Organized by the Croatian Archival Society and the State Archives in Pazin, the 45th Archival Conference on Archival Service in the Information Environment was held from 19 to 21 October 2011 at the Sol Garden Hotel in Umag.
Deana Kovačec, moderator and president of the Croatian Archival Society, opened the Conference and announced the welcome speeches. On behalf of the Istrian County, Vladimir Torbica, Head of the Administrative Department for Culture, addressed the greetings. On behalf of their institutions, the archival gathering was welcomed by mr. sc. Ilija Jakovljević, Chancellor of Poreč and Pula diocese; dr. sc. Robert Matijašić, Rector of Juraj Dobrila University of Pula; Tatjana Tomaić, expert associate of the Ivo Pilar Institute in Pula and mr. sc. Branko Kaleb, Head of the Department for Archival Activities of the Directorate for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia. On behalf of foreign archivist institutions, welcome speeches were given by Katja Zupanič, director of the Zgodovinski Archives in Ptuj; Sejdalija Gušić, archival advisor and head of the Department of Scientific Research, Publishing, Cultural, Educational and Propaganda Activities of the Historical Archives in Sarajevo; Ružica Gvero, representative of the Archive of Vojvodina in Novi Sad and Dr Sándor Bősze, director of Somogy County Archive in Kaposvár. The last welcome speech was given by academician Petar Strčić.
After the introductory greetings, the first plenear session began, which brought together presentations on Archives and global information infrastructure. The working presidency consisted of Nela Kušanić, Director of the State Archives in Sisak and Ladislav Dobrica, Head of the Department of Older Archives of the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb. The first presentation on the topic of Informa(tiza)whose archival institution - the example of DAPA was given by mr. sc. Elvis Orbanić, who, by sketching the historical perspective and a certain inventory of the situation, presented the informatics practice of the Pazin archival institution. The paper points out that the computerization of the State Archives in Pazin began in 1987, when the then Historical Archives purchased the first computer. Since then, bearing in mind that timely and complete information not only accelerates the work of archivists, but also contributes to the quality of the results, their transparency and accessibility to the general public, the Pazin archive continuously works on the systematic improvement and modernization of the information (tysation) system.
Explaining the absence of dr. sc. Stjepan Ćosić, second presentation entitled Information Infrastructure in Croatian Archives on behalf of mr. Ćosića was held by Vlatka Lemić from the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb.
Dr. Sc. Hrvoje Stančić, in his presentation Information Challenges of Modern Archivistics, pointed out that information technologies should affect archival activity so that it becomes dynamic and constantly changes. Also, by asking whether the existing digital archives have the prescribed format for downloading material in digital form, Stančić pointed out the problem of information technology in archival science and the (un)willingness of institutions to introduce new technologies. He stated that the archiving of records generated by the use of social networks should be covered by the same legal regulations as those generated by standard business processes. The last presentation before the 30-minute vacation was held by Jozo Ivanović on the topic Archives and Information Society: trends in the environment and adjustments to archives.
In the second session of the I plenear session, the working presidency consisted of Karmen Markezić, Head of the Department for the Protection of Archival and Registry Material outside the Archives of the State Archives in Pazin and Zoran Stanković, Head of the Department for the External Archival Service of the State Archives in Rijeka. The session started with a lecture by Vlatka Lemić, Croatian State Archives and ICARUS – cooperation within European archival and cultural networks, summarising and presenting the work and cooperation of the consortium ICARUS (International Center for Archival Research) and projects, such as Monasterium, Matricula and ENArC, with the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb.
This was followed by the work of Dražen Božić and Božo Zeba e-Archive of networked administration in the cloud – a labyrinth of fear or the challenge of the digital age? (exhibiting the absence of Drazen Božić, the lecture was presented by Božo Zeba) in which the conceptual architecture of the interoperable e-Government was discussed, i.e. the cooperation between e-Government and the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb. Zeba presented the e-Office program and emphasized that the purpose of the program is to position the e-Office itself and define requirements towards other projects within the e-Government. The architecture of the e-Office is set up to ensure independence from the technology platform of technical support, and the concept itself refers to the ability to realize functions as unique electronic services that will be able to be shared in any office business application. The presentation also addressed the joint functions of the e-Office and the SPEUP (Standard Project of Electronic Office Business), namely: Dual delivery of documents, e-archiving, e-fees, e-signature, providing access to data in the e-register, etc. At the end of the presentation, it was concluded that one of the main aspirations of the e-Office is universal communication with the parties.
Two presentations followed, in which the practice of creating and installing new web pages of archives was presented: Bog Janičić New web pages of the Croatian State Archives and Sebastijan Legović Web design and promotion of archives through web services – experiences of the State Archives in Pazin. The last presentation of the morning session was held by dr. sc. Drazen Kušen on the topic of ARHiNET as a possible tool for the design of communication aids.
