15
th
International Congress on Archives
Rumschöttel
www.wien2004.ica.org
2
as a historic discipline? May the archivists go across the line separating communication (arrangement and
description) and utilization? To what extent must he be familiar with history to process his records in a
professional manner? Can archivists forgo cooperation with historians regarding evaluation? Does the
archivist communicate information or must he add expertise to the records only available for him by direct
participation in the process of historical research? These and similar questions are asked and receive
heterogeneous answers. The Bavarian Archives School in Munich continues to value considerable units of
history and archival science within its curricula. At the Marburg Archives School or the archival faculty at
the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam the subjects of archival science are rather given preference.
Question 3: Perspectives and assessment, and prospects for the future
The archival job outline, that is the archivist's tasks, their characteristics, the present and future demands -
all of this encompasses more than the field of theoretical and applied archival science. Slightly overstated
we could articulate that since the 18th century we are not only dealing with a gradual change of archival
tasks, but with a permanent accumulation of duties.
This accumulation of tasks becomes very evident by drawing on a modern description of the archival area of
responsibilities:
The range of professional activities of archivists covers with varying intensity and appearance elements of
traditional archival nature, archival and of administrative science, of ducumentary science, information and
communication science, library science, historical and cultural research, science and engineering, elements
of teaching, publication and journalism.
Also the definition of the term "archiving" in the German archives laws - that is the legal determination of
the essentials of the archivists duties - in most cases ranges from advising government offices and law courts
on managing their records to capturing archives to their utilization. Archival work today takes place in an
area of conflict of historical research, administrative and information science and history politics of archives
owners, that is states, local government, churches, business, private organizations. This conflict area
presents itself different for each archives, therefore first must be analyzed in each case.
Surely uncontested is the fact, that we first have to complete our primary duties, to safeguard, communicate
the records entrusted to us and make it available as expert as possible. As this usually concerns historical
records his naturally implies a historical context.
Therefore I come to the conclusion, from our matter, the archival records, from the cat, that this substance
mirrors the past, and because archives always are part of the history politics of the archive owners, that
history continues to remain essential for our job outline. Furthermore in the case of Germany I observe an
alarming decline of certain historical disciplines at the universities, that is territorial history, historical
auxiliary sciences and others. On these fields new (old) missions might arise for the archives.
Nevertheless, together with Michel Duchein I am convinced that Clio, the Muse of history, no longer is or
can remain the only Muse of archivists, but that she should remain the most important one. If we see or
practice this in a different manner, I fear, we would dig our own grave.
