Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 39. (1986)
Archive Buildings and the Conservation of Archival Material. An Expert Meeting, held in Vienna, Austria October 30 - November 1, 1985 - STEWART, William J.: Summary of Discussions
276 William J. Stewart Buchmann: We are about three kilometers from the main railway station. There is a direct bus which operates frequently into the evening. The ride takes from fifteen to twenty minutes. The city authorities agreed to name the nearest stop on the route, “Bundesarchiv”, and this is most helpful to our patrons. Being in the suburbs there is little in the way of overnight accommodations near the Bundesarchiv, so our clients must return to the city center. Stewart: This question I also direct to Dr Neck. When you selected sites did you do this in consultation with your users? Did you have any discussions with academic organizations in the country? Buchmann: As far as we are concerned, no, but in fact this is a good idea. I just didn’t think about it until you mentioned it now. We might have done so but didn’t, nor did our colleagues in Austria. Duchein: Our repository in Fontainebleau is an example of what should not be done. When we first planned the Fontainebleau building, which is the main repository for modem archives in France, it was meant to be a record center only. There would not be any public access. So at that time it did not seem important. When we were offered a roomy, inexpensive site at Fontainebleau it seemed satisfactory, in spite of the fact that we were forty-five miles from Paris and in a secluded forest. Soon our modem archives became less modem and researchers began to ask about access. Today, the Fontainebleau archive is fifteen years old and interest in the holdings grows yearly. It is regrettable for the researcher without a car. The facility is three miles from a railroad station and no way to get there from the station. We shall be obliged to organize transport and meet researchers at the station. It is a condition we will have to live with indefinitely, I fear. Buchmann: I apologize for speaking so often but may we take up another point, one I wish to address to our colleague from the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA). In many of the papers, cooperation with librarians has been noted. It has been emphasized by our colleagues from the Soviet Union and from my own experience, when, in planning for a new building, I found it most helpful to visit libraries as well as archives. Can we discuss the method this cooperation will take? One possibility would be the exchange of technical information on a regular basis. Another would be to invite experts from both fields to conferences such as ours. This cooperation should not be restricted to buildings. In the field of documentation we ought keep in touch, too. Duchein: I thank Dr Buchmann very much for his suggestion and I believe I speak with certitude when I say this is the policy of the president of the ICA because I have often discussed this with him, most recently in Ottawa, where we had a meeting of the Executive Committee of ICA. Since Mr Kroller is with us, let us ask his opinion.
