Designing an institution repository for Obwakabaka bwa Buganda

Abstract

This project presented a detailed exploration of the design and implementation process of an institutional repository tailored to meet the unique needs and challenges of OBWAKABAKA BWA BUGANDA, translated in English as The Kingdom of Buganda or Buganda Kingdom. The two phrases have been interchangeably used in this report. The project purpose was to design and develop an institution repository to manage and preserve the kingdom’s documents in line with documentary heritage to preserve cultural history. The project objectives were to examine the current system of managing and preserving documents being used at Buganda kingdom, to identify the challenges being faced by using the current system at the headquarters of Buganda kingdom, to determine the relevance of institution repositories in cultural institutions and to design & implement an institutional repository for Buganda Kingdom. A case study approach of the qualitative research design was adopted to collect data. A sample size of 10 respondents was targeted however only 9 respondents fully participated in the study. The sampling methods used to select samples were convenience and purposive whereas Interview, observation, and document review methods were used for data collection. The findings revealed that: a manual paper based system was the most dominant mode of managing documents at the headquarters where the study concluded that box files, file folders and paper files in cabins were the means of storage of information resources in all ministry department offices, reference numbers, file colors as a filing system. The study concluded that staff of the manual system basically faced challenges of difficulty in access and retrieving documents, trucking down documents, inadequate storage for reports and other paper documents and lack of statistics to reports managed by the manual system, the requirements for the proposed repository were ability to access, store, preserve and generate statistics on reports managed by staff, accessing documents remotely all the time through the web, the user benefits of the proposed system were ability to access, share and search for documents within a short period of time. The study recommended means of information storage and management that would reduce over reliance on the use of cabins with box files, a manual system that would be replaced with an institution repository that offers means of storage, retrieval and preservation to solve challenges in storage, access and retrieval, the new system should be in support of electronic storage, access and retrieval of information resources and must be implemented.