Purpose

The idea of convergence of cultural institutions, especially the libraries, archives and museums (LAMS) to operate as one, has a long theoretical history which unfortunately has not been translated into practice. This subject has been discussed by a number of scholars but the implementation has just remained theoretical with only a few countries practically adopting such an organisational structure. In Africa, this concept of LAMS is yet to gain traction. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is aimed at proposing such LAMS structures for African nations, especially in Zimbabwe and South Africa considering the emergence of community “archives” which have blurred further the distinction between museology, archiving and librarianship. The motivation in advocating for the adoption of LAMS is also driven by the theory behind participatory archives which thrive on the advanced use of internet including social media platforms that can make it possible to have one-stop virtual archive on the cloud that also incorporates museums and libraries.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a concept paper which reviewed the literature on national and community archives in Zimbabwe and South Africa which were purposively selected because of their long history in archiving. This was done to come up with a proposed “independent” national heritage organisational structure. “Independent” structure because this paper was based on the assumption that the independence of decision-making in national archival structures in Zimbabwe and South Africa is compromised and biased towards the ethos of political parties’ ruling governments.

Findings

Proposed integrated framework for community archives into the sustainable national archival system which also incorporates the role that can be played by universities. The framework is likely to be feasible and of benefit in the countries that are struggling to have national mainstream independent archives which are just not paying allegiance to those who are in power.

Originality/value

This study is unique in the sense that it mixes LAMS and the concept of independent archival structure in a regional comparative nature that involves Zimbabwe and South Africa.

中文翻译：

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为津巴布韦和南非的记忆机构提议的独立组织结构

目的

文化机构，特别是图书馆、档案馆和博物馆 (LAMS) 合而为一的想法，有着悠久的理论历史，遗憾的是尚未转化为实践。许多学者已经讨论了这个主题，但实施仍然只是理论上的，只有少数国家实际上采用了这种组织结构。在非洲，LAMS 的这一概念尚未获得关注。因此，本文的目的是为非洲国家，特别是在津巴布韦和南非提出这样的 LAMS 结构，考虑到社区“档案”的出现，这进一步模糊了博物馆学、档案和图书馆学之间的区别。

设计/方法/方法

这是一篇概念文件，回顾了津巴布韦和南非的国家和社区档案文献，这些文献是有目的地选择的，因为它们的归档历史悠久。这样做是为了提出一个拟议的“独立”国家遗产组织结构。“独立”结构，因为本文基于这样的假设，即津巴布韦和南非国家档案结构的决策独立性受到损害并偏向政党执政政府的精神。

发现

建议将社区档案整合到可持续的国家档案系统中，其中也包含了大学可以发挥的作用。该框架可能是可行的，并且在努力拥有国家主流独立档案的国家中是有益的，这些国家只是不效忠当权者。

原创性/价值

这项研究的独特之处在于它融合了 LAMS 和独立档案结构的概念，具有涉及津巴布韦和南非的区域比较性质。