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This article discusses Records in Contexts (RiC), a data model created by the International Council on Archives for the purpose of describing archival resources. The model was developed using the entity-relationship modeling method widely applied in computer science. This text provides an introduction to this methodology for archivists. Subsequently, the article discusses and analyses the essential elements of RiC. A process of translating RiC into Polish is also initiated by carefully translating the entity names within the model, with substantial assistance from archivists from Head Office (NDAP).

The article is a reflection on the so-called “archival turn” – a movement in the humanities that emerged in the 1990s. The author contemplates three ideas of an archive, characteristic for this movement: those presented by the French philosophers – Paul Ricoeur, who links the idea of an archive with historical epistemology, demonstrating its primarily scientific function, and Michel Foucault with his oppressive, power-related role of the archive, as well as that of the German anthropologist Aleida Assmann, who situates the archive in the dialectical relationship between memory and oblivion, seeing it as a kind of a mental anchor that roots us in the past. The author concludes that these three contemporary thinkers effected what could be called a desacralization of the archive. Instead of a “sacred place” where traces of the past are preserved, accessible only to the initiated, they outline concepts with a more pragmatic dimension, occasionally revealing the oft-hidden functions of the archive, related to its place in public life. At the same time, they inspire answers to the question of why do we need archives? After all, they are no longer just a place to store documents and preserve them. Archivists and historians are no longer the only actors responsible for storing and interpreting documents. The author emphasizes that the ideas presented in the text may provide a motivation to depart from the metaphors of the archive as a trace, memento, artifact or document, in favour of a description of materiality and objects. To some extent, they also indirectly address the process of structuring archival practices, often involving an ethical dimension. They inspire the question: what is subject to archiving and what is not, how is the material selected, what is the responsibility of the archivist with regard to building a specific narrative around the fonds? The study is concluded with an observation that time will tell whether all the numerous activities designed to commemorate the past would give rise to a new model of archives that would respond differently, or maybe better, to the challenges of the present.

Purpose Language archiving is achieved through the detailed assessment and assemblage of various types of language data. The Computational Resource for South Asian Languages (CoRSAL) is an emerging language archive that prioritizes the accommodation of depositors who have a variety of needs with respect to both research and infrastructure. As such, the CoRSAL team uses a workflow approach that caters to this diversity. The purpose of this paper is to detail the mediated workflow for collection ingest and promotion, citing two specific examples from recently published language collections, as well as discuss specific feedback the team has received from individual depositors and language community members on the effectiveness and usefulness of these efforts thus far. Design/methodology/approach This paper provides an exploration of the author’s approaches to a mediated archiving workflow. Findings The author discusses the encouraging and constructive feedback the team has received so far and includes instances of specific communication with individuals who have recently deposited and published collections with them. Originality/value This is the first research paper published by anyone on our team describing our workflow. It is an expansion of a shorter conference paper presented at the LangArc 2021: 1st International Workshop on Digital Language Archives on September 30, 2021 and published in the conference proceedings

The article focuses on presenting French archival documents from the collection of the Commander of the Security Police and Security Service in France (der Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des Sicherheitsdienstes in Frankreich) in the archives of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). In 1982 the collection was transferred by the Central Archives of the Ministry of Interior to the Central Archives Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against the Polish Nation, and then in 2000 it was transferred to the IPN Archives. Twenty-eight archival units from this collection concern the synarchist movement, its functioning in the 1930s and during the Vichy regime in France, as well as the famous intellectual meetings in Pontigny (Les Décades de Pontigny) organized by Professor Paul Desjardins.

Personal files are documents, collected by the creating agencies, which reflect the course of a career path in each workplace. The source documents from the studied records are treated as egodocuments, because their authors tell stories about themselves. Preserved documents can be used to create biographies, analyse historical facts present in the lives of individual people, provide information about the surrounding world or help explain various complex processes – economic, sociological, etc. This article attempts to analyse personal files from the perspective of anthropological research, which in a certain way helps to get to know a person, their experiences and their understanding of reality. Archival materials were selected using the representative method. A random sample was used, which involved selecting random items from a closed general collection. The general population in the study comprised personal files of Bydgoszcz City Hall employees from the interwar period, as well as personal files of members and dependants of the Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy Voivodeship Executive Board in Bydgoszcz. The selected files were used for an in-depth analysis in the context of egodocumentality aimed at understanding the author’s world of values. But does every resume or elaborate application give us enough information to precisely analyze someone in terms of their personality? Does it provide enough data to conduct research? Are the sources classified as egodocuments really what they appear to be? This article seeks to answer all these questions.

