Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Date of this Version
2021
Abstract
Archives and records management play a central role in understanding the past and aid effective decision-making on current situations. The main objective of this study was to assess the impact of historical review and archival accessibility in combating COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria. The study was based on a systematic review of existing literature on overview of pandemics in human history, history of pandemic in Nigeria, 1918-1919 influenza in Nigeria, COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria, and archival accessibility and pandemics. The study was able to identify some major challenges of archival accessibility in Nigeria, which made it difficult to access documents of historical values for decision-making for combatting the COVID-19 pandemic. It was discovered that the failure of past governments in Nigeria to document and archive past occurrences of pandemic in the country prevented access to relevant archival materials for decision making to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, the study recommended that issues of national importance should be well documented by the government at various levels and made available to the national archives as well as the national library for future reference. If this had been done by previous governments, it would have been very easy to access such in the time of COVID-19 pandemic for quick decision-making in curtailing the spread of the virus