ARHIVSKI VJESNIK 40. (ZAGREB, 1997.)

Strana - 98

T. Thomassen, A Small Country in the World of Archival Education: the Dutch Case, Arh. vjesn., god. 40(1997) str. 95-104 specialized librarians. Consequently, archival education was not organized as a post-graduate program for historians, but as part of a graduate program in library science. Under the influence of the developments in information and communication technology, the archival discipline has gradually broadened its scope and developed from an auxiliary science of history into an autonomous discipline in the field of the information sciences. Although archival science is of course still taught as an auxiliary science of history, over and above this type of archival education, separate study tracks in archival science have emerged within the framework of graduate programs for library and information sciences, reflecting the new autonomous status of the discipline. The strength and influence of the archival profession The strength and influence of the archival profession is a third major factor determining differences in types of archival education. In some countries the profession is firmly established and rooted in society; its training demands are decisive for curriculum development. In other countries the profession is small and feeble and the only way for archival community to educate its new archivists is to train them in-service. In analyzing this phenomenon, the concept of professionalisation should be the central analytical concept. Professionalisation means litterally : the process of becoming a profession. As a sociological term, however, it is used in a more specific sense, namely as the process in which people with the same occupation using their monopoly in a specific field of knowledge try together to acquire and defend a position of power in order to control the exchange value of their occupation. In this process, six steps are distinguished: 1. the integration of related tasks and duties causes an occupation to come into being; 2. the occupation is given a name; 3. people exercising the occupation establish a professional association; 4. they formulate their own professional image and an own value system, preferably sanctioned by law; 5. they establish their own program for professional education so that the professional competence of the members will be beyond doubt; 98