SAOPćENJE

ARHIV FEDERACIJE BIH PREZENTIRAO POSLJEDICE TEŠKOG POŽARA

„Arhivi moraju više nego dosada da iskažu solidarnost i meðusobnu povezanost u vremenu iskušenja“ – ovo je poručio direktor Arhiva Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine Adamir Jerković, učestvujući u radu 15. meðunarodne konferencije o arhivima zemalja centralne i istočne Evrope u Varšavi. On je govoreći o arhivima u društvenom okruženju 21. stoljeća podsjetio na demonstracije od 7. februara 2014. u Sarajevu kada su podmetanjem požara od strane neodgovrnih pojedinaca u zgradi Predsjedništva Bosne i Hercegovine izgorjeli Arhiv Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine i Arhiv Bosne i Hercegovine, čime je nanijeta nenadoknadivna šteta historijskom pamćenju.
Adamir Jerković je govorio o populariziranju arhiva i arhivske službe kroz stalne meðunarodne izložbe koje organizira Arhiv Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine širom svijeta pa je danas ovaj arhiv najistaknutiji bosanskohercegovački reprezent na ovom planu.
Na konfereniciji su učestvovale Poljska, Rusija, Bosna i Hercegovina, Estonija, Latvija, Litvanija, Hrvatska, Slovenija, Finska, Njemačka, Moldavija, Grčka, Slovačka, Maðarska, Rumunija, Holandija, a podnijeto je preko 35 referata.
Arhivisti centralne i istočne Evrope su posjetili Muzej povijesti poljskih Jevreja - Polin, koji je lani otvoren u centru Varšave i koji čuva sjećanje na težak i traumatičan život jevrejskog naroda.

Služba za informiranje
Broj:01-40-2-350/15
Warszawa, 22. maj 2015,

COLLOQUIA JERZY SKOWRONEK DEDICATA

Archives in the social environment of the 21st century

Speaker: MSc Adamir Jerković, director of Archives of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

ARCHIVES AS INSTITUTIONS WHICH PROVIDE
SERVICES TO CITIZENS

Dear conference participants, I am extending you kind greetings from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This paper is concerned with certain thoughts on the most acceptable manners of presenting archival material and popularizing archival services and institutions, and providing services to citizens. Providing services to citizens is one of the primary tasks of any public (or state) archives. In order to provide quality services, it is necessary to present the content and wealth of the archival material, and popularize archival activity.


In which manner should archives provide services to citizens?

Previously, archival material has been used only for historiographical researches, while today the role of archival institutions, particularly public or state institutions, is much greater.
Archival material stored in state archives is common good of a country; hence all its citizens should have same rights to its use. Archival material stored in state archives is used for official, legal, and educational purposes, and for the purposes of scientific and publishing researches.

Use of materials for official purposes
Official and legal use of materials implies obligation of archives, on the basis of facts stored in archival funds and upon requests of individuals and legal entities, to issue different documents and certificates or notarized copies of documents, necessary for resolving their constitutional and legal rights.

Providing services to researchers of archival materials
Today, archival materials are not used only by historians, but also researchers from different scientific fields, who search for the basis of their researches in archival documents, thus increasing significance of their thesis. Every archival institution has internal regulations determining manners and conditions of use of archival materials, while availability of facts stored in archival documents is regulated by state archival legislation.

One of the ways to make archives more available to all who are interested and to reactivate archival material in social life is perfecting current and accepting contemporary forms of presenting the archival material in order to maximize its utilization value.

Possibilities of presentation of archival material are various and increasing every year, so in today practice, they can be expressed in several forms:
- publishing archival material;
- use of archival material as a basis for scientific, professional, and other papers;
- use of archival material in press, radio programs, and cinematography;
- archival exhibitions and use of archival material in museum exhibitions;
- public lectures as a manner of popularizing archival material and services;
- archival publications;
- cooperation between archives and educational institutions.

Publishing archival materials belongs to a final and highest achievement of archival work process. It allows the protection of original documents, which tend to be damaged or even completely destroyed due to the oldness of the paper, storing conditions, and frequent use. There are several ways to publish archival material, and the most common practice today is publishing regesta and inventories of more important and older funds.
Scanning archival documents is a common practice in most archival institutions in the world, and it enables use of material of an archival institution in all part of the planet via Internet.

Therefore, an important question is raised: how to increase social attractiveness of archives?

