The devastating floods that struck Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in April 2024 severely damaged over a hundred archival collections, including those of the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), where 12,000 boxes of historical documents (1930–2024) were submerged. In response, UFSM implemented an innovative and largest mass-freezing operation for archival records in Brazil—and probably in the world—, stabilizing 12,000 boxes in four refrigerated containers at -20°C. This emergency strategy was conducted under strict protocols, including vacuum-sealing the documents and using perforated plastic boxes, ensuring uniform cold air circulation and long-term preservation for future recovery. UFSM transformed this crisis into a sustainable preservation initiative by establishing TransDoc, a specialized archival-recovery laboratory and reference center. TransDoc integrates interdisciplinary expertise from Archival Science, Chemistry, Biology, Food Technology, Engineering, and Information Technology to develop innovative methodologies for water-damaged documents. Beyond preserving its institutional memory, TransDoc now supports other affected institutions by sharing innovative methodologies and best practices, assisting eight federal institutions affected by the May 2024 floods. In partnership with the National Archives of Brazil, it is leading the recovery of approximately 30,000 archival boxes. This case study underscores the importance of rapid response, advanced preservation techniques, and interdisciplinary collaboration in mitigating climate-related archival losses, safeguarding historical records during natural disasters. UFSM’s experience serves as a model for institutions worldwide, demonstrating how innovation and large-scale rescue operations can ensure the survival of archives at risk in the face of increasingly frequent climate-related disasters. The 2024 floods, therefore, represented a milestone for documentary preservation in the country, while simultaneously driving the creation of a national reference center, essential for ongoing recovery and long-term preparedness against future disasters.
In the fall of 2024, a political scientist and an archivist from Seton Hall University embarked on a project to survey, and ultimately digitize the archives of the Polisario Front, the Sahrawi government in exile. This government is a co-founder of the African Union, a consultative member of the Socialist International, and is recognized by the United Nations as the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people—and yet its records are almost inaccessible, kept in their original formats in a repository in a refugee camp near Tindouf, Algeria—a location difficult if not impossible for most researchers to visit. The Sahrawi government prioritizes and supports the preservation of its records, which range from early archeological artifacts to photographs, documents, and audiovisual recordings documenting the Western Sahara conflict which began in the 1970s. They were open to partnering with Seton Hall on the digitization project in order to raise awareness of their history and current struggle. However, one of the main barriers to the project’s success turned out to be Sahrawi archivists’ leeriness of using standard digital tools. This reluctance originates in difficult experience where copies of their materials were made and distributed without authorization. Building consensus around the technological approach to the project of digitizing the materials emerged as a crucial precursor to undertaking the work of the project. More than just a methodological stumbling block, it represents in microcosm a process of building trust and creating habits of communication and coordination.
Los documentos parroquiales azorianos se encuentran mayormente resguardados en su entidad de origen: las parroquias. Estas entidades insulares de carácter privado han recopilado, desde el siglo XVI, importante documentación generada por la gestión corriente de los asuntos religiosos. En la actualidad, estos documentos se conservan sepultados en décadas de almacenamiento, inaccesibles, condenados al olvido y consecuente pérdida material. A la escasez de recursos humanos, financieros y materiales, se suman otros acontecimientos que derivan del carácter privado de las colecciones: la dispersión, que obedece a la autonomía de las varias parroquias existentes, y la frecuente desvalorización del patrimonio escrito frente a otros objetos culturales. Los párrocos gestores, absortos en relevantes asuntos de carácter espiritual-administrativo, acaban por no interesarse por las tareas propias de la conservación documental. En este contexto, los documentos parroquiales, pese a su valor histórico, existen al margen de la legislación que los protege. El proyecto de salvaguarda de los documentos albergados en algunas de las principales sedes parroquiales de la región atlántica surge con el objetivo de implementar una política de gestión archivística, diseñada a partir de los resultados extraídos del diagnóstico del estado de conservación de las colecciones y espacios envolventes. El presente texto versa sobre uno de los principales componentes del proyecto: el patrimonio participativo. A través de acciones formativas y trabajo voluntario, la comunidad religiosa acompañará las acciones ejecutadas en torno al plan de recuperación de la información y de los soportes documentales.
