow in the academic libraries, keeping the sensitive ones in lock up drawers, fumigation of archival materials, constant air conditioning of archival materials, creating disaster management and recovery plans, lamination of archival materials. Majority of the library staff were first degree holders and the null hypothesis tested was accepted. Practical implication: Archival materials are vital for research and historical purposes in academic institutions. Originality: Archival maintenance practices aimed at employing different methods to safeguard archival paper based materials. Key Words: Archives, Archival Paper Materials, Archival Maintenance Practices, Academic Libraries in Nigeri