Better archiving of national documents urged

Mentioning the dismal state of the national archives, speakers yesterday stressed the need for better preservation of over 16 lakh national documents.
Steps should be taken to digitise and modernise Bangladesh National Archives (BNA) to ensure better access to the knowledge earlier generations have left behind, they observed.
They were addressing a discussion organised on the occasion of the International Archives Day. Bangladesh National Archives and Bangladesh Archives and Record Management Society (Barms) organised the programme in the BNA building in the capital.
Emphasising the need for raising awareness about archiving, Prof Sharif Uddin Ahmed, president of Barms, said people in general have a foggy idea about archiving as they often confuse the national archives with a library that only historians deal with.
He also mentioned the need for introducing institutionalised knowledge on archiving and opening departments on it at different universities.