Reinventing archival methods: am I part of the problem or part of the solution?

Abstract

I try to be a good archivist. I am driven by the want to make the information system robust and efficient enough to support good governance; to enable communities (whoever they are) to have access to documentation to support their rights and entitlements, so that society can critique itself. I have convinced myself that this is a honourable way to spend a career. My resolve in this cause has become stronger the more I realise that I most definitely cannot be doing all of this for the money. But this profession of ours seems to be struggling to address the well-known challenge of implementing that robust and efficient information system in a digital age with limited resources and waning influence. How did it come to this? I am not going to even attempt to answer that question, but I do have a couple of other questions that I have been struggling with of late that I am trying to find the answers to.