Читать книгу Archives in the Digital Age - Abderrazak Mkadmi - Страница 9

It has now been more than 70 years since the International Council on Archives (ICA), representing archival professionals from around the world, was founded, and efforts are being made to develop and implement both a body of global archival legislation and archival training and research programs. Among the first formal definitions, we cite that of ICA:

Archives are the documentary by-product of human activity retained for their long-term value. They are contemporary records created by individuals and organizations, as they go about their business and therefore provide a direct window on past events. They can come in a wide range of formats including written, photographic, moving image, sound, digital and analogue. Archives are held by public and private organizations and individuals around the world. [ICA 16]

Today, the majority of countries have legal texts defining and organizing archives as “[...] documents, whatever their date, form and material support, produced or received by any natural or legal person, and by any public or private organization, in the exercise of their activity”¹.

Archives can therefore be public, coming from the activities of the State, public institutions (industrial and commercial [EPIC] or administrative [EPA]) and any other legal entity under public law or legal persons under private law managing a public service (financed by a public fund for a general interest).

They can also be private, coming from natural persons or persons with a private status such as families, unions, political parties and associations.