Archival institutions worldwide face the challengeof collection deterioration through the handlingand use of archives, inadequate or lack ofrecords management standards and non-compliance with archival legislations. This studyaimed at assessing the handling practices anduse of archival collections in Botswana. The studyadopted the pragmatist paradigm andconsequently used questionnaires, interviews,and observations to collect data. The studysample consisted of sixteen (16) BotswanaNational Archives and Records Services (BNARS)staff purposively selected for interview and 297BNARS users randomly selected to complete thequestionnaire. The findings revealed that,although the staff of the surveyed institution demonstrated reasonable commitment to collection care or preservation of archives, andBNARS does not consistently respond to proper collection care and compliance programme.Furthermore, the study revealed thatinappropriate handling and use of archivespractices, lack of training in preservation,inadequate supervision of the study area, andfailure to enforce compliance to archiveslegislations contribute to archives collectiondeterioration. The study recommended that thedevelopment of guidelines on good handlingpractices, preservation policy, handling manual,compliance programme, among others

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