n.the activities performed in archives, especially relative to their managementvan Laer 1912, 291A growing realization among the archivists of different countries of the need of cooperation in order to bring about improved and uniform methods of archive administration, which can not fail to benefit countries which like the United States are backward with regard to archival organization.Dudley and Holland 1977, 26Archive administration covers fundamental aspects of acquisition and accessioning, the processing of archival material and the preparation of finding aids, researcher and public services, staff and budget distribution, automation, repository architecture, storage and conservation.Cook 1986, 183It is hard not to extend this service [sharing records with the office of origin] when the records have become archives; indeed it was always accepted in principle in manuals of archive administration.Curral, Moss, and Stuart 2004, 137Although Hilary Jenkinson, in his germinal book on archive administration, made no reference to “collections,” manuscript curators in the United States were by then interested in them.Luckow and Turner 2008, 169In other words, such an employee is often hired on the basis of other mandatory skills, such as film handling and media identification skills, and any knowledge of archive administration practice they have is a bonus that the studio never anticipated in hiring the employee.Leland 2011a, 83It matters little what form of archive administration is adopted provided its functions are of sufficient scope and are efficiently performed.Leland 2011a, 84Turning to the second class of problems, those relating to archive economy, to the details of archive administration, we must assume for the moment the existence of adequate legislation on the subject.Leland 2011b, 157It may be set down as an axiom of archive administration that library methods of classification are entirely unsuited to the arrangement of manuscript materials for use.the organizational entity or designated people within it having responsibility for direct oversight and management of an archivesJenkinson 1922, 18, fn. 4The enormous number of authorities that control archive collections of a more or less public character in England at the present day, as shown by the late Commission’s Reports, forms a good illustration of this point when compared with the centralized Archive Administration of (for example) Holland or Belgium.Palmer 1939, 71–72About this time two schools of thought had developed regarding the administration and purpose of record offices and archival establishments. One held that the archive administration’s primary duty was to keep constantly in touch with the government, regardless of its other tasks and scholarly interests. The other school, composed in the main of scholarly interests, contended that the administration of a record office or archival establishment should be independent of the government, so that it might properly carry out its scientific aims.Hardenberg 1973, 52In their eagerness to break with the ancien regime, the leaders of the French Revolution showed no such reticence and even went a step further by considering archive administration as a separate function of the state with particular emphasis on the right of access to archives and provision for their use in the interests of learning.Bell 1979, 83The treatises on archive administration offer us sage advice on the ideal location for archives.Duchein 1980, 129–130However, two exceptions are to be noted: the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and National Defence have their own autonomous archive administration, independent from the Direction des Archives de France.Leland 2011a, 84Let us assume, what is actually to be found in certain States, the existence of all the legal machinery necessary for the development of an efficient archive administration. What are the problems confronting the archivist or other official, whatever his title, at the head of this administration?the educational curricula or formal training covering the theories and practices of archivyLethbridge 1948b, 180The subjects taught include General bibliography, either University or special libraries, or Urban, county and school libraries; palaeography of English archives, including transcription (elementary and advanced), diplomatics of English documents, administrative history, archive administration, medieval Latin, and Anglo-Norman French.ASA 1959, 34A qualified archivist may be defined as a person who has (i) undergone a satisfactory course of training in archive administration, and has practical experience in this field, or (ii) has been accepted for membership by the Society of Archivists. The training given by one of the recognised full-time courses in archive administration is to be preferred.Walne 1966, 5The news that Roger Ellis is to pay an extended visit to Australia in 1967 to conduct seminars in archive administration, to address the 14th Biennial Conference of the Library Association of Australia and to visit as many Australian archive repositories as possible comes as a very pleasant surprise to his colleagues in the United Kingdom.Hardenberg 1973, 62Up to 1 May 1968 the examination was in the following subjects: archival theory and archive administration, paleography, diplomatics, historical chronology, a knowledge of the judicial organization in the Netherlands before 1795, the state institutions in the Netherlands in earlier times, and the medieval ecclesiastical institutions.Cook 1978, 36Professional studies, which would comprise the fields generally known as archive administration (or archivistics, a technical word is badly needed), records management, and information management.Mathias 2013, 182Julie Mathias received a BA (Hons) and MA in history before working as a cataloguing assistant at the National Library of Wales (1992–93) and undertaking the University of Wales postgraduate diploma in archive administration at Aberystwyth University (1993–94).the field and discipline committed to maintaining archivesDuchein 1980, 128In 1897 both the Archives nationales and the Archives départementales and communales were placed under the unique authority of the newly-created Directeur des Archives de France (now Directeur général), invested with the right to issue regulations for the whole country in the field of archive administration.Taylor 1984, 35I do not deny that the first-class scholar archivist or “historian archivist” may bring a great deal of weight and insight to the record which we can all value, but I believe that the average professional archivist requires a “good second class” degree with evidence of skill in “archive administration” (to use an English term) which should not be confused with bureaucratic “management,” although they are to some extent related.Cook 1986, 2The feeling of the time was that archive administration had been lifted away from a rather dusty and antiquarian past in which it had largely acted as a support to historical studies.Leland 2011a, 76At this conference some account will be given of the administration of European archives, and opportunity will be afforded to consider some of the more pressing problems of archive administration in America and to plan for a more systematic and detailed discussion at later conferences.
Notes
Terms commonly used interchangeably for one or more of these senses include archival administration, archival management, archive management, archives administration, and archives management. This term is used most often in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom and used infrequently in the United States.
