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

4. Session / Séance. Strategies for Links with Historical Research / Stratégies de Communication envers la Recherche historique - Gonzalez, Pedro: Data Bases and Long Distance Communication. A Spanish Éxperience / Bases de données et information a distance. Une expérience des archives espagnoles (english 319 - français 343)

5. The Computerization Project on the Archivo General de Indias

On several different occasions I have outlined the content of this project, a pioneer initiative undertaken in Spain, from 1986 and 1992, in which the new technologies were applied to the Archives. This was done jointly by three institutions, including both public and private: the Ministerio de Cultura, IBM Spain and the Fundaciôn Ramôn Areces12.

The intention was to develop and introduce an automated information system into the Archive, capable of managing the grater part of the functions of this historical Archive in an integrated way. This archive holds documents produced over several centuries by the various different institutions entrusted with all the aspects of Spanish colonial Administration in America.

Firstly, to contribute to the preservation of these original archive fonds, and secondly, more effecting dissemination and communication to users are the two main objectives of the project, which are, specifically, the design and development of an „integrated“ computerized system capable of undertaking most of the functions of a historical Archive. The system designed had to be transpor- table to other historical archives, since for the Ministerio de Cultura’s part it was conceived as a „pilot project“ for the computerization of the rest of the Archivos Histöricos Estatales (State Flistorical Archives) - each one with its own characteristics and, above all, with significant differences in the volume of documentation they hold.

4. Session/Séance: Gonzalez, Data Bases and long distance Communcation

In many publications has been reported about the project: Becerril, José - Latassa, Miguel - Vazques de Parga, Margarita: The General Archives of the Indies Project, in: The Hispanic Experience in North America. Sources for Study in the United States, edited by Larry A. Clayton. Ohio State University Press 1992, p. 147-162; Gonzalez, Pedro: El Proyecto de Informatization del Archivo General de Indias, in: Actas de las Jomadas de Archivistica de Euskadi, 1990. IRARGI, III (1990) p. 261-281; idem: Fuentes Archivisticas y reproduction de documentos en Espana. Ponencia en „Quincentennial Conference. Archives and Records for Studying the Hispanic Experience in the United States“ (Washington 1987), publicado en el Boletin de ALA (1988), p. 4-12; i d e m : Historical Documentation and Digital conversion of images at the Proyecto de Informatizaciôn del Archivo General de Indias, Sevilla, in: Microform Review, vol. 18 (1989) n° 4, p. 217-221; idem: The Spanish Experience in the United States. Sources of Archives and Reproduction of Documents in Spain, in: The Hispanic Experience in North America. Sources for Study in the United States, edited by Larry A Clayton. Ohio State University Press 1992, p. 64-76; Ministerio de Cultura. Direction General de Bellas Artes y Archivos (ed.): Computerization Project for the Archivo General de Indias. Madrid 1990; Gonzâlez, Pedro: Computerization Project for the Archivo General de Indias, in: Data, Computers and the Past. Proceedings of the International Conference: Archiving and disseminating historical machine-readable data. Leiden, Nederlands, 1990, p. 52-67; Rütimann, Hans - Lynn, Stuart: Computerization Project of the Achivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain. A Report to the Commission on Preservation and Access. Washington 1992; Vazques de P a r g a, Margarita - Gonzalez, Pedro: Changing technologies in European Archives, in: The American Archivist 55 (1992), p. 156-166.

In print: Gonzalez, Pedro: The digital processing of images in Archives and Libraries. Large scale international projects, in: Image/Manuscripts processing, prepared by the International Association for History and Computing; idem: Las nuevas technologias y la Historia del nuevo Mundo. Un proyecto espanol. Para el catâlogo de la Exposiciôn Colon y su época, New York, 1992, y Columbus per the Computer, Amsterdam 1992; idem: El Achivo General de Indias y su proyecto de informatizaciôn. Nuevas posibilidades para la investigation. Actas del curso Achivos e Historia. Universidad Complutense, 1992.

330