After a one-hour break, it was announced to go to Pazin where the continuation of the counseling program was held. On the way from Umag to Pazin, a tour and a tour of Dvigrad, an old abandoned Istrian town with a rich history, was organised. Upon arrival in Pazin, a tour of Pazin is organized with expert guidance: group tour of Kaštela, church of Sv. Nikola and the State Archives in Pazin.
The continuation of the program was held in the Great Hall of the Pazin State Archives, where, with the welcome speech of the Mayor of Pazin, mr. Renato Krulčić, the publishing activity of the State Archives in Pazin was presented: Arie Nuove's monographic work with sheet music was presented by mr. sc. Nikola Lovrinić and Kolan of the Statutes – Summaries of the regulations of the Novigrad municipality 1481-1794 were presented by the author himself, mr. sc. Jacob Jelinčić. The work of Drazen Vlaho Glagolitic Records 1576.-1640.: The book of baptized, married and crowned parishes of Boljun was presented by prof. dr. sc. Ivan Jurkovic. Director of the Pazin Archives mr. sc. On that occasion, Elvis Orbanić announced that a book by dr. sc. Stipan Trogrlić Mons. Božo Milanović, Istrian priest (1890-1980), published by Christian Present Ltd. and the State Archives in Pazin. The first day of the consultation ended with a commemorative snack and socialisation at the Hotel "Lovac" in Pazin, accompanied by klapa Teran from Trviž.
The second day of the Consultation, Thursday 20 October, started with a lecture by Robert Nahuet on the topic A comparison of the descriptive elements of two standards: the Canadian RAD and the ISAD (G) presented a systematic review and comparison of two standards: RAD (Rules for Archival Description) and ISAD (G) (International Standard for Archival Description). Nahuet explained that RAD, a Canadian version of the standard for archival description created in 1990, was thoroughly revised in 2008. As an archival standard, RAD adopts a set of rules aimed at providing a common basis for describing archival material within the funds and is based on traditional archival principles. Dr. Sc. István Kenyeres in The Hungarian Archives Portal: A Common Solution for Digitized Archival Material and Databases presented the website www.archivportal.hu and invited everyone present to view it and join the virtual world of Hungarian archives. The next lecture, Medieval Hungary online – Virtual Archives of Medieval Charters, was supposed to be presented by György Rácz, but given that Mr. Rácz was the author of the presentation. Rácz was absent, the lecture was presented by his colleague Kristztina Arany. Presenting the website, Arany pointed out that representatives of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Hungary solemnly inaugurated the project on 29 March 2010. The exhibition also presents the online portal Archives of the Medieval Hungarian Kingdom and explains how the main purpose of this database is to integrate and unify every medieval collection of the Hungarian Monarchy. Among other projects (e.g. Monasterium), Arany also presented two archival collections: DL (Diplomatikai Levéltár) – Medieval Diplomacy Collection with more than 108 372 subjects, and DF (Diplomatikai Fényképgyüjtemény) – Diplomacy Photography Collection. Monika Pekova Digitization at state archives in Slovak Republic spoke about Slovak archival legislation, i.e. methodological administration in the process of digitization of archival documents and creation of metadata. In her presentation, Pekova referred in particular to the electronic archival information system AFONDY, which is an online database of registers of archival funds and collections, contains data on the state and protection of archival documents, information on access to them, etc. Dr. Sándor Bösze gave a lecture Collaboration between the State Archives in Rijeka and Somogy County Archives in Kaposvár, and Branka Molnar presented the topic of Lector and OliVA – web applications of the State Archives in Zagreb. Molnar explained in great detail the online application Lector – the application of the reading room of the State Archives in Zagreb, which was created in an effort to bridge the dislocation of the archives of the Archives and to increase as much as possible the efficiency in the processing of user requests. The application is based on the programming language PHP and MySQL, located on the Linux server, and can be accessed online from any computer. Molnar stressed that the application covers three parts of user requirements management: Receiving and distributing requests, authorizing requests and solving them, therefore the application can be accessed by three groups of users: staff in the Reading Room, the director of the Archives and the employees of the Department for the editing and processing of archival material. The presentation also presented the application OliVA, i.e. the online guide to the Archives, with the introduction of online lists of archival material as a novelty of the Archives. The next lecture was held by Nataša Bajić-Žarko and Hania Mladineo Mika under the title Information System in the State Archives in Split and users, presenting, among other things, statistical data related to the visits to the website of the State Archives in Split in the period from 2005 to 2011. After half an hour's rest, he continued with the presentation of the I plenear session. The first lecture, Availability and use of digitized material in the intranet and internet environment, was held by mr. sc. Alice Martek, apologizing for the absence of her colleague Snježana Šuta. Immediately below, Martek held the second lecture Library materials available online. This was followed by a lecture by mr. sc. Vlatko Ećimović and Leo Rakovac Implementation of information technology in the technical documentation archive of HEP OPS d.o.o. Transmission area Osijek, where the web application ArTeDo - application related to improved management of technical documentation archives was presented.
