Bio

Prof Ngoako Marutha is a full Professor in the Department of Information Science at the University of South Africa (UNISA). He also serves as a representative of the Unisa Department of Information Science on the International Council on Archives (ICA) and he is an ICA Regular Member of Section on University and Research Institution Archives (ICA/SUV), where he also serve as an executive member for bureau. He is also a regular member for ICA section for Archival education (SAE) and section for the National Assembly. He has recently being appointed ICA New Professionals mentor for year 2023. He is also a member of the South African Society of Archivists and serves on the National Executive Committee as editor-in-chief of the Journal of the South African Society of Archivists. He is also a review editor for the journal Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics. He has published several books, chapters and articles in different national and international publications and presented conference papers. His research interest includes knowledge, archives, and records management, especially on patients and hospital records, electronic records, cloud computing, Blockchain technology, enterprise content management, big data management and police case records security. The other field of his interest includes library management and marketing as well as Open Distance electronic learning (ODeL). His professional industry background includes working as an information and records manager as well as librarian in several public and private institutions over 13 years. He has been in the academic industry over five years so far. He holds Bachelor of Information studies and Bachelor of Information Studies honour from University of the North (UNIN)-now known as University of Limpopo (UL), Master of Information Science and Doctor of literature and philosophy from University of South Africa (UNISA). He serves as external examiner for masters and doctoral research studies for over seven universities.

Project

I will be co-authoring a book with Dr Mashilo Modiba about application of artificial intelligence to support digital public archiving in South Africa. The book is based on the study that sought to explore the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic machine to support public digital archiving in South Africa. Public archives preserve crucial records of communities for ease of access. There is a need to incorporate the use of AI and intelligent robotic machines to support the preservation of, and access to records in the public archives of South Africa. This a quantitative study based on both close and open-ended questions. Questionnaire will be administered to all provincial and national archivists in South Africa. Provincial and national archivists will share their knowledge on the application of AI and robotic machines to support the digital public archiving in South Africa. AI and robotic machines can be used to support the digital archives in ensuring that digital archives are safe and protected and provide access to digital archives. A framework on the application of AI and robotic machine was also recommended to assist with the public digital archives in South Africa.