As the South African Society of Archivists (Sasa) hosted its annual conference through partnership with the National Institute of Humanities and Social Science, and the department of sport, arts and culture, on July 4 to 8 in Bloemfontein, it became evident that archives repositories should position themselves to be closer to the people.

This is compounded by, among others, 4IR technologies as well as the looming introduction of history as a compulsory subject at schools from 2023 in grades 10 to 12 as recommended by the history ministerial task team...