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)

3. Session/Séance: Marcoux - Huyda, Coordinating Research in archivai Science

crucial from this perspective, knowing the market, the commercialization of databases, and the distribution of information products.

The types of partnerships that one can think about for these different categories of collaborators are many and varied. The first that comes to mind, considering what’s been mentioned, is participation in a communication network. At the moment, there exist two main streams of networks. The first corresponds to bibliographic networks centred on the exchange of descriptive data and analyses relating to library collections. One thinks of an automated version of the old collective catalogues. Or one could join all the commercial data banks that function on the same principle of centralizing data and access by communication terminals. The second type are those of research networks created during the past twenty years by the academic community, in order to respond to the needs of their professional researchers. Their main feature is a linked group of autonomous computers capable of mutually communicating data. They are capable of processing data themselves or having another process it for them. They can also perform other tasks such as the electronic mail service, file transfers, and access external data bases. The strategic importance of such a network for the dissemination of professional archival information can be readily understood.

With their international ramifications, super-networks such as INTERNET (for North America) of JANET (for the United Kingdom) provide an ideal infrastructure for making the information that is in our documentation centres (such as CCIDA, ALIC or CIDA) available to university researchers responsible for archival training and research. Equally, they permit the latter to participate actively to collect and analyze archival information, while giving our documentation centres the capability of reciprocal data exchange35.

Other means of partnership to be resorted to are: licensing, co-publishing, coventures or cost-sharing, distribution and project management. The CCIDA has tried practically all these in order to instigate and extend the dissemination of professional information throughout the Canadian archival community. As such, CCIDA has copublished a bibliography of archival science to 1975, with the Association des archivistes du Québec, since 1986 has distributed specialized bibliographies using those academic institutions involved in archival training; has participated in managing projects such as the International Documentation Centre of the Xllth International Congress on Archives, 1992; and it is about to grant a license to a commercial network for the diffusion of its archival science data banks.

Before leaving the question of resourcing, it should be mentioned that there is always the possibility of obtaining supplemental materiel and financial support in the form of grants or sponsorships. Two observations: first, grants, whether they be public or private in origin, are always given according to specific objectives and criteria. Thus, we can only take advantage of these if our various professional inforFor further information on this type of network and their existing structures, see: Cleveland, Gary: Canadian libraries and the emerging information network, in: Canadian Library Journal 49 (1992) n° 5, p. 367-375.

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