The most important archival journal in Africa is “African Journal of Library, Archives and Information Science”. It plays a key role in shaping scientific discourse in the fields of archival science, library science and information management. This paper looks at the archives-related topics covered in the journal from 2000 to 2024, with a special focus on matters related to archiving and records management. For the purposes of the study, 365 research articles published during the analysed period were reviewed. 62 of them pertained directly to the aforesaid area or related topics falling within its scope. The publication aims to familiarise Polish researchers with the research achievements in the field of archival science and document management on the African continent.

The article discusses the role of trust in the activities of community archives, using the example of the German Minority Research Center in Opole, a non-governmental organization involved in initiating research on and documenting the history of German minority in Poland, with particular emphasis on the history of the formation of organizations associating Germans in Poland. Through empirical research, in particular interviews conducted in August 2024 with people who co-created the archive, its collaborators, and donors, it was possible to observe the central role of being a member of the documented community in building trust in the community archive. The article also draws attention to the important role of delicacy and sensitivity in the contacts between community archivists and donors, and defines them as one of the possible reasons for restricting access to community archives. The study is part of a research project aimed at analyzing the social and affective impact of community archives in Poland.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework to illustrate the archival knowledge applied by archivists in their personal archiving (PA) and the mechanism of the application of archival knowledge in their PA.Design/methodology/approachThe grounded theory methodology was adopted. For data collection, in-depth interviews were conducted with 21 archivists in China. Data analysis was performed using the open coding, axial coding and selective coding to organise the archival knowledge composition of PA and develops the awareness-knowledge-action (AKA) integration model of archival knowledge application in the field of PA, according to the principles of the grounded theory.FindingsThe archival knowledge involved in the field of PA comprises four principal categories: documentation, arrangement, preservation and appraisal. Three interactive factors involved in archivists' archival knowledge application in the field of PA behaviour: awareness, knowledge and action, which form a pattern of awareness leading, knowledge guidance and action innovation, and archivists' PA practice is flexible and innovative. The paper underscored that it is need to improve archival literacy among general public.Originality/valueThe study constructs a theoretical framework to identify the specialised archival knowledge and skills of PA which is able to provide solutions for non-specialist PA and develops an AKA model to explain the interaction relationships between awareness, knowledge and action in the field of PA.

The aim of the article is to present the issues of Internet archiving in public administration in Poland. The article presents the current state of knowledge in the field of Internet archiving, the issues involved in shaping the national archival resource and a quantitative analysis with regard to supervision over the growing archival holdings. The case study method illustrates how selected offices in Poland manage resources published on the Internet. As a result of the research, it was found that there is a lack of legal and organizational solutions in the field of archiving online resources of public administration, which is the most important actor in the entire process of shaping the national archival resource.

Launched on 2 June 2003 and arriving at Mars on 25 December 2003 after a 7-month interplanetary cruise, Mars Express was the European Space Agency’s first mission to arrive at another planet. After more than 20 years in orbit, the spacecraft and science payload remain in good health and the mission has become the second oldest operational planetary orbiter after Mars Odyssey. This contribution summarizes the Mars Express mission operations, science planning and data archiving systems, processes, and teams that are necessary to run the mission, plan the scientific observations, and execute all necessary commands. It also describes the data download, the ground processing and distribution to the scientific community for the study and analysis of Mars sub-surface, surface, atmosphere, magnetosphere, and moons. This manuscript also describes the main challenges throughout the history of the mission, including several potentially mission-ending anomalies. We summarize the evolution of the ground segment to provide new capabilities not envisaged before launch, whilst simultaneously maintaining or even increasing the quality and quantity of scientific data generated.