Archival theory offers many ways of informing the public of archival activities, such as archival weeks, lectures, cooperation with media, archive days, etc. Exhibitions of documents are the most attractive and effective for social environment, and they are also a good opportunity for archival workers to present archival services and the archival institution which organized the exhibition. Recently, exhibitions have become mobile, so it is an opportunity to display them in places and the cities in which they were not displayed before, which will certainly contribute to popularizing the importance of archives and archival service. In Bosnian and Herzegovinian archival practice organization of archival exhibitions is very common, and in recent years the institution which did most in this field is Archives of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, organizing many exhibitions which have been displayed in cities all around the world.

Work of archival institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war (1992-1995) did not stop, it was performed in conditions and program adjusted to the war conditions, and with significantly fewer employees. Archival material stored in archival institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina is used as evidence for different purposes; hence, it is almost unnecessary to further popularize it because the need for different facts stored in archival documents is constantly present.

More than a year ago, Archives of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Archives of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina were faced with consequences of a disastrous fire. During the protests that have occurred in Sarajevo in February 2014, on February 7, the building of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina was set on fire. On that occasion, some of the material placed in the Depot I of the Archives of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the administration of Archives of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina were destroyed in fire. Many citizens of Sarajevo for the first time learned that the Presidency building houses two state archives and what is, or how great was the importance of the destroyed material. The ground floor and basement of this building since its establishment on 12 December 1947, houses Archive of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was primarily established as a State Archive, and then the Republican Archive, and today is named simply Archive of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The fire burned about 80% of material stored in two rooms of Depot I, including some confidential  / presidential documents created in periods of the work of the Provincial Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Provincial Administration, Great Governor of the Sarajevo area, collection of files of government officials from 1878 to 1945, Collection of purchased and donated documents (Collection of purchases and gifts, around 1043 inventory units, documents on various topics, different formats and sizes) from the Ottoman period until the end of the 20th century, and the fund of the Ministry of Education of People’s Republic Bosnia and Herzegovina was significantly  damaged.
After this unfortunate event, many comments were made, such as, were there really archives located in the Presidency building, is this „old paper“ really so valuable, etc.

A part of history of Bosnia and Herzegovina was destroyed, because rare documents which we managed to save during the war were ruined. During the peaceful times, we faced a catastrophe. These were difficult days for both Archives of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Archives of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Without discussing motives for the demonstrations, I believe that no one has right to treat archival wealth in such manner. I even had to defend the dignity of archives from the attacks of affronting individuals who saw their political chance in events which happened in Sarajevo. I immediately informed general secretary of International Council of Archives David A. Leitch. I wrote to him about the extent of consequences, and in his reply, he expressed his concern for the future of archive funds. I would like to use this occasion to mention that the Archives of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina received a donation from Archives and Records Association UK & Ireland which consisted of two used scanners. I would like to thank Mr. John Chambers, whose actions spoke louder than words. Events like this should entice solidarity of all archives and offer, at least, expressions of support. Unfortunately, except for few exceptions, archives were quite silent and did not offer any help. That is a tragic story in which we were involved, completely innocent.

Media as mass communication

Social attractiveness of archives and archival service is most easily and to a highest degree achieved through presentation of archival material and archival services and popularization of archival services through mass media: press, radio and television, cinema and the Internet. Forms of use of the archival material in the media are very diverse. There are more and more those forms every day, because the technical capabilities of these media are huge. However, selection of archive material for this type of presentation must be performed with the same seriousness as the publication of documents, because in this case, usually a small number of documents is used, hence criticism and responsibility in selection must be extremely serious.

How to present the importance of archives and its registries to the public?

Familiarizing archives to the public is one of the tasks of archival service and one of the goals that each archival institution should set for itself. For this purpose, mass electronic media, as well as the achievements of information technology, should be used.
It would be preferable that each archival institution provides a separate service, or only one professional worker, who would be solely responsible for public relations. It has recently been very popularly called the PR service, and it should devise the best ways to display the wealth of an archival institution.
Every archival institution should have its own website with the email contact details through which every site visitor can ask questions, make comments and suggestion, which represents the most direct participation of society in the archival services.
Website should have reviews of archival funds (archive guide), preferably inventories of, at least, significant funds.

Unfortunately, due to limited material resources that condition the position and status of Bosnian and Herzegovinian archival institutions, there is a great discrepancy between the achievements and requirements of contemporary archival practices and the situation in our archives. Due to the lack of material resources, archival institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina are in an extremely bad position, reflected in the fact that most of them are focused solely on preserving their existence, that the country does not have a single building tailored specifically for archival purposes, and that archival legislation at the state level is not harmonized (uniform). Because of all the above-mentioned, Bosnian archives are still adapting and gradually acquiring the new technique and hoping that in foreseeable future all the relevant information concerning archival service can be found on the appropriate website.
Archives of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina have its own website, and you can see it on the bottom of the slides.

Thank you for your patience and attention.