Author(s): Cristian Anita / Language(s): Romanian
Issue: 1/2010
Archivy is regarded as an auxiliary science of History with the highest degree of impact over academic research, due to the fact that the historical records in the Archives preserve the majority of information the historians rely on.
The appraisal and selection of the documentary material are archival activities helping to identify the past and present records preserved for future reference. In this
prospect, the archivists are appealed to find the proper solutions to the various challenges
in managing historical records and choosing those relevant for future research.
The role of the archivy in current postmodern society is a challenge for academic
community and, especially, for the archivists, the latter having to find new formulations for
old concepts, to transform a profession rooted in nineteenth-century positivism and to adapt it
to the post-modern, computerized world of the 21st century.
In the core of the new paradigm of current archivy is the shift from the perspective of
records as static physical objects towards their understanding as dynamic virtual concepts, the
shift form records as passive by-products of human and administrative activity to records as
active agents in shaping the memory of the world, broadly speaking, and particularly of the
organisations. This shift requires also for the archivists to regard themselves not as much as
passive guardians of a heritage, but as active factors in shaping collective memory.
In other words, the theoretical archival discourse is moving from the notion of
archives as product to that of archives as process, from structure to function, from record to
the context of its creation and preservation, from what is kept after primary use to the active
and aware construction of archiving the social memory.
The archivist is called, in these circumstances, to risky balance between pressing
needs of agencies to get rid of “useless records” and the need of researchers for historical
sources. Can the archives specialist to achieve such a goal? Can it be clearly determined the
fate of records, some destroyed and some preserved for good? Eventually, is it the archivist
decision that preserved records are disclosed for access or not?
In order to answer—in a Solomonic way somehow—to these questions, it must be
ponder who is interested in records, how the State and various organisations use the information contained and, not least, the position of the archivist in society.
In this regard, the selection of records gets, in our opinion, the highest importance in the impact over historical research and not only, due to the fact that the future researcher will only have access to those records classified as belonging to National Archival Heritage (in Romanian case), attribute granted today with the intent of making some records interesting for future historiography.
A debate over selection topic cannot be exhaustive, being always on the agenda, with many understandings and controversies, one aspect being obvious: the definite need for selection, separation and elimination of records, created in a greater and greater amount by current society.Archivy is regarded as an auxiliary science of History with the highest degree of impact over academic research, due to the fact that the historical records in the Archives preserve the majority of information the historians rely on.
The appraisal and selection of the documentary material are archival activities helping to identify the past and present records preserved for future reference. In this
prospect, the archivists are appealed to find the proper solutions to the various challenges
in managing historical records and choosing those relevant for future research.
The role of the archivy in current postmodern society is a challenge for academic
community and, especially, for the archivists, the latter having to find new formulations for
old concepts, to transform a profession rooted in nineteenth-century positivism and to adapt it
to the post-modern, computerized world of the 21st century.
In the core of the new paradigm of current archivy is the shift from the perspective of
records as static physical objects towards their understanding as dynamic virtual concepts, the
shift form records as passive by-products of human and administrative activity to records as
active agents in shaping the memory of the world, broadly speaking, and particularly of the
organisations. This shift requires also for the archivists to regard themselves not as much as
passive guardians of a heritage, but as active factors in shaping collective memory.
In other words, the theoretical archival discourse is moving from the notion of
archives as product to that of archives as process, from structure to function, from record to
the context of its creation and preservation, from what is kept after primary use to the active
and aware construction of archiving the social memory.
The archivist is called, in these circumstances, to risky balance between pressing
needs of agencies to get rid of “useless records” and the need of researchers for historical
sources. Can the archives specialist to achieve such a goal? Can it be clearly determined the
fate of records, some destroyed and some preserved for good? Eventually, is it the archivist
decision that preserved records are disclosed for access or not?
In order to answer—in a Solomonic way somehow—to these questions, it must be
ponder who is interested in records, how the State and various organisations use the information contained and, not least, the position of the archivist in society.
In this regard, the selection of records gets, in our opinion, the highest importance in the impact over historical research and not only, due to the fact that the future researcher will only have access to those records classified as belonging to National Archival Heritage (in Romanian case), attribute granted today with the intent of making some records interesting for future historiography.
A debate over selection topic cannot be exhaustive, being always on the agenda, with many understandings and controversies, one aspect being obvious: the definite need for selection, separation and elimination of records, created in a greater and greater amount by current society.
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