I. plenear session ended with a joint lecture by mr. sc. Damir Šanteka, Drago Butorc, Ivica Ićuć, Irena Benasić, Ljiljana Štefulić and Vladimir Sršana e-Archive of the State Geodetic Administration. The presentation emphasized that the digital archive system (SDA) provides the necessary framework for the development of a digital archive that includes the entire archival material of the State Geodetic Administration. Such a digital archive not only keeps archives, but also provides access and facilitates the use of valuable documents. For this purpose, officials of the State Geodetic Administration are trained to independently arrange archival documentation and special data conversion centers (CCPs) are established. So far, three CCPs have been established: CKP Clay (covers 50% production lines), CKP Vinkovci (covers 25% production lines) and CKP Split (covers 25% production lines).
The 2nd plenary session, with the working title Digitalisation as a tool for the protection of materials, started with a lecture by Damir Pildek Emphasis in the processes of digital recording and scanning. Pildek stressed that before any digital recording or scanning, it is essential to answer the following questions: What documents to scan? How many documents? What is the permanent purpose of the record? What are the dimensions of the original? What is the desired record quality? Format of records? Duration of time? Which recording device to choose? By answering the above questions, the objectives of recording or scanning are defined and detailed, thus achieving a higher quality and efficiency of the process itself.
Mr. Sc. Mirjana Jurić presented the topic Procedures in the digitization of cartographic cadastral material, showing the statistics of the use of this material and the analysis of users in the period from 2006 to 2010. Jurić emphasized that the primary purpose of digitization is to protect the original cadastral material and that digitization achieved and met the goal of increased protection and availability of the use of archival material to users of archival institutions.
The following presentation was given by Bruna Horović-Vuković under the title Digitalization of Materials Archive of Maps for Croatia and Slavonia. The paper points out that in 2005 the pilot project for the digitisation of the State Archives in Split started, and the systematic digitisation started in 2007, as part of the project ‘Croatian Cultural Heritage’. The financing of the project of digitization of archival material, among others, was made possible by the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, the State Archives in Split and the Split-Dalmatia County. Horović-Vuković also presented the way of accessing the material, i.e. the process of searching for digitized material.
This was followed by lectures by Markus Leideck Digitalisation of Materials in the Process of Fund Processing, Elizabet Kuk Gradivo Association of Public Importance with special reference to the unconventional and Josipe Maras Kraljević Homeland War – Protection of Unconventional Materials.
Two parallel sessions were held in the afternoon. The 1st parallel session was held in the Great Hall of the Sol Garden Hotel, at which Dinko Majcen and Kristijan Karajić held an educational workshop entitled Records of Emerging Materials for Employees in Shrouds. The Second Parallel Session was held in the Small Hall – as part of the Session, a workshop Description of the materials in ARHiNET was held for the employees of the state archives, and the moderators of the workshop were Aleksandar Kuzmanić and Renata Horvat. The workshop discussed how to include material in ARHiNET, determine the status of records, determine the amount of material when enrolling, etc. A special discussion was held on the question of whether the textbooks and indexes, for example with notaries, registry aids, whether they are part of the archival fund and whether they can include several series. In doing so, it has been stressed several times that the most important thing is to notice the difference between the registry aid and the registry material – terms that are still often not distinguished and replaced in archival practice. At the workshop, there was also talk about enrolling the funds of the materials of the national committees that are physically located in one fund, and in fact are two separate funds. The moderators of the workshop concluded that in the case of people's committees, funds should be linked, but in the notes it should be pointed out that the material is not in one fund, but, for example, is a series of another fund, and that it carries a signaturu from that archival fund in which it is physically located. Questions were also asked about the age range of the creators: in fact, when a company goes bankrupt, there is a dilemma that arises in the year of writing about the action of the creator – is the company still operating while it is bankrupt or not? It was said that it is difficult to give a definitive and correct answer, but, legally speaking, a company stops working by declaring bankruptcy, although in practice it is often wrongly stated that it continues to operate. The workshop concluded that the most important thing in archival description is to follow the compactness of the documentation.
After a short break, a Round Table was held, and the topic was Archivists in the Clouds?, where, among other things, a film about the activity and history of the creation of the Zgodovinski arhiv in Ljubljana was shown.
The end of the second day of the consultation ended with a gala dinner at the hotel.
As usual, the last day of the Conference, Friday 21 October, is reserved for the Assembly of the Croatian Archival Society, where the conclusions of the current Conference were presented and it was decided that the next, 46th Conference will be held in October 2012 in cooperation with the Croatian Archival Society with the State Archives in Varaždin and the State Archives for Međimurje.
After the Assembly, a trip and lunch were organised in Livade, a small Istrian village in the valley of the Mirna River and on the edge of the Motovun Forest, our most famous truffle habitat – expensive underground mushrooms. On that occasion, the Parenzana Museum in Livade was also visited – a narrow-gauge railway that in the early 1900s connected Trieste through a series of stations with Poreč as the final destination. The last train was on the railroad in 1935. (Maja Milovan, DAPA)
