Sonderband 2. International Council on Archives. Dritte Europäische Archivkonferenz, Wien 11. bis 15. Mai 1993. Tagungsprotokolle (1996)
3. Session / Séance. Sharing of Experience and Exchange of Staff / Partage d’Expériences et Echange des Personnes - Huyda, Richard: Coordination Research in Archival Sience and Dissemination of Professional Information / Coordination de la recherche en archivistique et diffusion de l’information professionnelle (english 231 - français 251)
Yves Marcoux - Richard J. Huyda Coordinating Research in Archivai Science and Disseminating Professional Information Introduction Our goal in this presentation is a simple one: to outline the resources available to our professional community for disseminating information that is useful for research and the profession. We would find this hard to manage, however, without dwelling somewhat on the context in which this research takes place. In fact, this emphasis is important to fully bring out the circumstances that work for or against the increasing dissemination of professional information. We feel it would also be useful to stress what is at issue in this dissemination, if only to highlight the need for resources, in place or to be devised, to facilitate it. Finally, since our remarks could not be completely devoid of a position, belonging as we do to an institution and heading a service that is already quite involved in this activity, we’ll bestressing the approaches and the attitudes that need to be fostered in order to support and encourage the spread of professional information. It will be underlined that our remarks are based first and foremost on our knowledge of the North American archival community. We believe, however, that the few principles being put forward transcend the boundaries of this continent. Moreover, our increasingly homogeneous professional concerns, the similarity of the problems facing our institutions, and the common evolution of the socioeconomic structures of our respective societies will - at least this is our hope - make our remarks on the research context and the issues involved in the dissemination of professional information sufficiently evocative to fully bring out the significance of the approaches we describe and propose. The archival Research Context Concerning an epistemological controversy What do we mean by research in archival science? What is its basic objective? Is it scientific, or not? So many questions that may seem futile at first glance, but the answers are essential to what we have to say. For who would concern himself with the dissemination of professional information about research in archival science if this activity were merely marginal and devoid of a scientific basis? 231
