Sonderband 2. International Council on Archives. Dritte Europäische Archivkonferenz, Wien 11. bis 15. Mai 1993. Tagungsprotokolle (1996)

1. Session / Séance. Experiences gained, current Situation, future Prospects / Expériences acquises, Situation actuelle, Perspectives futures - Körmendy, Lajos: International Cooperation in Europe. A Survey / Programmes de Coopération internationale des archives en Europe. Un bilan (english 13 - français 27)

1. Session/Séance: Körmendy, International archival Cooperation

come and classify and reconstitute archive stock concerning their own territory, written in their own languages.

Joint publications are a subject that we should look at in rather more detail. The universal nature of history ought to inspire the production of such publications. The difficulties posed by the lending of documents for joint exhibitions do not come into the picture, since it is not the document but its content that is being exported.

The replies given to the questionnaire indicate that the ICA predominates in this field too. Most of the replies, without providing further details, mentioned serial publications and professional journals such as RAMP, Archivum, Janus, Actes de la Table Ronde. Several countries specifically referred to the Guides des Sources de l’Histoire des Nations series (which concerns non-European territories) and the Guide des Sources for the architectural History of the capitals of Europe5 6. What is surprising, however, is the small number of other publications (other than those of the ICA or UNESCO) referred to: three countries mentioned the volume of ,Buda expugnata16 published by the Budapest city archives. Finland referred to a volume issued jointly with the USSR7 while France and Switzerland referred to unspecified source publications.

In the last ten years, several multilingual dictionaries of archive systems terminology have appeared as a result of ,the most internationaT of cooperation. The Director of Archives of the USSR began the list with the dictionary of the socialist countries8 and then in 1984, the CIA brought out its contribution, well known in professional circles, with a second edition in 19889; mention may also be made of the most recent example, the Dictionnaire des Archives published by AFNOR (Paris 1991).

Archives frequently publish studies in foreign professional journals, and this is very important for international relations. Large-scale joint publications reach only a few experts, while national journals are well-known amongst the members of the profession. Such studies provide information and help increase the availability referred to earlier which is essential for international contacts.

5. Trends and Hopes for the Future

Since the information and data available are inadequate, we should be careful about drawing too many conclusions. Nonethelesse, certain facts do stand out which reveal certain trends. One is the creation of European Conferences in 1983-1985. Some European archivists had the impression that our continent’s problems were

5 Bauer, Karl Johannes: Ein Quellenfiihrer zur .Geschichte der Nationen1; in: Historische Zeitschrift 255 (1992) p. 667-706.

6 Buda expugnata 1686. Europe and Hungary 1863-1718. Budapest 1986.

7 No details given.

8 S 1 o v a r Sovremennoi Archivnoi Terminologii Socialisticheksih Stran. Moscow 1982.

9 Dictionnaire de Terminologie archivistique, ed. Conseil International des Archives. München 1984 and (2nd edition) 1988 (Handbooks series volume 3 and 7).

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