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 - Palayret Jean-Marie: Towards a New History of Europe (integration period) / Pour une nouvelle Histoire européenne. La période de l’intégration) (english 393 - français 413)
4. Session/Séance: Palayret, Towards a new History of Europe- The narrow distribution of research tools and further the fact that many of them are not kept up to date are probably two of the most important barriers on acess to archives. In several countries, programmes for indexing „guides to holdings and to the powers and areas of operation of the bodies originating the holdings conserved“ have been accomplished or are under way. In France, the indexing of tools for researching French public archives is standardized (tables of geographical distribution and subject keywords, compatible thesauri). Such programmes ought to be maintained and coordinated so as to facilitate their international dissemination. Each Member State ought to publisch and distribute a guide to its holdings, and do so in a number of formats (printed, on-line, on diskette, hard disk and microfiche). b) Should the Guides and Research Tools be translated? The research tools published by national archival services are only exceptionally translated. In the Netherlands the choice of language for the publication of inventories is free, whereas in Belgium they are published in French or Dutch and in Luxembourg in French and German. Denmark allows possible summary translations where the inventories concern a foreign State. The Scottish Records Office has published a guide to holdings in French. The main barrier is a financial one, but it is also legitimate to query the real value of translating research tools, since the user has to be able to read the documents in the language of the country being visited. It seems preferable to encourage the exchange of inventories presenting some international interest. Several Member States have stated their willingness to exchange inventories they publish, but nothing has really been organized on a European scale. Denmark already exchanges its research tools with those of several Member States. The Netherlands point to the possibility of lending out published inventories, even abroad. France provides only for exchange among French archival services; it no longer distributes departmental and communal research tools abroad, but continues to disseminate the research tools for the national archives to the national archival services of Member States. A trend can sometimes be noted - and should be encouraged - towards exchanges between border regions. A culturally established Community might ultimately conceive of creating a telecommunications network allowing remote access to or exchange of computerized inventories, by agreeing on usage of descriptive standards and data accessibility conditions and seeking better compatibility of national computer systems and models. In Spain, a database is being prepared for exchange of publications. Specialized guides have been coming out for a few decades now, covering all the documents of a given type or on a given subject throughout all the holdings of a given country. The Community might organize the interweaving of such guides. In particular, this sort of approach might lead to publication of a „guide to archives of Europe“ (such as exist on the history of several countries). The „Guide to Diplomatic 411
