ARHIVSKI VJESNIK 42. (ZAGREB, 1999.)

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C. Gränström, Access to current records and archives, as a tool of democracy, transparency and openness of the government administration, Arh. vjesn., god. 42 (1999), str. 79-92 The appraisal issue has become much more of immediate importance because of the Data Protection rules, the last one being the EU Directive on the Protection of individuals with the regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data from 1995. The theme in these are that personal data should be used exclusively for the purpose for which they are collected/created and then destroyed. The idea of all personal data being destroyed after having been used for its primary purpose, usually a couple of years, is preposterous for archivists. Nevertheless, this way of thinking is a reality and must be dealt with. It is necessary to obtain exceptions so that important personal data can be kept, transferred to archival institutions and then made accessible to researchers under certain conditions. This kind of information can be classified much longer than is needed for carrying out the obligations such as taxation - where in Sweden the information can be classified for 20 years but is needed by the taxation agency for about six to eight years, thus in principle never accessible because the documents will be destroyed before the classification period has elapsed. Evidently, it is much better to have the documents kept and classified for a certain period than destroyed totally referring to data protection of individuals. 4 Authenticity - access to originals Here the question can be put as bluntly as - access to what? What do the public or researcher has the right to access? Can he be satisfied with a copy or oral information or a compilation? Has he or she the right to access the original document to be able to establish the authenticity and the correctness of the information. As I understand it, there is no common praxis in Europe regarding this concerning paper documents. Regarding digital documents or databases, the situation is perhaps even more confusing and it is also much more difficult to establish the authenticity. This can be done with electronic signatures or seals but it is a demanding and somehow new task to preserve these in the long run with copying and migrating. Within the European Union, the need for co-ordinated regulations on the Community level regarding electronic signatures has been recognised and a proposal on a common framework for electronic signatures is ready. Nevertheless, the user must know what status the information has, which he is furnished with: is it a copy or not? The archival profession has a long experience in working with these kind of problems which the society is faced with in a world, quickly using and adapting to the new tools furnished by the fast developing technology. 5 Conclusion The trend in Europe is today without doubt towards increased openness as has been shown above. A lot of statements have been made and articles of various kinds 90