Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 39. (1986)

Archive Buildings and the Conservation of Archival Material. An Expert Meeting, held in Vienna, Austria October 30 - November 1, 1985 - STEWART, William J.: Summary of Discussions

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William J. Stewart

Carassi: It would be interesting for us to know how this problem regarding security regulations is dealt with in other countries.

Duchein: It is up to ICA to see how they will proceed. In such a matter likely they Will proceed by first learning what is done in other countries.

You can’t make rules about archival buildings. As you know, I have published a book on the subject and I will tell you that archival procedures and methods differ from country to country. There can’t be an international brief for construction of an archival building but there can be guidelines. That is as far as we can go.

Now I propose to read the recommendations as drafted and I shall read them slowly so that you can think about them. If you wish, we can have a discussion on each but if you don’t think a discussion necessary then we can adopt or reject the proposal by a show of hands. We have six recommendations, which cover our expressions.

They are:

“The participants of the International Seminar on Archive Buildings and Conservation of Archival Materials, Vienna, Austria, October 30 to November 1, 1985

considering the growing environmental dangers to the preservation of archives, especially in the third world,

considering the limited resources available in most countries to face these problems and

considering the need to respond to rapid technological changes recommend to the Executive Committee of ICA

1) that steps be taken to call the attention of national and international authorities on the necessity to issue standardized and regularly updated guidelines on the construction of archival buildings, including the adaptation of ancient buildings in cooperation with the archival authorities;

2) that consideration be given to ways of establishing permanent means for coordinating and disseminating information about development in archive buildings in close cooperation with the Committee on Conservation and Restoration of ICA and other bodies involved;

3) that closer cooperation be established between ICA, IFLA, IRMC, and the International Union of Architects in the field of archive buildings;

4) that UNESCO be invited to commission a RAMP study on fire protection in archival buildings;

5) that UNESCO be invited to commission a RAMP study on economical methods to achieve stable environmental conditions in archive repositories, especially in industrialized and tropical countries;

6) that the ICA Committee on Conservation and Restoration and other concerned bodies consider the problems of the storage and conservation of largesized documents.

Following, there was brief debate about the wording and the order of the recommendations