Security measures for digital archives curated through open-source software in South Africa

Abstract

Implementation free of open-source software (FOSS) can provide security for digital curation of archives these governmental bodies. As such, FOSS solutions for digital curation comprising of Archivematica, Access to Memory (AtoM), and DSpace are widely used by various archival institutions due to their flexibility, cost effectiveness, community support, and lack of licensing fees. This study explores security measures for digital archives curated through open-source software in South Africa, with the view of proposing strategies to enhance utilisation of free open-source software. The study adopted a qualitative research approach to collect data through interviews with purposively selected participants from national government departments, National Archives and Records Services of South Africa (NARSSA), and State Information Technology Agency. The findings of the study indicate that despite policy recommendation to use FOSS solutions, many governmental bodies are already locked into proprietary ecosystems, making difficult and expensive to migration. This make their data and workflows to be locked in on non-interoperable systems. The study culminates by outlining strategies that may be used ensure security of digital curation of archives through FOSS by government departments (creating agencies), as well as national archives (archival institution).