Cet article vise à présenter l’enseignement de l’archivistique au Brésil, en se basant sur l’histoire et la configuration actuelle de ses cours. Il partage les résultats d’une recherche bibliographique et documentaire sur ses liens académiques-institutionnels, la formation de ses enseignants et la production scientifique de ses étudiants. Les résultats portent sur 16 programmes de premier cycle et deux programmes de master, avec profils d’enseignement variés. Les enseignants sont pour la plupart des titulaires de masters et de doctorats en sciences de l’information, domaine dans lequel la majorité des cours dans les universités publiques est lié. Les 2 673 mémoires de licence identifiés sont principalement liés à la perspective sociale des archives et à leur utilisation, aux lieux de travail des archivistes et aux activités qu’ils mènent. Les 100 mémoires de master répertoriés couvrent des thèmes similaires à ceux des travaux de premier cycle, en mettant l’accent sur l’environnement professionnel des archives et la gestion des programmes et services d’archives. Dans les deux situations, il y a peu de travaux sur l’histoire des archives et de l’archivistique, l’associativisme, la normalisation et la production et diffusion des connaissances archivistiques. Il conclut que la formation en archivistique au Brésil a d’abord des influences historiques puis, avec l’expansion des cours dans les universités, elle a été liée aux sciences de l’information. Sur la production scientifique, si de nombreuses recherches portent sur les usages sociaux des archives, très peu ont été consacrées à des sujets sensibles, dont l’étude est essentielle pour l’avancement de la science actuelle.
Fort d’une expérience de presque vingt ans, soutenu par l’Association internationale des archives francophones, le Portail international archivistique francophone (PIAF) porte un projet original, interculturel et inclusif de mise à disposition de connaissances, d’outils et de savoir-faire gratuitement en langue française. Il s’adresse à toute personne qui souhaite s’initier ou se perfectionner en archivistique quels que soient son pays, sa formation initiale, sa situation professionnelle. À partir des archives du PIAF—comptes rendus annuels, notes et documents préparatoires, analyses d’audience—, de sources imprimées ou en ligne—articles, entretiens, diaporamas—mais aussi de témoignages, l’article expose les solutions élaborées pour répondre aux défis et leurs limites. Précurseur dans l’enseignement en ligne, le PIAF s’est adapté aux évolutions technologiques et pédagogiques. Soucieux d’être reçu dans l’ensemble du monde francophone, il a dû considérer la diversité des pratiques mais aussi celle des français vernaculaires. S’adressant à un public large, il lui a fallu prendre en compte des niveaux d’expertise et attentes variés. Il s’inscrit également dans des contraintes économiques et doit composer avec les disponibilités des différents intervenants. Les quinze modules de cours en ligne constituent le cœur de la proposition et abordent l’ensemble de l’écosystème archivistique, mais l’offre a progressivement été enrichie autour de la constitution d’une communauté apprenante, d’une offre de veille documentaire et de bibliographie et d’une ouverture vers la recherche en archivistique. En ce sens, le PIAF peut apparaître, pour des communautés linguistiques cherchant à développer une proposition pédagogique tout en maintenant des diversités d’approches, comme un exemple inspirant.
Este trabajo busca analizar los caminos inciertos de las colecciones privadas en Brasil, destacando las contingencias y temporalidades que atravesaron la patrimonialización de la colección Memória do Movimento Estudantil (MME), creada entre 2004 y 2008 por la Unión Nacional de Estudiantes (UNE) y otros socios. Diseñada para integrar el Centro de Memorias de la UNE (que nunca se construyó), la colección Memória do Movimento Estudantil permaneció sin ubicación definida e inaccesible al público durante casi dos décadas, hasta que finalmente fue donada al Archivo Nacional de Brasil en 2022. El trabajo aborda, en un primer momento, los desafíos e intereses que implica un proyecto de “reconstrucción” de la memoria de un movimiento social —el movimiento estudiantil— y de su principal entidad nacional, la UNE, creada en 1937. También destaca la influencia del contexto político y de las políticas institucionales en la incorporación de esta colección al Archivo Nacional, con el fin de arrojar luz sobre las dinámicas de ingreso de otras colecciones privadas a la institución. La investigación buscó resaltar la imprevisibilidad que involucra el destino de los archivos privados en Brasil, así como los cambios institucionales que impactan la trayectoria de los archivos.
