Sonderband 2. International Council on Archives. Dritte Europäische Archivkonferenz, Wien 11. bis 15. Mai 1993. Tagungsprotokolle (1996)
3. Session / Séance. Sharing of Experience and Exchange of Staff / Partage d’Expériences et Echange des Personnes - Huyda, Richard: Coordination Research in Archival Sience and Dissemination of Professional Information / Coordination de la recherche en archivistique et diffusion de l’information professionnelle (english 231 - français 251)
3. Session/Séance: Marcoux - Huyda, Coordinating Research in archivai Science rage a parallel development in terms of exchanges of knowledge and research results. As proof of this, look at the interest shared by the national archival institutions of the Western world in all questions concerned with the evolution and description of archival documents, their physical conservation, the impact of new technologies on the theory and practice of archival science and the evolution of our profession.“ When we speak of common interests, we also speak of a clearer awareness of the benefits of sharing knowledge and experience, a more pronounced motivation to communicate, a clearer vision of our socio-professional interdependence, and a readier will to assign this the needed resources. Channels of distribution The socio-professional groups and their activities Let us now see how the distribution of professional information is actually carried out. We’ve already emphasized that the main reason for the existence of professional associations is to share knowledge and a common culture, and that this sharing gives rise to the free movement of ideas, points of view, principles, rules, and research results. The traditional channels used by the members of these groups, organized in associations or corporations, are normative, scholarly or technical publications as well as the occasions for interaction and training represented by workshops, seminars and lectures. By definition, normative publications are a preeminent means of joint action. The fact is that they represent what a professional community recognizes as the basis of practice, the criteria of quality enabling it to assess the competence of its members, or the basic characteristics used to distinguish what constitutes a professional approach or not. In general, the adoption of standards gives rise to a series of discussions, consultations and deliberations that ensures a movement and „synergistic“ dissemination of professional information. The scholarly or technical publications represent the latest research results, the ideas of the hour, or research trends in general. This last aspect, in fact, is a coordinating factor, since it directly influences the choices or positions of specialized researchers in a particular discipline. Everyone notes the labours of others and lays down his starting hypotheses or else chooses a particular avenue of research in terms of prior work. The events of a scientific nature that are the workshops, seminars or lectures organized by the members of a profession, ensure the cohesiveness, challenge and critical distribution ofprofessional information. When they have a training objective, in fact, they create the necessary conditions for a common understanding and vision of archival theory and principles. They also help to meet the professional information needs of people already involved in the profession, but who lack the necessary 26 26 Ibidem, p. 23. 240
