This article details the conceptualization and development of the Kenya Association of Records Managers and Archivists (KARMA) competency framework, a localized model specifically designed for records and archives management (RAM) professionals in Kenya. Grounded in the nation’s unique postcolonial and ongoing digital transformation context, the framework integrates the Kenya National Qualifications Framework (KNQF), Kenya’s public sector job classifications, and the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). A systematic approach involving document analysis and iterative alignment was employed to establish 4 distinct competency levels, each with sub-levels, meticulously mapped to national standards and incorporating diverse interdisciplinary responsibilities. The resulting KARMA framework effectively combines appropriate international practice with regional needs, ensuring practical utility in resource-constrained settings. It offers a scalable, context-sensitive model for professionalizing RAM in the Global South. The framework is not presented as a prescriptive blueprint; its generalizability beyond Kenya requires further national or regional adaptation. An implementation roadmap is outlined, including benchmarks and risk mitigation strategies, to guide adoption in public sector institutions and support continuing professional development.

The most important archival journal in Africa is “African Journal of Library, Archives and Information Science”. It plays a key role in shaping scientific discourse in the fields of archival science, library science and information management. This paper looks at the archives-related topics covered in the journal from 2000 to 2024, with a special focus on matters related to archiving and records management. For the purposes of the study, 365 research articles published during the analysed period were reviewed. 62 of them pertained directly to the aforesaid area or related topics falling within its scope. The publication aims to familiarise Polish researchers with the research achievements in the field of archival science and document management on the African continent.

The article characterizes the challenges facing archives in the digital age, and subsequently raises why in the recent decades the role of archives in this new universe has been weakened. Secondly, the article takes up the main transformations of the bureaucratic environment that jeopardize the relevance and legitimacy of the role of archives despite its unavoidable necessity for the maintenance of the rule of law. The office, information and archival professional practices are at the heart of the problem and the response expected to keep archives relevant. Finally, the article goes on to discuss the main transformations of the environment and its consequences for the actors in the field before concluding with some avenues for reflection to ensure the persistence of the role of archives in the maintenance of the rule of law, its effective functioning, memory and the bond of trust between institutions and citizens.

It has been over 40 years since archives began to automate their processes and digitize content. During that period, archival practices and ideas have experienced unprecedented development, archives have established substantial digital presences and records creators have shifted almost completely to digital production. Today archives are being looked to by Artificial Intelligence developers and scholars alike as one of the few remaining sources of big data, both for training Large Language Models and for surfacing new knowledge about the past and humanity. And yet archives have yet to reach “full” digital capacity and fluency, and not simply because of resource limitations. One might ask whether they ever will – or even should? This lecture looks back on the history of digital developments in archives, examining the motivations and challenges arising at different points. It contemplates why and how the goalposts have repeatedly moved, and how the questions that have arisen in archival decision-making have changed as a consequence and how they may continue to do so as we look to the future nature, roles and practices of archives.

Posing the question of whether digital technologies change the dynamics of the relationship between archives and memory, this essay explores the expanding role of memory on the World Wide Web and the evolving relationship between memory and archives. The author explores definitions of memory with a focus on collective memory, introduces the technologies of memory and gives examples of the memory/archives relationship on the web.