System informacji archiwalnej w Polsce : historia, infrastruktura, standardy i metody

Abstract

The book The system of archive information in Poland. History, infrastructure, standards and methods covers the issues constituting the information science and archive studies. Archive information is an especially important area of interest for both disciplines. Archives play an important role in the world of science and information, and guarantee the storage of documents for a long period of time. Archive studies use the achievements of the information science for creating the workshops of an archive work, mainly for designing archive aids. The system of archive information was formed in order to provide the appropriate ways of gathering and storing as well as making archive materials available. In the very system the documentation has to maintain its reliability, duration in time, availability and secrecy, where necessary. The aim of the archive is to maintain authentic and authenticated information with its context to be able to use the appropriate information for particular purposes. In order to interpret documents, as early as at the stage of historical studies, one needs knowledge. Archives, as the institutions of culture and science, guard historical knowledge, prepare well-processed information on archive materials to make searching of the documents fast and easy. The book consists of five chapters. Chapter one starts from bringing the history of archive information closer. A social role of archives was noticed as early as in the Ancient times. The very chapter introduces the development of archives from time immemorial, the functioning of archives in the Polish People’s Republic and the formation of the Subsystem of Archive Information as an element of the National System of Science, Technology and Organization Information. The next stage of the formation of the system of archive information was after 1989 when the informational network of archives developed. The next chapter thoroughly describes the organizational-functional structure of the system of archive information. Such elements of the system of archive information as the informational resource of archives, organization of the supervision over an increasing resource, informational aids and tools used in the system of archive information were discussed. A critical analysis of existing archive aids, with an emphasis on necessary changes in this field, was conducted. This chapter finishes with a discussion on the subject-matter of the informational infrastructure of archives in a global economy. Chapter three examines the actions of the users in the system of archive information, as well as the role of archivists in the scientific communication to be observed especially when making archive materials available. Chapter four covers standards and methods of preparing archive documentation. Contemporary problems of archive information are above all the subject of the activity of national archives, both at the theoretical and practical level. National archives guarantee the maintenance of the proper quality information. Thus, the methodology of preparing archive and the informational activity of archives so far, including database used in national archives were discussed. Also, the chapters bringing the issue of the standard description of archive materials were prepared. Chapter five illustrates the system of archive information from the point of view of a supervision over an increasing archive resource. The very problem is also referred to as managing documentation and its main aim is to use the classification. The very chapter closes with a discussion of changes happening in the office staff and its competences in the context of informatisation of public administration. Administrative work requires a constant formation of new tools and methods of management when creating different types of documents, which is not uninfluential on the shape of the system of archive information.