This article examines how workflows in audiovisual preservation have shifted in response to the accelerating deterioration of magnetic media, drawing on anecdotal evidence from practitioners across a range of institutions and community archives. Through the experiences of archivists, volunteers, and cultural heritage workers, we argue that ‘degralescence’, once framed as an approaching crisis—is now fully underway. To ground this claim, the article begins with an overview of magnetic tape’s history and physical fragility, highlighting the format’s inherent ephemerality. The authors trace the evolution of preservation efforts over the past two decades, including past collection surveys, advocacy campaigns, and collective knowledge-sharing initiatives that attempted to assess and address the magnetic media crisis. Despite early warnings and numerous large-scale digitization initiatives, the crisis persists and has grown more complex. This current reality calls for a strategic shift toward more agile, grassroots approaches—focused on smaller-scale, achievable goals—that acknowledge the limitations of time, funding, and equipment. The authors move beyond the “all or nothing” rhetoric that has historically dominated the crisis narrative of the field. They recommend that collaborative resource-sharing; curatorial insight; and creative, localized solutions are key to achieving greater resilience and impact in these preservation efforts. This collaboratively authored article draws on the firsthand experiences of the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) professionals predominantly from North America within the Magnetic Media Crisis Committee (MMCC). The authors examine the crisis from a preservation perspective and build on more than a decade of earlier surveys and reports that have repeatedly sounded the alarm.
This study recounts and examines the development of the Master in Archives and Records Management (MARM) program of the School of Library and Information Studies, University of the Philippines Diliman (UP SLIS). The first of its kind in the Philippines, this two-year graduate program equips students with essential knowledge and skills to manage and develop archives, record centers, special collections, and other memory and collecting institutions. The authors, who also serve as faculty and proponents of the MARM program, trace the evolution of archival education in the Philippines that reflects the country’s colonial history, as well as the early initiatives to offer courses and a specialized graduate degree program for archives and records management. These initiatives, particularly the proposal to launch a graduate degree program faced issues and challenges. Some of the major hurdles were the faculty qualification requirements and infrastructure, which shape the subsequent faculty development plans and programs of the UP SLIS. In 2021, the MARM program was finally approved, and it accepted its first cohort of students in 2022. The authors share their own encounters and lived experiences as archival educators, curriculum designers, decision makers, and learners. They connect their various experiences in generating the program contents and pedagogical approaches with the archival landscape
Depuis 2010, Archivistes sans Frontières-France (ASF-France) participe à des projets de sauvegarde d’archives en péril de destruction ou de mauvaise gestion dans différentes institutions au Burkina Faso. Il ressort de l’impact de ces interventions sur les pratiques locales que les collègues qui font appel à ASF-France manquent de méthodologie, n’ont pas reçu de formation académique ou, lorsqu’ils possèdent des bases théoriques, ont du mal à passer à la pratique et à s’adapter à des situations professionnelles concrètes. La formule des chantiers-écoles, organisés et encadrés par ASF-France en partenariat avec l’Université de Versailles Saint Quentin et avec l’Ecole nationale d’administration et de la magistrature du Burkina Faso, propose l’intégration de mises en situation pratiques dans l’enseignement académique, dans le cadre de missions d’intervention d’ASF-France pour réaliser un projet concret. Les projets servent ainsi de « terrain » d’application, et les participants—étudiants français et burkinabè, professionnels burkinabè de l’institution qui accueille le projet- bénéficient ainsi d’un modèle pédagogique plus efficace pour une prise de fonction opérationnelle. Les réflexions menant à la modélisation de la formule des chantiers-écoles d’ASF-France sont illustrés par des exemples concrets tirés des cinq expériences de chantiers menées entre 2018 et 2022 au Burkina Faso.
El artículo se presenta como una revisión y descripción de diferentes experiencias de la comunidad patrimonial de lo que en Chile conocemos como “Canto a lo Poeta,” en relación con la archivística comunitaria. Primero, aportaremos antecedentes generales sobre el caso, y lo relacionaremos con su investidura y reconocimiento como patrimonio cultural en Chile. Luego se abordarán relaciones entre esta condición patrimonial de la práctica y la archivística comunitaria. La base empírica de nuestro análisis será una experiencia formativa de la comunidad, como es el Taller de Archivística Comunitaria para Cantores a lo Poeta. Posteriormente, se analiza esta experiencia de enseñanza-aprendizaje relativa a archivos comunitarios en diálogo con sus respectivas proyecciones y potencialidades tanto patrimoniales como archivísticas para, finalmente, caracterizar un eventual archivo comunitario de Canto a lo Poeta en cuanto proyecto para la comunidad.
When a small group of archivists met in Jamaica in 2013 to craft an Archives program for the Department of Library and Information Studies at the University of the West Indies (UWI), their major challenge was the localization and Caribbeanization of an archives curriculum developed by standards in North America and the United Kingdom. Even though most of this group of Caribbean archivists had received their professional education overseas and were conditioned by Western education, their practical experiences at home had sensitized them to the need for a curriculum that would accommodate, celebrate the non-traditional records, records formats and record-making environment of the Caribbean region.The challenges implicit in localizing curriculum in the Global South are delineated and Caribbeanizing the developing UWI curriculum is tracked from the earliest discussions to the fully-fledged curriculum of today. An extended definition of Caribeanization is joined to illustrations from the programme structure to demonstrate how Caribbeanization has been implemented throughout the curriculum, offering curriculum models that can be adapted to other regions in the Global South.
