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 - Boven, Maarten van: Scope and Aims of Mobility. A Dutch View / Cadres et Objectifs de la Mobilité. Un Point de vue néerlandais (english 293 - français 302)

3. Session/Séance: van Boven, Scope and Aims of Mobility. A Dutch view

The restorers take a course provided by the Ministry of Welfare, Health and Cultural Affairs. Restoration work is now widespread in the Dutch archives community. The National Record Office employs ten or more members of staff in its restoration workshop, while every provincial record office has a restoration workshop of its own with a staff of at least two. Most of the large municipal record offices also have restoration workshops. Smaller record offices employ the services of private restoration workshops, many of which were set up by former record office employees. They are rarely short of work.

A measure of privatisation can also be found in archive work itself. More and more small firms of archivists are appearing in the market place, offering to perform such services as selection, destruction and cataloguing for government agencies. They too make a good living.

Strengths and weaknesses of European Cooperation

In short, the impression given by the Dutch archive world is that of a flourishing profession, certainly when seen in a purely Dutch context. However, if we place archives in the Netherlands in the context of a united Europe we can identify a number of weaknesses as well as strengths.

1. Among the strong points I should like to mention is the Netherlands’ international orientation. This applies primarily to the content of archives, as the history of the Netherlands is closely interwoven with the history of Europe as a whole. At various times in the past my country was a great power ranking a longside Britain and France, exerted a widespread influence on European cultural life and had political ties with, for example, Spain, Austria, France and Belgium. Valuable sources for the study of Dutch history can therefore be found in those countries. In the past many Dutch archivists conducted research in foreign archives.

2. The job market for archivists in the Netherlands has its strengths and weaknesses too. The profession is attracting a great deal of interest. The popularity of archival research among the general public has helped to rid the profession of much of its negative image. The traditional picture of the archivist as an introvert with some aspirations to scholarship has given way to that of an information manager, an image which greatly appeals to young people. However, at a time when more and more young people want to enter the profession the number of jobs available is dwindling. In recent years the Dutch archives community has become considerably more youthful. The average age of keepers of national and provincial records is now forty-two, and none of them is older than fifty. As retirement age in the Netherlands is 65, it would appear - on paper at least - that these senior posts will be blocked for the next 15 years. I need hardly say that this will do nothing to promote a healthy degree of mobility withinthe profession.

The 1970s witnessed a significant increase in the number of establishment posts and the number of record offices. This trend is now stabilising, and in296