The National Archives of Hungary (Budapest, 2006)

THE ARCHIVES OF SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS - University Archives by László Szögi

the Industry of Gardening and Food Industry and the Agricultural University of Gödöllő. Since eight out of the mentioned ten universities worked in the extended region of Budapest the history of these universities were solidly interdependent so it seemed reasonable to consolidate the work of archives and these kinds of activities of other higher education in the region and to take advantage of the existing strength and skills among difficult financial circumstances. Taking these factors into consideration, the Ministry of Culture and Public Education and its Public Education Main Departments proposed that higher education institutions of the region form an Archival Association in the summer of 1992. There was no means to tranfer the documents from the place of their origin, which would have caused harm not only to the autonomy of the institutions but would have been against scientific and researching interests. Most of the institutions of the region reacted the proposal favourably and they appointed the oldest, continuously working national university, the Archives of Eötvös Loránd University to be the centre of the be-Association in the autumn of 1992. After the negotiations laid down by the Ministry of Culture and Public Education all the university and college councils belonging to Budapest discussed the plan to form the 'Budapest - Gödöllő University and College Archival Association was ratified' in April and May 1993. Out of the twenty-four universities and colleges, twenty-one higher education institutions decided to join the Association. Three institutions indicated that they agreed with the aims of the Association but they did not wish to join immediately. In the combined special archives among its 12 - 13 members half have had special university degrees, or possess either historian or archivist qualifications. We wished to base the professional work of the Association with the help of these small groups of experts which will be able to do the job of the archives in the joined institutions and to work with them. According to the modelled regulation the Association is 'an organization working as professional archival network and that of the archives and central archives of universities and colleges that joined to the Association on their own wish and that belong to the region'. 'It is not an independent legal entity; it does its work on the assignment and assigned jurisdiction of the joined institution.' The Association has solved other kinds of tasks for which other member institutions already have established professional archives and others where there are no archives at all. Only certain universities and colleges that have made agreements of co-operation with the Association have fixed the accepted tasks along with their mutual obligations. The Association signed agreements with the libraries of member univer-