In the United States, archivists are primarily responsible for activities central to the archival process. They must perform their duties within the prevailing and constantly evolving societal and technological environment. Further, despite advances in the digital environment, most archivists are tasked with the responsibility for hybrid collections comprised of paper, analog, and digital materials. Increasingly they work as part of a team involved with records management, information governance, and security and privacy. These factors were the inspiration for a resource that describes topics of importance to current and aspiring archivists and professionals in related careers. The purpose of this article is to describe the process used to understand the roles and responsibilities of the 21 st Century Archivist, identify the topics of interest to them, recruit authors to share their expertise related to each topic, and produce The Handbook of Archival Practice .
The emphasis of a responsive curriculum in archives and records management is on preparing students for a globalized environment where technologies and international influences must be understood and embraced to function effectively in a global economy. Furthermore, such a curriculum should embrace local experiences. The purpose of this paper is to share our knowledge and experience pertaining to the development of five interrelated archival online modules for a postgraduate programme that is responsive to global, national, continental, and local issues (glonacol). The paper provides a historical context for the rationale to recurriculate, including the cutting-edge content that is responsive to the digital environment while also embracing decoloniality and Africanization, as well as preparing students for the future metaverse to be able to manage digital media to enhance preservation and accessibility. As the need for well-trained archivists and records managers in Africa is extensive, it is our belief that our focus is on records diplomatics and digital records forensics, knowledge governance, data curatorship, and research as the foundation of the modules, while we also ensure that content focuses on themes related to Africanization, decoloniality and transformation. The paper covers conceptualization, implementation, and post-implementation of the curriculum for training archivists through the inclusion of multilingual teaching and learning.
The Magnetic Observatory of Tatuoca (TTB) was installed in 1957 in the Amazon basin nearby Belém city, in the Brazilian state of Pará, and registered all its observations on paper until 2007. In 2017, the Faculty of Archives and the Post-Graduation in Information Science at the Federal University of (UFPA) Pará launched a project to rescue this collection, including physical curation, digitization, and data extraction from the documents using artificial intelligence. The project grew in complexity and turned into a “school,” where students and professors at all levels and from various fields joined around the archive to create a virtuous cycle of trans and interdisciplinary learning. UFPA is the biggest university in the Brazilian Amazon, a rich, huge territory, although neglected and undeveloped, a situation that deeply affects the formation of archivists and other information professionals. Innovative archival projects involving digitization and emergent technologies are rare. The archive of Tatuoca integrated multiple disciplines from UFPA’s academic community to face the challenge of saving, enhancing, and sharing these records with state-of-the-art technology. In this article, we describe the case of Tatuoca and collect the testimony of those who participated in it. With this information, we identify those elements that can elevate archival education in restricted environments to levels of global excellence. In the conclusion, we account for the current results of the project regarding student formation and identify future challenges for archivists’ education in the Amazon.
Desde el 2020 la Asociación Latinoamericana de Archivos (ALA) implementó su programa de capacitación buscando contribuir con el desarrollo integral de los archivos y la adecuada protección y utilización del patrimonio documental en toda la región. Ante la inminente necesidad de formación archivística en Latinoamérica, el archivista hoy en día debe estar preparado para planear y generar modelos institucionales; sensibilizar a la sociedad sobre los beneficios de la archivística; crear lineamientos para salvaguardar los documentos; y proporcionar los elementos necesarios para la participación democrática informada. Los profesionales de la archivística deben estar capacitados para facilitar que los archivos sean utilizados por los ciudadanos, para así impulsar el desarrollo de los países latinoamericanos. Es, en este sentido, que los archivistas deben convertirse en gestores que difundan los archivos y fomenten el desarrollo sostenible y el gobierno participativo. En respuesta a esta necesidad, la ALA ha desarrollado tres Diplomados. Uno el de Archivística. Gestión de Documentos y Administración de Archivos en colaboración con el Grupo de Expertos Red Iberoamericana de Enseñanza Archivística Universitaria de la ALA (GERIBEAU ALA) y certificado por la Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, México (UASLP). El segundo, el Diplomado para la Dinamización Cultural de los Archivos con el objetivo de fortalecer el desarrollo profesional del personal que labora en los archivos, en el dominio de estrategias de difusión y mercadotecnia, para lograr sensibilizar a nuestra sociedad acerca de la función social de los archivos, certificado por la Universidad de Guadalajara, México. Y el tercero el Diplomado en Gestión de Documentos Digitales, certificado por la UASLP.
Provenance remains an enduring principle of archival work, guiding the organization of archival collections and the collections’ use and transformation as part of computational workflows and scientific data processing. Provenance information materially shapes scholarly interpretations of the primary source material as well as various estimations of a collection’s value. Yet if provenance has been accorded its conceptual spotlight in archival education programs worldwide, educators’ introductory and advanced approaches to the concept are not often in dialogue with one another at great depth. This contribution studies pedagogical approaches used by educators in the United States and Brazil, enumerating the goals and student-focused outcomes of particular assignments, course activities, and lecture and reading material that strongly engage provenance in archives. In Brazil, a deeper focus on provenance practice is given during the undergraduate course in Archival Science, while the Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) is much more concerned with a basis of theory. In the United States, undergraduate coursework largely engages with “archives” as source material for disciplinary research, while the MLIS has a clear pre-service and professional emphasis that encourages students to ultimately take active ownership of their coursework according to their career goals spanning the information professions. By interrogating relevant pedagogical activities, this work aims to collectively inform lifelong learning across the archival world with the core concept of provenance. This article was published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ .
Para garantizar la preservación, difusión y puesta en acceso al patrimonio documental, es fundamental profesionalizar el trabajo en los archivos. La legislación que regule la incumbencia profesional desde el inicio del ciclo vital de los documentos es indispensable también para asegurar la recuperación y el acceso a la documentación generada por las administraciones públicas en los plazos que pautan las normativas sobre transparencia y acceso a la información. El presente artículo analiza de manera descriptiva la legislación vigente sobre profesionalización en la región latinoamericana. De los veinte países en análisis, sólo cuatro (Brasil, Colombia, Panamá y Uruguay) cuentan con una norma específica para la regulación o el reconocimiento del ejercicio de la profesión archivística; otros nueve países han incorporado disposiciones relativas a la capacitación, formación, idoneidad y reconocimiento profesional en las leyes o decretos reglamentarios sobre el funcionamiento de los archivos generales o los sistemas nacionales (estos últimos presentes también en nueve de los países en análisis). En Latinoamérica, a la falta de normativa específica se suma la deficiencia en cuanto a instancias de formación superior en la especialidad (y la poca difusión de la existente), dos de los indicadores fundamentales de la profesionalización de las disciplinas. A estas carencias se suma el escaso conocimiento social de la archivística (y de su importancia). Otro indicador clave de profesionalización es la existencia de asociaciones profesionales. El artículo se enfoca entonces también en cuantificar la oferta académica y en mapear las asociaciones profesionales activas en los países con normativa sobre incumbencia técnico-profesional (a lo que se suma un breve repaso sobre la situación argentina a ese respecto), considerando que su rol es fundamental para promover normativas que profesionalicen la tarea en los archivos.
Postgraduate-level programmes leading to qualifications for professional archival work were first offered in England in 1947 at the University of Liverpool and at University College London. Their curricula, pedagogy, and ambitions for their students were overwhelmingly historicist, shaped by the requirements of “scientific” history. This account charts the “pre-history” of this English model of professional education provision suggesting that all the pedagogic and structural elements necessary to the provision of such programmes were in place as early as 1925. It highlights those individuals and institutions responsible for the promotion and development of specialist archival education, and outlines some of the wider cultural and social factors which resulted in formal provision emerging in London and Liverpool in particular. These factors included the ambitions of the institutions of a new historical establishment, the politics and cultural aspirations of provincial civic elites, the expansion of higher education and professions (to women in particular), and a willingness to import, and adapt, models of good practice from abroad, from France and Germany.
In this paper, we study conditional preferences in abstract argumentation by introducing a new generalization of Dung-style argumentation frameworks (AFs) called Conditional Preference-based AFs (CPAFs). Each subset of arguments in a CPAF can be associated with its own preference relation. This generalizes existing approaches for preference-handling in abstract argumentation, and allows us to reason about conditional preferences in a general way. We conduct a principle-based analysis of CPAFs and compare them to related generalizations of AFs. Specifically, we highlight similarities and differences to Modgil's Extended AFs and show that our formalism can capture Value-based AFs. Moreover, we show that in some cases the introduction of conditional preferences leads to an increase in computational complexity.
